Memorizing days gone by in EEPROM

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

Hello all,

I have the following situation: I will turn on my Arduino once everyday. Nonetheless, I want to keep track of how many days have gone by by updating a variable "var" (code below). If one week as gone by (var == 7), I perform an action and reset var to 1. Otherwise, var = var + 1;

What I wanted to ask you is, since I am going to shut down Arduino everyday, how to adapt the code so that Arduino reads it and updates this variable by using EEPROM (I guess that's what I need to store the variable after shutdown).

    // set water relays
    int relay1 = 3;
    int relay2 = 4;
    int relay3 = 5;
    int relay4 = 6;

    //init valve nr (x) and pumping time (y)
    int x = 0;
    int y = 3;

    // set water pump
    int pump = 2;

    //Water correct plant function
    void waterPlant(int x, int y) {
    Serial.print("Opening: ");
    Serial.print(x);

    //Open valve x ==> x will contain value of correct relay[1-4]
    digitalWrite(x, HIGH);

    //We wait 0.5 seconds before opening pump so we are sure valve is open. This will prevent the pump from pushing water to a closed valve and risking the tubes to leak or wose, break loose.
    delay(500);

    //Open pump for y seconds
    digitalWrite(pump, HIGH);
    delay(1000*y);

    //close pump
    digitalWrite(pump, LOW);
    delay(500);
    digitalWrite(x, LOW);

    //Make sure all valves are closed again.
    closeAll();
    }
   
    void setup() {
    // declare relay as output
    pinMode(relay1, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay2, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay3, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay4, OUTPUT);

    // declare pump as output
    pinMode(pump, OUTPUT);

    // declare the ledPin as an OUTPUT:
    Serial.begin(9600);
    }
   
    void loop() {
    
    waterPlant(relay2);
    waterPlant(relay3);
    waterPlant(relay4);

    if (var == 7) {
    waterPlant(relay1);
    var == 1;
    }
    else {
    var == var + 1;
    }

    closeAll();
    }

    // turn pump & valves off just to be sure.
    void closeAll() {
    Serial.println("closing pump + valves!");
    digitalWrite(pump, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay4, LOW);
    }
#2

I guess that's what I need to store the variable after shutdown

After the Arduino shuts down seems a bit late to store data.

    var == 1;
    }
    else {
    var == var + 1;

Those are (useless) equality tests, not assignments.

There is a really simple to use EEPROM class that comes with the Arduino IDE, with examples.

#3

Hi Paul,

I have the code now like this:

#include <EEPROM.h>
 
// set water relays
int relay1 = 3;
int relay2 = 4;
int relay3 = 5;
int relay4 = 6;

    //init valve nr (x) and pumping time (y)
    int x = 0;
    int y = 3;

    //init var
    int var = 0;

    // set water pump
    int pump = 2;

    //Water correct plant function
    void waterPlant(int x, int y) {
    Serial.print("Opening: ");
    Serial.print(x);

    //Open valve x ==> x will contain value of correct relay[1-4]
    digitalWrite(x, HIGH);

    //We wait 0.5 seconds before opening pump so we are sure valve is open. This will prevent the pump from pushing water to a closed valve and risking the tubes to leak or wose, break loose.
    delay(500);

    //Open pump for y seconds
    digitalWrite(pump, HIGH);
    delay(1000*y);

    //close pump
    digitalWrite(pump, LOW);
    delay(500);
    digitalWrite(x, LOW);

    //Make sure all valves are closed again.
    closeAll();
    }
   
    void setup() {
    // declare relay as output
    pinMode(relay1, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay2, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay3, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(relay4, OUTPUT);

    // declare pump as output
    pinMode(pump, OUTPUT);

    // declare the ledPin as an OUTPUT:
    Serial.begin(9600);
    }
   
    void loop() {
   
    waterPlant(relay2, 3);
    waterPlant(relay3, 3);
    waterPlant(relay4, 3);

    var = EEPROM.read(0);
    if (var == 7) {
    waterPlant(relay1,3);
    EEPROM.write(0, 1);
    }
    else {
    EEPROM.update(0, var+1);
    }

    closeAll();
    delay(999999999);
    }

    // turn pump & valves off just to be sure.
    void closeAll() {
    Serial.println("closing pump + valves!");
    digitalWrite(pump, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(relay4, LOW);
    }

The big delay is just to ensure that it doesn’t loop through the write function more than once (the Arduino will only be on for 30 min).

#4 
delay(999999999);

If you only want it to happen once then put it in setup, don’t put a delay for some stupid amount of time.

If one week as gone by (var == 7), I perform an action and reset var to 1. Otherwise, var = var + 1;

Don’t you mean reset to 0? If you reset to 1 then you’re going to do your action every 6 days, not once a week.

#5

put a big cap (1F may be) across the power pins of your arduino

read V across the cap via an analog pin

so long as power is there V will peak to the supply voltage level

when power is gone, V will slowly drop, you know what to do next

#6

You need to do your counting on startup, not on shutdown:

unsigned int dayCounter;
bool daySeven = false;

void setup()
{
  EEPROM.get(0, dayCounter);
  dayCounter++;
  if (dayCounter == 7)
  {
    daySeven = true;
    dayCounter = 0;
  }
  EEPROM.put(0, dayCounter);
}

void loop()
{
  if (daySeven)
  {
    //If you only need to do your work once, you set daySeven to false here.

    //Do your stuff here. 
    
  } else delay(1000);
}

This will increment dayCounter for each time the arduino is switched on. You just need to make sure that the EEPROM memory used is reset to 0 before starting to use it.

#7