Need help to simplify

Hardware Arduino 101
1

I'm trying to make a traffic signal controller for a single light. I haven't made much with an Arduino. I am a newbee for sure. Any help will be appreciated.

It seems to get stuck on the red light when the potentiometer is turned up to anything above zero. When the pot* is at zero the light cycle correctly with a 30 second delay.

int redLight = 13;
int yellowLight = 12;
int greenLight = 11;
int potPin = A0;
int potValue = 0;
int delayTime = 0;

void setup()
{
pinMode(redLight, OUTPUT);
pinMode(yellowLight, OUTPUT);
pinMode(greenLight, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(redLight,HIGH);
digitalWrite(yellowLight,HIGH);
digitalWrite(greenLight,HIGH);
}

void loop(){
  potValue = analogRead(potPin);
  delayTime = map(potValue, 0, 1023, 30000, 180000);
  digitalWrite(redLight,HIGH);
  delay(delayTime);
  digitalWrite(redLight,LOW);
  digitalWrite(greenLight,LOW);
  delay(delayTime);
  digitalWrite(greenLight,HIGH);
  digitalWrite(yellowLight,LOW);
  delay(3000);
  digitalWrite(yellowLight,HIGH);
       }
2

You may want to us the example "analogreadserial" to make sure your pot is indeed giving out the expected range you want before mapping it.

Not all pots are created equal and some are linear and some are taper and tolerance is also as big factor.

Your mapped range also looks like it is out of bounds for delays.

Maybe modify it just to test keeping it below 30000 or swap for millis.

3

Thank you for the help!!

I have it working the way I want it to work.

What was wrong was, I used an integer to hold the value for the delay time. An integer yields a range of -32,768 to 32,767. I wanted the time delay to vary from 30 seconds as the minimum to a maximum 3 minutes. In milliseconds this would be 30000 to 180000, which wouldn't fit in the integer.

Thank you ballscrewbob for the help.

See the final code below

int redLight = 13;
int yellowLight = 12;
int greenLight = 11;
int val = 0;
unsigned long rest;

void setup()
{
pinMode(redLight, OUTPUT);
pinMode(yellowLight, OUTPUT);
pinMode(greenLight, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(redLight,LOW);
digitalWrite(yellowLight,HIGH);
digitalWrite(greenLight,HIGH);
}

void loop(){

  val = analogRead(A0);
  rest = map(val, 0, 1023, 30000, 180000);
  delay(100); 
  digitalWrite(redLight,HIGH);
  delay(rest);
  digitalWrite(redLight,LOW);
  
  digitalWrite(greenLight,LOW);
  delay(rest);
  digitalWrite(greenLight,HIGH);
   
  digitalWrite(yellowLight,LOW);
  delay(3000);
  digitalWrite(yellowLight,HIGH);
       }