New macros for timing, quality of life improvement

[bask185]

During coding I started to notice that in my functions where I would use millis() for timing I always typed the exact same words.

void foobar()
{
    static uint32_t previousTime ;
    uint32_t currentTime = millis() ;
    if( currentTime - previousTime >= someInterval )
    {
        previousTime = currentTime ;
        
        PORTB ^= (1<<5); // toggle led pin 13
    }
}

It was the same in every function. I like to use a static variables to keep track of the previous time so I don't have to declare a global variable for every timed event + this allowed me to use the phrase 'previousTime' everywhere.

Because I grew tired of re-typing/copying the same things over and over again. I started to look for alternatives. There are great alternatives such as the fire timer library

And this interesting contraption of LarryD

Especially the latter, well it is quite a code contraption. The problem I had with both these examples is that they work with global objects/variables for timing things.

So every time when you need to do some timing somewhere inside a function, you have to both declare and initialize a new global timer object thingy. And all your timer objects need to have different names.

To solve all of these problems (problem #1 is me being lazy) I devised these little macros to achieve the exact same thing with minimum effort.

#define REPEAT_US(x)    { \
                            static uint32_t previousTime ; \
                            uint32_t currentTime = micros() ; \
                            if( currentTime - previousTime >= x ) \
                            {   \
                                previousTime = currentTime ;

#define REPEAT_MS(x)    { \
                            static uint32_t previousTime ; \
                            uint32_t currentTime = millis() ; \
                            if( currentTime - previousTime >= x ) \
                            {   \
                                previousTime = currentTime ;
                            
#define END_REPEAT          } \
                        }

These macros just do the exact same thing as the program 'blinkingWithoutDelay' does.
If you want to use these you can just type something like:

void foobar()
{
    REPEAT_MS( someInterval ) ;
        
    PORTB ^= (1<<5); // toggle led pin 13
    
    END_REPEAT
    
    
    REPEAT_MS( someOtherInterval ) ;
        
    doSomethingElse() ;
    
    END_REPEAT
    
    REPEAT_US( microsInterval ) ;
        
    IworkWithMicros() ;
    
    END_REPEAT
}

You can use these macros wherever, whenever and how often you want. Inside funtions, inside void loop(). You can do it more than once inside a function without problems. Besides the macros and an #include <Arduino.h> for your custom source files, you don't need anything else. No libraries no complicated contraptions.

You don't have to declare and initialize new timer objects and variables. I admit that the construction looks odd to the eye as you don't see the parenthesis but it works so well and so far it made my life a lot easier. So easy that I had to share this.

I hope these macros can help others with their projects as well.

Kind regards,

Bas

[J-M-L]

thanks for sharing

side note instead of

@bask185

        PORTB ^= (1<<5); // toggle led pin 13

you can use PINB which toggles the pin where you write a 1

PINB = (0b1<<5);  // toggle led pin 13