Hi guys,
I am building a prototype for a friend and I will need some help with this. I have an Arduino Uno and an Arduino LCD Module TFT one.
The idea behid this project is a Box which can be programmed whith the help of buttons to open a solenoid to unlock the box at the desired date.
So the display needs to display the date/time and also remaining days until it will open.
I have very low understanding of programming and this is why I am here, I was hoping maybe some of you guys could point me to the right code or maybe show me how to do it or even if there is a ready one.
Thank you
Martin
How accurate does the opening date/time need to be ?
What sort of timing period is required ?
Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, more ?
Hi thanks for the replay
It doesnt have to be perfectly accurate, I guess even a few minutes +- is ok. The point is you can give somoene a present few months before chirstmas lets say and the box wount open until that date.
Thanks
If you need a timing period of a few months then you really need to use a Real Time Clock (RTC) for timing. The Arduino itself is not good at keeping accurate time.
Have you thought about how the Arduino and LCD will be powered and whether the LCD will show the information at all times or only on demand ?
Yeh the display should only show on request and I guess we can make an RTC timing, my main problem is the programming for all this =/
What have you done with the Uno so far ?
Nothing so far, I'm just about to put the display and the electronics insde the box and I need to start programning it soon.
My advice would be not to install anything in the box until you have at least got the fundamental programming done. It seems to me that building the box and installing the electronics is just a way of putting off the programming.
Try some of the examples in the IDE. Blink LEDs, read switches, output text and numbers to the screen and be comfortable doing so before you go any further.
I managed to get a stepper motor working before to turn 15 degrees exactly each hour for another project but that was mostly copy paste and then just playing around with it.
I will post a picture of the box when its complete and how it works 
it seems like a really cool idea for a product. I hope it gets to production one day.
I found a useful link here, I may use this idea, maybe if I could use the alarm clock signal to unlock the solenoid.