Funky, this is an example of doing what you asked about. You still need to apply the principle to your code.
This is a modified version of BlinkWithoutDelay made to limit the number of blinks.
It is tested and working on my UNO running IDE 0022, I think it should work on IDE 1.0.
Wherever I added code I made a comment starting with the word MODIFIED.
Be sure to read the comments in those parts, especially the PLEASE NOTE part.
See how with very little added code you can reach into a program and alter the behavior. If you add other code that changes blinkCounter (say on a button press or serial input), you don't need to mess with nesting loops or any of that. Just changing the variable controls the action.
/* MODIFIED 8/25/12 to only blink 10 times
Blink without Delay
Turns on and off a light emitting diode(LED) connected to a digital
pin, without using the delay() function. This means that other code
can run at the same time without being interrupted by the LED code.
The circuit:
* LED attached from pin 13 to ground.
* Note: on most Arduinos, there is already an LED on the board
that's attached to pin 13, so no hardware is needed for this example.
created 2005
by David A. Mellis
modified 8 Feb 2010
by Paul Stoffregen
This example code is in the public domain.
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BlinkWithoutDelay
*/
// constants won't change. Used here to
// set pin numbers:
const int ledPin = 13; // the number of the LED pin
// Variables will change:
int ledState = LOW; // ledState used to set the LED
long previousMillis = 0; // will store last time LED was updated
// the follow variables is a long because the time, measured in miliseconds,
// will quickly become a bigger number than can be stored in an int.
long interval = 1000; // interval at which to blink (milliseconds)
// MODIFIED 8/25/12 -- adding a variable to limit blinks
byte blinkCounter;
void setup() {
// set the digital pin as output:
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
// MODIFIED 8/25/12 -- setting the number of blinks to do
blinkCounter = 10;
}
void loop()
{
// here is where you'd put code that needs to be running all the time.
// MODIFIED 8/25/12 to limit the number of blinks
// PLEASE NOTE THAT code placed above this inside loop() will still run
if ( blinkCounter < 1 ) return; // press the reset button to blink again
// check to see if it's time to blink the LED; that is, if the
// difference between the current time and last time you blinked
// the LED is bigger than the interval at which you want to
// blink the LED.
unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
if(currentMillis - previousMillis > interval)
{
// save the last time you blinked the LED
previousMillis = currentMillis;
// if the LED is off turn it on and vice-versa:
if (ledState == LOW)
{
ledState = HIGH;
}
else
{
ledState = LOW;
// MODIFIED 8/25/12 -- it blinked ON now OFF so reduce the count
blinkCounter--;
}
// set the LED with the ledState of the variable:
digitalWrite(ledPin, ledState);
}
}