Stop/Start Loop when a n number of balls pass thru a detector

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all

Im a total newby on arduino, im doing a project a i find some troubles that i cannot solve due to my lack of competences, maybe someone can help me.

i have a solenoid connected to a relay with a sketch that works pretty well, what i want to do is that the loop restarts when a specific number o objects are pushed by the solenoid.

Ex.
The loop starts, objects are pushed by the solenoid and pass thru a proximity detector, when the detector counts 10 objects then the loop stops for 30 sec then restarts.

This is the sketch i have at the moment:

// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}

I have connected a relay with a solenoid as Led

Thanks for the help

2

Put everything that's currently in loop(), in a for()-loop (still inside loop() of course), and do the 30s delay after that's finished.

3

(Assuming that works for you right now, you might want to look at a delay-less way of doing this though. Maybe one day you will want to add a stop button for example, and right now it won't be very responsive due to the delays. )

4

Thanks for response, but also i need to restar the loop when a certain number of objects pas thru a laser detector...

5

Sorry, didn't read it carefully enough.

6

Before you get to specific counts, you'll need to prove to yourself that you can read the proximity detector. What is it and do you have a sketch yet to read it?

7

// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
prox_count = 0; //input from the prox. Whenever prox is high, we'll increment this.

digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
prox_count = prox_count +1;
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second

//if statement that sees if count is greater than or equal to 10. On the offcase the prox double counts and gets
//bigger than 10, the ">=" condition will save us some heartache.
if (prox_count >= 10){
prox_count = 0; // reset prox_count
delay(30000); // delay 30 seconds.
}

}

8

Thank you very much, let me try this and see what happens.