Using CC3000 with millis - not working

Projects Programming
1

Hello forum members,

I have tried to write a sketch (attached) that logs onto the internet every 5 minutes and uploads float values to Xively.

It does not work...

I have a 5 minute delay using millis (I use this as I want the other part of the final sketch to keep working in the meantime)

  const unsigned long fiveMinutes = 1 * 60 * 1000UL;
  static unsigned long lastSampleTime = 0 - fiveMinutes;
  unsigned long now = millis();
  if (now - lastSampleTime >= fiveMinutes){

When I follow this portion of the sketch with a simple command e.g. serial print the floats, the command is followed every 5 minutes, however when I follow it with the CC3000 code the chip reconnects to the internet as soon as it disconnects.

Can anybody tell me why?

CC3000_debugging_nodata_.ino (3.63 KB)

2

lastSampeTime can not be negative, since it is a unsigned long. Give it a start value of 0.

3

Hi Tops

    if (now - lastSampleTime >= fiveMinutes){

        uint32_t ip;

        Serial.println(F("Initializing WiFi chip...")); // Initialize chip
        if (!cc3000.begin()){
            Serial.println(F("Couldn't begin()! Check your wiring?"));
            while(1);
        }
    }

Only the initialisation of the cc3000 is controlled by the timer. The other cc3000 code is executed each time round loop().

Also, after lastSampleTime is initialised, it is never updated. I would expect that, each time 5 minutes is up, you would reset lastSampleTime to the current value of millis().

Regards

Ray

4

Hackscribble:
Also, after lastSampleTime is initialised, it is never updated. I would expect that, each time 5 minutes is up, you would reset lastSampleTime to the current value of millis().

Strictly speaking that method will cause a slight drift to the timing which will accumulate over time. The "drift-free" method is to add your interval (fiveMinutes) to the value of lastSampleTime when your event is triggered (ie. inside the if clause).

Sam.

5

Thank you all, oh the perils of copy and pasting code!

The reason it was not working was because I had lost a line of code and added a }.

This is how it looks now:

const unsigned long fiveMinutes = 1 * 60 * 1000UL;
static unsigned long lastSampleTime = 0 - fiveMinutes;
unsigned long now = millis();
if (now - lastSampleTime >= fiveMinutes){
  lastSampleTime += fiveMinutes;
  Serial.println(F("Initializing WiFi chip...")); // Initialize chip
  if (!cc3000.begin()){
    Serial.println(F("Couldn't begin()! Check your wiring?"));
    while(1);
    }
  
  Serial.print(F("Connecting to WiFi network ..."));
  cc3000.connectToAP(WLAN_SSID, WLAN_PASS, WLAN_SECURITY);
  Serial.println(F("done!"));

BTW yes I know my five minutes is currently set as one minute - it makes the debugging swifter!

So now I have combined the working debugging sketch with my main sketch but it hangs each time after sending the put request to Xively.

Any more ideas?

CC3000_debugging_nodata_.ino (3.6 KB)

6

it hangs each time after sending the put request to Xively.

What do you get on serial monitor from the debug print statements?

Adafruit_CC3000_Client client;
XivelyClient xivelyclient(client);

Any change if you move these instantiations out of loop() and put them before setup() as global instances?