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Arduino

Arduino millis() plus addition does not add up

Arduino millis banner

In the past, I’ve covered how to reset Arduino millis() and have provided a growing list of examples using millis(). While reviewing the code for the elegoo Penguin Bot, I was reminded of a millis() mistake I see often: addition. The only way to properly handle millis() rollover is with subtraction. Let’s look at why (and how.)

What is Arduino millis()

The Arduino library has a function called millis() which returns the number of milliseconds the processor has been running. On other platforms, you might see references to a “tick counter.” It is the same idea. A hardware timer keeps incrementing a counter at a known rate. In this case, that rate is milliseconds.

A mistake new programmers often make is trying to “reset millis().” A better method is to compare two time-stamps based on millis(). So this if-statement is comparing a previous timestamp to the current value of millis().

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Arduino

Five Arduino math fixes for when it is wrong

Arduino Math

While the Arduino library does an excellent job of hiding some of C/C++’s warts, at the end of the day, it is still just C/C++. This fact causes a few non-intuitive issues for inexperienced programmers. When it looks like Arduino math is wrong, it is probably one of these reasons.

When people ask me for help with their programming, I check each of these Arduino math mistakes. If your code seems to be hitting a bug, check to make sure it is not how the compiler handles math.

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Arduino

Detect short and long button press using millis

detect short long button press using millis

To detect a short and long button press using millis can give your project more functionality without adding more buttons. In this line-by-line example, I show how to react to a user pressing a button for a short period (100ms) or a long period (over 500ms). My example changes the blink rate of an LED on short presses. A long button press turns off the LED.

In the code, I make use of a struct so that a single variable can be used to track multiple parameters. The benefit of this method is that adding multiple buttons is easy. You could create an array of these tyepdef’d variables.

Download At GitHub
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Arduino

Fading LED: analogWrite millis() Example

Fading LED millis() Example

It’s a well-known fact of engineering: LEDs make everything look better. And that means a Fading LED is even better. Using Arduino’s analogWrite(), fading a LED is just a matter of a loop. If you use delay(), you can’t easily add other actions. What can you do? Well, Fading a LED with millis() is pretty simple. Here’s the code to do it and a quick explanation.

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Arduino

Use Arduino millis() with buttons to delay events

Delayed Actions with Millis

One of the common questions related to using the millis() function in Arduino, is around timed events. After an event occurs, you want the code to wait for some time before doing the next step. But you don’t want to stop the program with delay().

[featured-image link=”https://www.baldengineer.com/use-millis-with-buttons-to-delay-events.html” single_newwindow=”false”]

In this example, we will use millis() to wait a few seconds after a pushbutton press to turn on an LED. Then a few seconds later, we will turn it off.  All without using delay().

Understanding millis()

The Arduino millis() function will let you accomplish this delayed action relatively easily. First, read through my multitasking with millis() tutorial and then look at some of my millis() cookbook examples I’ve already posted. Getting used to seeing this kind of code will make this line by line tutorial on timed events using millis() easier to follow.

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