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  • Author Author: Workshopshed
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Yet another way of blinking an LED on the Arduino

Workshopshed

When I was making the Topsy Turvy Clock I created a non blocking delay class so that the Arduino could be doing other things whilst waiting for a timeout. This avoids the use of the delay function which otherwise "blocks" the operation until the timeout is completed. I realised that this same technique could be used to control the flashing of the RGB LED. This will need to be expanded to handle the colour cycling which will indicate that the Wifi settings need configuring.

 

Code: https://github.com/Workshopshed/EnchantedObjects/tree/master/Code/Examples/Blinker

 

Example Usage

Here's an example of the blinking code using the LED on pin 13.

 

#include "Blink.h"
Blinker b(1,0);

void setup() {
  b.Blink(Short_Blink);
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, b.Level());
  //Do other things here as desired
}

 

 

Virtual Prototyping

 

As an experiment the code was uploaded to 123D circuits.

 

image

https://123d.circuits.io/circuits/868830-blinker-class

 

This allowed the example to be tested from a web page without the need for actually having an Arduino plugged into the computer.

 

Next: Swapping out the bridge

Parents

  • Why didn't you just do it in the code, rather than add the extra library.?

    The example "BlinkwithoutDelay" (yes stupid name) uses the same millis Timer as you've used.

     

    I've always advacated for avoiding using Delay whenever possible.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    I've been reading a little about the GCC compiler, it does have the built in option of inlining functions that it knows are safe to do so. So is there a reason why I'd go for a in-line function rather than a class based approach?

     

    As an aside, I swapped out a few variables with smaller data types e.g. my servo angle is constrained between 50 and 100 degrees so I can fit that into a uint8_t rather than an int. That saved be about 60 bytes. Dropping the Process.h library saves me about 3400 bytes although I still need to write the code to send the message to Serial1, although I'm optimistic that I'll be able to write my bit in less than that.

     

    I also tried an experiment adding an unused function (with quite a few instructions), that only added 6 bytes to the total so I'd guess that the compiler is doing some optimisations there.

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    Yes, nowadays compilers a quite good in optimization. GCC -O options are controlling the optimization. For debugging you do not want inlining for instance therefore it could be turned off. Most of the time it is a trade-off between space and time so you have to specify that (-Ofast vs. -Os) Sometimes optimization has negative side effects, those are not part of any -O options, they must be turned on individually like -fno-defer-pop.

    Normally you have to try several setting until you get a good result.

     

    see https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Optimize-Options.html#Optimize-Options for details.

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