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Beginning Arduino: Delay Without Delay()

Published Dec. 28, 2014 StatsDownloadFavorite

Introduction: Beginning Arduino: Delay Without Delay()

About: Most of my instructables will be tutorials for Atmel microcontrollers, Arduino, or Raspberrypi. I
try to show concepts that you can use in your own programs by creating simple programs and circuits to
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When you use the delay() function your program stops and nothing else can happen during the delay.
That is easy, but what if you want to have something else going on during the delay?

The answer; use millis().

This tutorial is a simple sketch and circuit to show how this is done.

You will need:

Arduino

Breadboard

Jumper wires

2 - LEDs, I used one red and one green

2 - 330-560 Ohm resistors, for LEDs

Pushbutton switch

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Step 1: The Circuit

Follow the diagram and build the circuit from the parts list on the previous page.

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Step 2: The Code

/*********************************************************

* Demonstration using millis() instead of delay() so

* another activity can happen within the delay.

*
* The anode of a red LED is connected to pin 10 with a

* resistor in series connected to ground.

* The anode of a green LED is connected to pin 11 with a

* resistor in series connected to ground.

* A pushbutton switch is connected to pin 12 and ground.

* The red LED blinks on for one second then off for one

* second.

* The green LED lights when the button is pressed.

*********************************************************/

unsigned long time = millis();

int toggle = 1;

/**********************************************

* setup() function

**********************************************/

void setup()

pinMode(10, OUTPUT); //Red LED

pinMode(11, OUTPUT); //Green LED

pinMode (12, INPUT_PULLUP); //Switch

 digitalWrite(10, HIGH); //Initial state of red LED

/**********************************************

* loop() function

**********************************************/

void loop()

if(millis()-time > 1000) //Has one second passed?

toggle = !toggle; //If so not toggle

digitalWrite(10, toggle); //toggle LED

time = millis(); //and reset time.

digitalWrite(11, !digitalRead(12)); //Light green LED if Button pressed.