{"id":1684,"date":"2020-09-10T11:10:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T09:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pschatzmann.ch\/home\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2021-12-14T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T14:22:13","slug":"arduino-blinking-sketch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pschatzmann.ch\/home\/2020\/09\/10\/arduino-blinking-sketch\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Blink in Arduino – Alternative Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

if you google for “Arduino LED blinking sketch”<\/strong> you might find something like this:<\/p>\n

#define ONBOARD_LED  2\n\nvoid setup() {\n  pinMode(ONBOARD_LED,OUTPUT);\n}\n\nvoid loop() {\n  delay(1000);\n  digitalWrite(ONBOARD_LED,HIGH);\n  delay(100);\n  digitalWrite(ONBOARD_LED,LOW);\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
(I’am using an ESP32 and therefore I needed to define the ONBOARD_LED because this is not predefined in Arduino.h)<\/p>\n
This is basically working but it adds a delay of 1.1 seconds<\/strong> to the loop which might be pretty disastrous<\/span> if you you have some other time critical functionality<\/strong> which needs to happen in the loop as well.<\/p>\n
So a less intrusive implementation is using the time to figure out if led needs to be switched on or off:<\/p>\n

#define ONBOARD_LED  2\n\nbool led_state = true;\nint led_interval = 1000;\nlong led_timeout;\n\nvoid setup() {\n  pinMode(ONBOARD_LED, OUTPUT);\n}\n\nvoid loop() {\n  \/\/ update led\n  if (led_interval>0 && millis()>led_timeout){\n     led_state = !led_state;\n     led_timeout = millis()+led_interval;\n     digitalWrite(ONBOARD_LED, led_state);\n  }\n}\n\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
You might think about abstracting the functionality in a separate class<\/p>\n
\/\/ content of LED.h\n\nclass LED {\n  private:\n    int pin;\n    bool state;\n    int interval;\n    long timeout;\n\n  public:\n    LED(int pin=2) {\n      this->pin = pin;\n      pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);\n    };\n\n    void setState(boolean on) {\n        this->state = on;\n        this->timeout = 0;\n        digitalWrite(pin,state);\n    };\n\n    bool getState() {\n      return state;\n    };\n\n    void setBlinking(int ms) {\n        this->interval = ms;\n        this->state = false;\n        this->timeout = millis()+interval;\n    };\n\n    void update() {\n         if (timeout>0 && millis()>timeout){\n            state = !state;\n            timeout = millis()+interval;\n            digitalWrite(pin,state);\n         }\n    };\n\n};\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
And then your blinking sketch gets pretty small:<\/p>\n
#include \"LED.h\"\n#define ONBOARD_LED  2\n\nLED led(ONBOARD_LED);\n\nvoid setup() {\n  led.setBlinking(1000);\n}\n\nvoid loop() {\n  led.update();\n}\n\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
I like the concept of using separate classes to abstract the complexity in Arduino Sketches. It also helps to make the Sketches more readable.<\/p>\n
In standard C++ it is required that you split the declaration (which is in the .h file) from the implementation (which is in .cpp files). Above I used the shortcut and added the implementation directly into the .h file.<\/p>\n
I think that in a Arduino Project<\/strong> you might get away with this. You will definitely need to do this split if you want to publish your code as Arduino Library<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
if you google for “Arduino LED blinking sketch” you might find something like this: #define ONBOARD_LED 2 void setup() { pinMode(ONBOARD_LED,OUTPUT); } void loop() { delay(1000); digitalWrite(ONBOARD_LED,HIGH); delay(100); digitalWrite(ONBOARD_LED,LOW); } (I’am using an ESP32 and therefore I needed to define the ONBOARD_LED because this is not predefined in Arduino.h) This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arduino","tag-back-to-basics"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Blink in Arduino - 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