Making "Button Press" Code Look Better (Arduino)

[kennethnakasone]

Hello,

    I'm starting small, and am trying to make a small macro keyboard consisting of 8 buttons, using an Arduino Pro Micro. I decided to borrow JChristensen's Arduino Button Library, and got one button to function correctly. The concern I have is when expanding this for multiple buttons.

    The process of using the library is to (after creating a button object) call the .read() method to update information regarding the object, then calling the .wasPressed() method to check if the button was pressed or not. However, the way I've done it below seems like a rather...inelegant(?) way of accomplishing it, and I was wondering if there was a better solution.

 

Spoiler

#include <Button.h>

//Creating Button Objects
Button buttonOne(2, true, true, 50); // Pin Number, Pullup, Logic Inversion, Debounce Time
Button buttonTwo(3, true, true, 50);
Button buttonThree(4, true, true, 50);
Button buttonFour(5, true, true, 50);
  ...so on and so forth until Button 8.
  
// Initialization
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
  
// Main
void loop()
{
  // Check Button One
  buttonOne.read();
  if(buttonOne.wasPressed())
  {
  	Serial.println("Button One was Pressed"); // Macro will be added later.
  }
  
  // Check Button Two
  buttonTwo.read();
  if(buttonTwo.wasPressed())
  {
  	Serial.println("Button Two was Pressed"); // Macro will be added later.
  }
  
  // Check Button Three
  buttonThree.read();
  if(buttonThree.wasPressed())
  {
  	Serial.println("Button Three was Pressed"); // Macro will be added later.
  }
  
  // And so on and so forth

}

 

 

JChristensen's Arduino Button Library can be found here: https://github.com/JChristensen/Button

[Aelita Sophie]

4 hours ago, kennethnakasone said:

--SNIP--

I can't give you examples, as my coding for arduino-like chips etc is still rather novice. But I've made a quick search to see if its possible.

Basicly Classes would be a great option for you. You write one piece of code, where u can input and specify a button and for example a function to the button by calling instances of those classes.

If I'm not mistaken arduino uses C or C++ for their programming (or a dialect of some sorts)

So I'm going to give you a small PHP (yea go figure) example that would look somewhat similar. (as PHP language is based on C++ if I'm not mistaken)

 

<?php

class button{
  var $button;
  var $action;
  public function __construct($button, $action){
    $this->button = $button;
    $this->action = $action;
  }
  
  private function buttonAssignment(){
    /* insert code to assign the button to appropiate GPIO pin or something
    	forexample if u would make the variable $button = 1, that might be corrosponding to GPIO pin 1 or whatever
    */
  }
  
  private function actionAssignment(){
    /* Somewhat same here as the buttonAssignment
    Define certain functionality it needs to do according to $action. Lets say $action = "poweroff", then write a code that whenever $action = "poweroff" to poweroff the machine */
  }
}

/* then call the Class by making a new instance */

$button1 = new button(1, "poweroff");

?>

Again this is a PHP example, you still need to make it listen to the actual button press. But just to give you an idea what Classes could do for you. Also I am sort off aware that my PHP code there probably won't work at all even in PHP  Didn't check for any mistakes or what so ever.

[dany_boy]

@Aelita Sophie, The arduino is not powerful enough for fully fledged object oriented programming. You cannot quite create and use classes and objects like in other systems.

[Aelita Sophie]

4 minutes ago, dany_boy said:

@Aelita Sophie, The arduino is not powerful enough for fully fledged object oriented programming. You cannot quite create and use classes and objects like in other systems.

Well it is limited ofcourse, but depending on his needs, OOP can be a neat solution for him. Or simply using functions would work great as well. Especially if the buttons are all somewhat the same, with the outcome as the only difference.

[kennethnakasone]

 

11 hours ago, dany_boy said:

-snip-

 

11 hours ago, Aelita Sophie said:

-snip-

 

Just as a heads-up/progress report: Making my own class was a bit daunting, so I opted for doing the program like this:

Spoiler

#include <Button.h>

//Creating Button Objects
Button buttonOne(2, true, true, 50); // Pin Number, Pullup, Logic Inversion, Debounce Time
Button buttonTwo(3, true, true, 50);
Button buttonThree(4, true, true, 50);
Button buttonFour(5, true, true, 50);
  ...so on and so forth until Button 8.
Button buttonArray[] = {buttonOne, buttonTwo, buttonThree, etc};
buttonArraySize = (sizeof(buttonArray)/18); //NOTE: Button Object occupies 18 bytes. Thus, dividing sizeOf(array) by 18 determines number of elements.
  
// Initialization
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
  
// Main
void loop()
{
  for (int arrayPosition = 0; arrayPosition < buttonArraySize; ++arrayPosition)
  {
    buttonArray[arrayPosition].read();
    if (buttonArray[arrayPosition].isPressed() == true)
    {
      Serial.println("Button " + String(arrayPosition) + " is pressed");
    }  
  }
}

So, I made all of the buttons, put them (or rather, their references(?)) into an array, then used their position in the array to call the .read() and .isPressed() methods. Though I couldn't figure out a way to abbreviate the creation of button objects, the loop itself looks cleaner than before, so I'm happy with it for the time being.

 

I would like try making a class though. Ideally, the object itself would take the number of buttons as a parameter, and then allow the button to be pressed by using a method that takes the button's number as a parameter.

For example, for a class called Macropad:

// Object Creation

Macropad sampleMacropad( numberOfButtons, debounceTime, etc.);

 

Then, in the main function:

for (int buttonNumber = 0; buttonNumber < numberOfButtons; ++buttonNumber)

{

    sampleMacropad.pressButton(buttonNumber);

}

 

That way, I could simplify both the object creation, and button check/press code.

 

Thanks for the help!

[documnt]

On 7/5/2017 at 0:11 PM, Aelita Sophie said:

Well it is limited ofcourse, but depending on his needs, OOP can be a neat solution for him. Or simply using functions would work great as well. Especially if the buttons are all somewhat the same, with the outcome as the only difference.

I wrote my code for my Arduino cooling routine in line as it was a first pass at coding it and then refactored it into reusable functions that made it a lot more maintainable.  You should try to use functions it will make it easier to do in the long run.