Cycle LED Colors with Button

Step 1 - Build the Project

For your code to use a single input to affect multiple outputs, you need to use a variable between them to ‘hold’ the value. In this code, the button press affects the variable pressCount, then the pressCount affects the state of the LED light.

Step 2 - Upload the Code

/* * Use a button to cycle through three LEDs or a multi-color LED. * Hold down the button to strobe! */ byte pressCount=0; //How many times the button has been pressed. void setup(){ pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //Set up your LED pins as outputs pinMode(10, OUTPUT); pinMode(11, OUTPUT); pinMode(A5,INPUT_PULLUP); //button } void loop(){ //If the button is pressed, increase the counter variable by 1 if(digitalRead(A5)==LOW){ pressCount++; //Delay before next button press is sensed. Lower delay = faster strobe delay(250); } //Use the pressCount to determine which light is on. if(pressCount==1){ digitalWrite(10, LOW); //turn off the light on pin 10 and... digitalWrite(11, HIGH); //turn on the light on pin 11 } if(pressCount==2){ digitalWrite(11, LOW); digitalWrite(9, HIGH); } if(pressCount==3){ digitalWrite(9, LOW); digitalWrite(10, HIGH); //No matter how many LEDs you add, the last "if" sets pressCount to 0 pressCount=0; } } //Try to add conditions for pressCount == 4,5, and 6 and mix colors together // (c) 2017 Let's Start Coding. License: www.letsstartcoding.com/bsdlicense

Step 3 - Read the Walkthrough

The pressCount variable starts at 0 and the loop doesn’t do anything until pressCount = 1, since all of the ‘if’ statements are false. The code is still running through the loop hundreds of times per minute, but there just isn’t anything for it to do.

As soon as digitalRead(A5)=LOW triggers the pressCount variable to increase by one, the outputs begin. Now the first ‘if’ statement is true: pressCount = 1. The effect is that the code between the { and } runs, turning pin 10 LOW and pin 11 HIGH.

Why do we ensure that pin 10 is turned LOW? When the code loops back through from pressCount = 3 to pressCount =1, pin 10 will be HIGH, since that’s what happens when pressCount = 3. If you don’t ensure that 10 is LOW, you’ll end up with a mixed color when pressCount = 1.

Once the ‘if’ statement pressCount = 1 is true, the code inside the braces {} will continue to run as the loop checks all of the ‘if’ statements continuously. As soon as digitalRead(A5)==LOW again, the pressCount moves up one and the next ‘if’ statement becomes true.

You can see in the ‘if digitalRead(A5) ==LOW” statement that there is a delay of 250 milliseconds. This keeps the code from running too quickly and increasing pressCount by 2,3, or more each time you press the button. Holding the button for more than 250 milliseconds, though, will increase the pressCount variable by more than one. Play with that delay and see how it changes the strobing effect between the colors.