CODEWITHSUNDEEP
arduino
Alex Foxleigh
Alex Foxleigh

Reputation: 1964

Use a DS3231 RTC module and Arduino to fire function every other day

I'm attempting to create a timer which reminds me to do something ever other day, however it seems that my options with the DS3231 module allows me to set an hour or a day of the week. Unfortunately neither option is good enough (if only there were 8 days in a week) and i'm at a loss on how to tell it to fire every other day.

I considered the idea of setting a 'not_today' variable which will probably work but that has the downside of relying on the arduino and not the RTC which means if it loses power then that variable will reset.

It looks like the DS3231's alarm functionality doesn't really have this option and any code-based solution will have the aforementioned power-loss problems.

Is there an RTC module which can do what I need it to do?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 826

Answers (1)

Alex Foxleigh
Alex Foxleigh

Reputation: 1964

User @RamblinRose pointed me in the direction of EEPROM writing and reading which I wasn't aware was possible. This solved my issue. Here is the full code for anyone else coming here and wanting a more comprehensive answer:

#include <DS3231.h>
#include <EEPROM.h>

// Init the DS3231 using the hardware interface
DS3231  rtc(SDA, SCL);

Time t;

bool active = false;
void setup()
{
  // Setup Serial connection
  Serial.begin(115200);
  // Initialize the rtc object
  rtc.begin();
  pinMode(12, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(11, INPUT_PULLUP);
  // The following lines can be uncommented to set the date and time
  // rtc.setDOW(MONDAY);     // Set Day-of-Week to SUNDAY
  // rtc.setTime(15, 51, 0);     // Set the time to 12:00:00 (24hr format)
  rtc.setDate(14, 9, 2017);   // Set the date to January 1st, 2014
}


int blinker(int state = 1) {
  if(state == 1) {
    if (active == true) {
      digitalWrite(12, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
      delay(500);              // wait for a second
      digitalWrite(12, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
      delay(500);  
      buttonCheck();
    }
  }
}

int buttonCheck() {
  if(digitalRead(11) == 0) {
    active = false;
    blinker(0);
  }
}


void loop()
{
  t = rtc.getTime();
  int hour = t.hour;
  int min = t.min;
  int sec = t.sec;

//  //  Send time to serial monitor (for debugging)
//    Serial.print(hour);
//    Serial.print(":");
//    Serial.print(min);
//    Serial.println(" ");

  // Put there different timers in here for demo purposes
  // Set activation time
  if(hour == 13 && min == 31 && sec == 00) {
    if(EEPROM.read(0) == 0) {
      active = true;  
      EEPROM.write(0, 1);
      Serial.println("Not run recently, activating");
    } else {
      active = false;  
      EEPROM.write(0, 0);
      Serial.println("Run recently, skipping this one");
    }
  }

  if(hour == 13 && min == 35 && sec == 00) {
    if(EEPROM.read(0) == 0) {
      active = true;  
      EEPROM.write(0, 1);
      Serial.println("Not run recently, activating");
    } else {
      active = false;
      EEPROM.write(0, 0);
      Serial.println("Run recently, skipping this one");
    }
  }

  if(hour == 13 && min == 45  && sec == 00) {
    if(EEPROM.read(0) == 0) {
      active = true;  
      EEPROM.write(0, 1);
      Serial.println("Not run recently, activating");
    } else {
      active = false;
      EEPROM.write(0, 0);
      Serial.println("Run recently, skipping this one");
    }
  }

  blinker();
  delay(1000);  
}

Upvotes: 1

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