Holding a push button for 3 second in a for loop - algorithm

Question

I have a button that basically has two functions. The aim is:
First push will blink a LED 15 times.
If someone holds the button longer than 3 seconds while the LED is blinking, it should stop and go back to the initial.
So I checked the Arduino's hold a button page and came up with this code. The problem is that I can not properly stop the blinking. The line Serial.println("DONE!!"); never works.
Where should I check if the button is held or not and should I use interrupt to end the for loop?
Here is my code:
int inPin = 2; // the pin number for input (for me a push button)
int ledPin = 9;
int current; // Current state of the button
// (LOW is pressed b/c I'm using the pullup resistors)
long millis_held; // How long the button was held (milliseconds)
long secs_held; // How long the button was held (seconds)
long prev_secs_held; // How long the button was held in the previous check
byte previous = LOW;
unsigned long firstTime; // how long since the button was first pressed
long millis_held2; // How long the button was held (milliseconds)
long secs_held2; // How long the button was held (seconds)
long prev_secs_held2; // How long the button was held in the previous check
byte previous2 = LOW;
unsigned long firstTime2; // how long since the button was first pressed
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Use serial for debugging
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(inPin, INPUT); // Turn on 20k pullup resistors to simplify switch input
}
void loop() {
current = digitalRead(inPin);
// if the button state changes to pressed, remember the start time
if (current == HIGH && previous == LOW && (millis() - firstTime) > 200) {
firstTime = millis();
}
millis_held = (millis() - firstTime);
secs_held = millis_held / 1000;
// This if statement is a basic debouncing tool, the button must be pushed for at least
// 100 milliseconds in a row for it to be considered as a push.
if (millis_held > 50) {
// check if the button was released since we last checked
if (current == LOW && previous == HIGH) {
// HERE YOU WOULD ADD VARIOUS ACTIONS AND TIMES FOR YOUR OWN CODE
// ===============================================================================
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Button pressed Blink 15 times.
if (secs_held <= 0) {
for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++) {
ledblink(1, 750, ledPin);
current = digitalRead(inPin);
if (current == HIGH && previous == LOW && (millis() - firstTime2) > 200) {
firstTime2 = millis();
}
millis_held2 = (millis() - firstTime2);
secs_held2 = millis_held2 / 1000;
if (millis_held2 > 50) {
Serial.print("previousA ");
Serial.print(previous);
Serial.print(" currentA ");
Serial.println(current);
current = digitalRead(inPin);
if (current == HIGH && previous2 == HIGH) {
Serial.println("ALMOST! ");
Serial.println(secs_held2);
if (secs_held2 >= 2 && secs_held2 < 6) {
Serial.println("DONE!!");
}
}
}
previous2 = current;
prev_secs_held2 = secs_held2;
}
}
}
}
previous = current;
prev_secs_held = secs_held;
}
void ledblink(int times, int lengthms, int pinnum) {
for (int x = 0; x < times; x++) {
digitalWrite(pinnum, HIGH);
delay (lengthms);
digitalWrite(pinnum, LOW);
delay(lengthms);
}
}

Answer 1

This is how it would be done without using delay():
int inPin = 2;
int ledPin = 9;
long pressTimer;
long blinkTimer;
long blinkHalfDelay = 500; //milliseconds
int blinkCount = 0;
int blinkLimit = 15;
bool blinkFlag = false;
bool blinkLatch = true;
bool currentBtnState = false;
bool lastBtnState = false;
void setup() {
}
void loop() {
lastBtnState = currentBtnState;
currentBtnState = digitalRead(inPin);
//on rising edge, start timers
if(currentBtnState==true && lastBtnState==false)
{
pressTimer = millis();
}
//debounce activation
if(currentBtnState==true && !blinkFlag && millis()-pressTimer > 50)
{
blinkTimer = millis();
blinkCount = 0;
blinkLatch = true;
blinkFlag = true;
//functional execution would go here
}
if(currentBtnState = false || (millis()-pressTimer>3000 && currentBtnState == true))
{
blinkCount=blinkLimit;
blinkLatch = false;
}
if(blinkFlag == true)
{
if(millis()-blinkTimer > blinkHalfDelay)
{
blinkTimer = millis();
if(blinkLatch)
{
digitalWrite(pinnum, HIGH);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(pinnum, LOW);
blinkCount+=1;
}
}
if(blinkCount>blinkLimit)
{
blinkFlag = false;
digitalWrite(pinnum, LOW);
}
}
}
ps: sorry for not correcting your code directly, but it was kinda hard to read...