Very long delay() possible?

Question

I'm trying to make an opening and closing little door that should open or close every 12 hours. I was wondering if I could just make a small looping script with a delay() for 12 hours, delay(43 200 000 000); I guess? However, I have no idea if that's possible and/or recommendable. Some feedback/alternatives(if needed) would be nice :)

Answer 1

The real time clock method is the most accurate way but otherwise use millis

unsigned long startMillis = millis();
while (millis() - startMillis < LONG_DELAY_MS);

This will delay up to approx. 4294967295ms (2^32-1) or 49 days, after which the timer will catch up to the value of startMillis

Answer 2

delay() has its uses, but for long delays it's no good. It simply tells the microcontroller to do nothing for x clock cycles. During that time, your Arduino can't do anything else.

Your best bet would be to use a thing called a Real Time Clock (RTC). These chips are specifically made to keep track of time, and you can connect them to your Arduino with ease. Here's an example of how you could do that.

Answer 3

You could use the watchdog interrupt and have your MCU sleep while waiting and save power.

But notice that you'll only save power if your board also saves it. That means you have to have a low quiescent voltage regulator instead of the usual regulators that equip the most common Arduino boards, such as the Uno. Otherwise, it doesn't matter whether your MCU saves energy if your board doesn't.

Here's the code (untested):

#include <avr/sleep.h>
// This variable is made volatile because it is changed inside an interrupt function
volatile int sleep_count = 0; // Keep track of how many sleep cycles have been completed.
const int interval = 720; // Interval in minutes between waking and doing tasks.
const int sleep_total = (interval*60)/8; // Approximate number of sleep cycles 
// needed before the interval defined above elapses. Not that this does integer math.

void setup(void) {
    watchdogOn(); // Turn on the watch dog timer.
    // Disable the ADC by setting the ADEN bit (bit 7) to zero.
    ADCSRA = ADCSRA & B01111111;
    // Disable the analog comparator by setting the ACD bit (bit 7) to one.
    ACSR = B10000000;
    // Disable digital input buffers on all analog input pins by setting bits 0-5 to one.
    DIDR0 = DIDR0 | B00111111;
}

void loop(void) {
    goToSleep(); // ATmega328 goes to sleep for about 8 seconds
    // and continues to execute code when it wakes up
    if (sleep_count == sleep_total) {
        // CODE TO BE EXECUTED PERIODICALLY
    }
}

void goToSleep() {
    set_sleep_mode(SLEEP_MODE_PWR_DOWN); // Set sleep mode.
    sleep_enable(); // Enable sleep mode.
    sleep_mode(); // Enter sleep mode.
    // After waking from watchdog interrupt the code continues
    // to execute from this point.
    sleep_disable(); // Disable sleep mode after waking.
}

void watchdogOn() {
    // Clear the reset flag, the WDRF bit (bit 3) of MCUSR.
    MCUSR = MCUSR & B11110111;
    // Set the WDCE bit (bit 4) and the WDE bit (bit 3) of WDTCSR. 
    WDTCSR = WDTCSR | B00011000; 
    // Set the watchdog timeout prescaler value to 1024 K 
    // which will yeild a time-out interval of about 8.0 s.
    WDTCSR = B00100001;
    // Enable the watchdog timer interupt.
    WDTCSR = WDTCSR | B01000000;
    MCUSR = MCUSR & B11110111;
}

ISR(WDT_vect) 
{
    sleep_count ++; // keep track of how many sleep cycles have been completed.
}

The code I copied is from this page: Low-Power Arduino Using the Watchdog Timer.

Answer 4

Do you have a sleep(unsigned int seconds) available?

If not, this would allow you to delay() a very long time:

for (unsigned int bigloop=0; bigloop<65535; bigloop++)
{
   for (unsigned int smallloop=0; smallloop<65535; smallloop++)
   {
      for (unsigned int tinyloop=0; tinyloop<65535; tinyloop++)
      {
         delay(65535);
      }
   }
}

Answer 5

This will work:

longDelayInSeconds = 120; //two minutes;   
while (p < longDelayInSeconds) {

        delay(1000);
        p++;

}

Answer 6

I just use for loops when I don't want to do stuff in between:

for (int Hours = 0; Hours < 12; Hours++) {            //Creates 12 hours
  for (int Minutes = 0; Minutes < 60; Minutes++) {    //Creates 1 hour
    for (int Seconds = 0; Seconds < 60; Seconds++) {  //Creates 1 minute
      delay(1000);                                    //Creates 1 second
    }
  }
}