Using a rotary switch

Question

I don’t have a sketch for this project, just doing some thinking before I pullout the keyboard (this is my phone). I was interested in writing a program that uses a predetermined time limit, for instance having a definition like...

#define RUNTIME 30000 

So the game runs for 30 seconds. By doing this it would be a simple matter of changing the 30000 to 60000 and uploading to the Arduino.

After thinking about that a while, I would prefer to be able to adjust the time using a selector switch.
So my question is.... if I use a 1p4t (on-on-on-on) rotary selector switch, assign each position to a pin and run 5v to the common. Each pin would defined as RUNTIME and a different time limit, 30000, 60000, 90000, 120000, three pins would be LOW and one HIGH depending on position. Then using IF and ELSE statements in the loop setup would I be able to switch the times? I know once the Arduino is powered up the selector switch would need to be at the correct location and if you choose to change the “RUNTIME” a reset would need to be pressed.

Thank you for any assistance or ideas.

Answer 1

If I understand you well, it's very easy.

Assuming the 4 outputs of the switch will be connected to 4 GPIO's you just can check for the state of each GPIO and act on it

// Pin numbers where switch 1 to 4 are attached to.
#define PIN_SWITCH_1  8
#define PIN_SWITCH_2  9
#define PIN_SWITCH_3 10
#define PIN_SWITCH_4 11

unsigned long timer_value = 1000; // No switch selected

void setup()
{
     // Set switch pins to input mode.
     pinMode(PIN_SWITCH_1, INPUT); 
     pinMode(PIN_SWITCH_2, INPUT); 
     pinMode(PIN_SWITCH_3, INPUT); 
     pinMode(PIN_SWITCH_4, INPUT); 

     // Check switches
     if (digitalRead(PIN_SWITCH_1) == HIGH)
     {
         timer_value = 30000;
     }
     else if (digitalRead(PIN_SWITCH_2) == HIGH)
     {
         timer_value = 60000;
     }
     else if (digitalRead(PIN_SWITCH_3) == HIGH)
     {
         timer_value = 90000;
     }
     else if (digitalRead(PIN_SWITCH_4) == HIGH)
     {
         timer_value = 120000;
     }
     else
     {
         // Keep default value
     }
 }

 void loop()
 {
     // Here you can use timer_value to check for the end of the game.
 }