Elapsedtime variable not resetting

Question

I am new to Arduino programming. Let me describe the application I am working on. I am pressing a button for a certain period of time (30 sec). I can not hold it in a pressed position for all the time. I want to avoid accidental transition from button state going from logic HIGH to LOW. I am trying to drive a solenoid valve only at the end of the event.

The algorithm I am using is if once the system detects a HIGH from the sensor it goes in a loop and looks for transition to LOW. It checks if there is continuous LOW for more than 5 sec. If NO then it resets to start checking LOW again. If YES that means end of event and drives the solenoid valve.

The problem I am facing with the code is although the transition to LOW and remaining in LOW is less than 5 sec, the system is sending pulse to drive the solenoid valve. I have incorporated Serial.print() function to observe the value of the sensor input state and elapsed-time. The elapsed-time variable does not reset and keep increasing even though the button state reverts from LOW to HIGH.

I am incorporating part of the code here which is related to the algorithm. I will greatly appreciate if you kindly take a look at the code and the output file and help me detect the bug.

Thanks again! Niloy.

void loop() {

      buttonstate = digitalRead(button);   // read the state of the microswitch value: HIGH "on" or LOW "off"

      if (buttonstate == HIGH ){
          countstart = 1;

          while(countstart == 1) {
          buttonstate = digitalRead(button);   // read the state of the microswitch value: HIGH "on" or LOW "off"

          if ( ( buttonstate == LOW ) && ( startFlag == 0 ) ) { //start new time sequence
                  startFlag = 1;
                  startTime = millis();
            }
          if ( ( buttonstate == LOW ) && startFlag == 1 ){
                  endTime = millis();
                  elapsedTime = endTime - startTime;
          }

          if ( ( buttonstate == HIGH ) && startFlag == 1 ){
                  startFlag == 0;
                  endTime = startTime =0;
                  elapsedTime = endTime - startTime;
                  countstart = 0;
          }

          Serial.print(buttonstate);
          Serial.print("\n");       // Print tab space
          Serial.print(elapsedTime);
          Serial.print("\n");       // Print tab space

      if ( elapsedTime >= 5000)
      {
          delay(2000);  //2 sec delay
          solenoid->run(FORWARD);
          delay(40);
          solenoid->run(RELEASE);

          delay(500);

          solenoid->run(BACKWARD);
          delay(40);
          solenoid->run(RELEASE);

          countstart = 0;
          endTime = startTime =0;
          elapsedTime = endTime - startTime;
          buttonstate = LOW;
          delay(15000); //wait for 15 sec

      }
     }

    }
}

Answer 1

startFlag variable never goes to zero because there is a bug in this part of code:

 if ( ( buttonstate == HIGH ) && startFlag == 1 ){
          **startFlag = 0;**
          endTime = startTime =0;
          elapsedTime = endTime - startTime;
          countstart = 0;
  }