Connecting a push button to a stepper motor problem

Question

I can't get this code to work. The button code and the step motor code works separately. However, when I code using an if statement saying when the button is pressed the motor will move or else it won't. PLEASE HELP.

const int buttonPin = 7;
    
int buttonState = 0;         
int serialData = 0;
    
#define IN_1 8
#define IN_2 9
#define IN_3 10
#define IN_4 11
#define DELAY_TIME 30

int i = 0;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(IN_1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(IN_2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(IN_3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(IN_4, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
  Serial.print ("start");
}
    
void loop() {
  buttonState = digitalRead (buttonPin);
  if (buttonState == HIGH) {
    //delay(1000);
    for (i=0; i<4; i++)
      Serial.println ("pressed");
    switch (i) {
      case 3: // ASCII value for '1'
        digitalWrite(IN_1, HIGH);
        delay(DELAY_TIME);
        digitalWrite(IN_1, LOW);
        break;
      case 1: // ASCII value for '2'
        digitalWrite(IN_2, HIGH);
        delay(DELAY_TIME);
        digitalWrite(IN_2, LOW);
        break;
      case 0: // ASCII value for '3'
        digitalWrite(IN_3, HIGH);
        delay(DELAY_TIME);
        digitalWrite(IN_3, LOW);
        break;
      case 2: // ASCII value for '4'
        digitalWrite(IN_4, HIGH);
        delay(DELAY_TIME);
        digitalWrite(IN_4, LOW);
        break;
      default:
        Serial.println("Not a valid case");
        break;
    }
    if (i == 4) {
      i = 0;
    } else { 
      i = 5;
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

Your code makes no sense at all. Let's break it down. First we'll reformat the code using the auto-formatter (AStyle) in UECIDE:

const int buttonPin = 7;

int buttonState = 0;
int serialData = 0;

#define IN_1 8
#define IN_2 9
#define IN_3 10
#define IN_4 11
#define DELAY_TIME 30
int i = 0;

void setup()

{
    Serial.begin(9600);
    pinMode(IN_1, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(IN_2, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(IN_3, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(IN_4, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
    Serial.print("start");
}

void loop()

{
    buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

    if (buttonState == HIGH) {
//delay(1000);
        for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
            Serial.println("pressed");
        }

        switch (i) {
            case 3: // ASCII  value for '1'
                digitalWrite(IN_1, HIGH);
                delay(DELAY_TIME);
                digitalWrite(IN_1, LOW);
                break;

            case 1: // ASCII  value for '2'
                digitalWrite(IN_2, HIGH);
                delay(DELAY_TIME);
                digitalWrite(IN_2, LOW);
                break;

            case 0: // ASCII  value for '3'
                digitalWrite(IN_3, HIGH);
                delay(DELAY_TIME);
                digitalWrite(IN_3, LOW);
                break;

            case 2: // ASCII  value for '4'
                digitalWrite(IN_4, HIGH);
                delay(DELAY_TIME);
                digitalWrite(IN_4, LOW);
                break;

            default:
                Serial.println("Not a valid case");
                break;
        }

        if (i == 4) {
            i = 0;
        } else {
            i = 5;
        }
    }
}

Now that we have fixed the formatting we can see some very strange things:

if (buttonState == HIGH) {

First we're doing this for every loop iteration where the button is pressed. That means we're doing it over and over again until you release the button.

    for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        Serial.println("pressed");
    }

Now we're printing the word "pressed" four times. After this i will be set to 4.

The switch will now take an input value of 4, which is "Not a valid case". So nothing will happen.

Then:

    if (i == 4) {
        i = 0;
    } else {
        i = 5;
    }

i is always 4, so it will always set it to 0. Quite what this block is supposed to achieve I have no clue. If it were supposed to be inside the for loop above then it would just kill the loop on the first iteration, since i, when 0, would not be 4, so would be changed to 5, which is > 4. It makes no sense and can achieve nothing of value.

As for the switch: if it were inside the for loop and able to get some varying values of i, it would just make each output briefly activate in turn. If that's what you need to drive your motor, then fine. However, it's never going to run since the rest of the program is just nonsense.