My Arduino got stuck and continuous looping in if condition

Question

I'm using RTC and when the if condition is true the Time gots stuck and the condition keeps looping. Please help

Here is my code:

// CONNECTIONS:
// DS1302 CLK/SCLK --> 5
// DS1302 DAT/IO --> 4
// DS1302 RST/CE --> 2
// DS1302 VCC --> 3.3v - 5v
// DS1302 GND --> GND
#include <Servo.h> 
#include <ThreeWire.h>  
#include <RtcDS1302.h>

ThreeWire myWire(4,5,2); // IO, SCLK, CE
RtcDS1302<ThreeWire> Rtc(myWire);
int servoPin = 3;
Servo Servo1;
void setup () 
{
    Serial.begin(57600);
    Servo1.attach(servoPin);
//    Serial.print("compiled: ");
//    Serial.print(__DATE__);
    Serial.println(__TIME__);

    Rtc.Begin();

    RtcDateTime compiled = RtcDateTime(__TIME__);
    printDateTime(compiled);
    Serial.println();

    if (Rtc.GetIsWriteProtected())
    {
        Serial.println("RTC was write protected, enabling writing now");
        Rtc.SetIsWriteProtected(false);
    }

    if (!Rtc.GetIsRunning())
    {
        Serial.println("RTC was not actively running, starting now");
        Rtc.SetIsRunning(true);
    }

    RtcDateTime now = Rtc.GetDateTime();
    if (now < compiled) 
    {
        Serial.println("RTC is older than compile time!  (Updating DateTime)");
        Rtc.SetDateTime(compiled);
    }
    else if (now > compiled) 
    {
        Serial.println("RTC is newer than compile time. (this is expected)");
    }
    else if (now == compiled) 
    {
        Serial.println("RTC is the same as compile time! (not expected but all is fine)");
    }
}

void loop () 
{
    RtcDateTime now = Rtc.GetDateTime();

    printDateTime(now);
    Serial.println();
    delay(5000);

//here is my problem>>>>


    if(now.Hour() == 22 && now.Minute() == 40)
    {
      Servo1.write(0);
      delay(1000);
      Servo1.write(90);
      delay(1000);

    }  

//////////////////////

    delay(5000); 


}

#define countof(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))

void printDateTime(const RtcDateTime& dt)
{
    char datestring[20];
//%02u/%02u/%04u
    snprintf_P(datestring, 
            countof(datestring),
            PSTR("%02u:%02u:%02u"),
//            dt.Month(),
//            dt.Day(),
//            dt.Year(),
            dt.Hour(),
            dt.Minute(),
            dt.Second() );
    Serial.print(datestring);
}

Answer 1

What is being brought to your attention is the following part of your code...

//here is my problem>>>>

if(now.Hour() == 22 && now.Minute() == 40)
{
  Servo1.write(0);
  delay(1000);
  Servo1.write(90);
  delay(1000);
}  

In this code you use an "if" statement and ask: if the now.Hour is equal 22 AND if the now.Minute is equal 40 then write a 0 to your servo then delay for 1000 then write a 90 to your servo and wait another 1000

What is being brought to your attention is that until now.Hour changes or until now.Minute changes your write 0, delay, write 90, delay will continue on and on and on until now.Hour changes (which will take a while) or now.Minute changes. Since minutes are 60 seconds long your code will repeat for all of those 60 seconds...

If you were to change your code to include, oh, lets say now.Second() (like this)--

if(now.Hour() == 22 && now.Minute() == 40 && now.Second() == 00)

Then your code will repeat over and over until now.Second changes (which will take 1 second).

By the time your loop gets back to the "if" statement now.Second will no longer be 00 and it will not be "stuck" for you...

---

As has been brought to my attention, your 5 second delay will be a problem, so you might find that changing it will allow the now.Second "fix" to work.

In the following part of your code change delay(5000)

void loop () 
{
    RtcDateTime now = Rtc.GetDateTime();

    printDateTime(now);
    Serial.println();
    delay(5000);
}

to something like delay(1000) or so.

That way it will only wait 1 second before dropping out of the loop and checking the loop with the newly added now.Second(). This will make the printDateTime(now) happen every second instead of every 5 seconds, but it shouldn't get "stuck".

Hopefully this helps you to better understand how time (and its parts) work.