What is wrong with my code? RGB potentiometer

Question

Arduino programming has been a huge learning curve for me and I am trying to create a project with an rgb that's color is determined by a potentiometer. To where the further I turn it, the further across the rainbow spectrum it goes. I can't figure out how to do all values in between because I am not educated enough but I came up with this basic code...

int redpin = 6;
int greenpin = 3;
int bluepin = 5;
int potPin = 0;


void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  pinMode(redpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluepin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(potPin, INPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  int wavecolor = analogRead(potPin);
  Serial.print(wavecolor);
  {
    if (wavecolor = 0) {
      setColor(255, 0, 0);  // red
    }
    if (wavecolor > 0 or wavecolor < 333) {
      setColor(0, 255, 0);  // green
    }
    if (wavecolor > 333 or wavecolor < 667) {
      setColor(0, 0, 255);  // blue
    }
    if (wavecolor > 667 or wavecolor < 1022) {
      setColor(255, 255, 0);  // yellow
    }
    if (wavecolor = 1023) {
      setColor(80, 0, 80);  // purple
    }
  }
}

void setColor(int red, int green, int blue)
{
#ifdef COMMON_ANODE
  red = 255 - red;
  green = 255 - green;
  blue = 255 - blue;
#endif
  analogWrite(redpin, red);
  analogWrite(greenpin, green);
  analogWrite(bluepin, blue);
}

And for some reason, where the light should change colors once the potentiometer goes past a certain number, the light just flickers and only changes colors to white when it is all the way up or down. Also, it has a weird flickery yellow color. Since I am new to this, can one of you better educated people be willing to assist me?

Answer 1

• Equality comparison in C and C++ is expressed by == operator. ==, not =. This

  if (wavecolor = 0) {
  

  actually assigns zero to your wavecolor variable, thus destroying the value you just read.

• The common sense says that you actually need and in your conditions, not or

  if (wavecolor > 0 and wavecolor < 333) {
  

  The or conditions that you curently use are simply always true, which makes them nonsensical.

• This is valid syntax

  wavecolor > 0 or wavecolor < 333
  wavecolor > 0 and wavecolor < 333
  

  but you might want to try using more "canonical" forms

  wavecolor > 0 || wavecolor < 333
  wavecolor > 0 && wavecolor < 333
  

  or and and are "alternative" forms of || and && operators, introduced a long time ago for reasons that are all but obsolete today.

• Assuming that you meant and instead of or, in your conditions you managed to "exclude" such values as 333, 667 and 1022 - they wouldn't match any of and conditions. Changing some strict comparisons to non-strict ones might be in order.

• As a side note, in a single-file program all file-scope variables should be either const or static. In your case

  const int redpin = 6;
  const int greenpin = 3;
  const int bluepin = 5;
  const int potPin = 0;
  

Answer 2

Try this code below. This will give you the desired output!

int redpin = 6;
int greenpin = 3;
int bluepin = 5;
int potPin = 0;


void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  pinMode(redpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluepin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenpin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(potPin, INPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  int wavecolor = analogRead(potPin);
  Serial.print(wavecolor);
  {
    if (wavecolor == 0) {
      setColor(255, 0, 0);  // red
    }
    else if (wavecolor > 0 && wavecolor < 333) {
      setColor(0, 255, 0);  // green
    }
    else if (wavecolor >= 333 && wavecolor < 667) {
      setColor(0, 0, 255);  // blue
    }
    else if (wavecolor >= 667 && wavecolor < 1022) {
      setColor(255, 255, 0);  // yellow
    }
    else if (wavecolor >= 1022) {
      setColor(80, 0, 80);  // purple
    }
  }
}

void setColor(int red, int green, int blue)
{
#ifdef COMMON_ANODE
  red = 255 - red;
  green = 255 - green;
  blue = 255 - blue;
#endif
  analogWrite(redpin, red);
  analogWrite(greenpin, green);
  analogWrite(bluepin, blue);
}

Read up on logical and relational operators in Arduino (||, &&, >, <, ==, >=, <=) etc.
I will leave the logic development to you as it is what develops your coding ability and trust me logic is the most important and fun part of writing a code!