Countdown widget

1

Hi to all, I’m adding Blynk to a project that I already presented at the Maker faire 2016 in Rome and I need to implement a contdown timer. Currently I’m using a LCD to display the remaing time and the user may add/remove time using a IR remote. I need to mimic this function using Blynk. I tried the timer and time input widget but I didn’t find they suitable for my needs. Can someone help me ?
Thanks

2

Dear friend,
If I understood your needs, this is a very easy to implement task using Blynk.

First of all you need a two virtual (Blynk app) buttons lets say ButtonUP & ButtonDown. When ButtonUP is pushed some pre selected time will be added to timer(ex + 2 seconds per button pushing) accordingly pushed the ButtonDown pre selected time will be subtracted to timer(ex - 2 seconds per button pushing). Of course you need to publish this timer variable to your LCD that in case of Blynk is a virtual LCD. Now having a simple timer function running ex each second (or less it is depended on your needs) will subtract each time ex 1 second from the timer variable until reached zero that means no more subtraction, in this time you can disable the simple timer function that has to be re activated (enabled) when your timer variable is greater than zero).

The above is a fast idea, you can find many other implementations, just think what is more appropriate to your need.

P.S. Don’t forget:

  1. have all related variables global
  2. update the your timer variable to LCD whatever this change
  3. If you need best accuracy then other ways should be selected ( not just a simple timer function running each second or so…)

Best Regards,
Mike Kranidis

3

Mike thanks for your reply. Perhaps i was not so clear in my question. I’m already using the mechanism that you suggests with the CountUpDownTimer library. I hoped that in the blynk widget list there was a more specific object for a conuntdown. I tried to use the player widget to mimic the function of my timer but the it isn’t resizeable so i can’t use it cause lack of space.
May be in the future a widget loke this will be implemented.