How to control multiple digital pins at a time (2 or more)?)

How-To
1

How to control 2 or more digital pins at a time using a switch in the dashboard?

I have multiple valves connected to each digital pin of esp8266 via MOSFET PWM, I would like close the 3 valves at a time with the help of a single switch.

thing["manual1"] << digitalPin(valve1, valve2, valve3); // control valve1, 2 & 3

I know the above logic would now work, but just posting for the reference.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

2

Hi,

You are using the compressed code and it allows to control just one resource, the expanded code looks like:

  thing["InputPins"] << [](pson & in) {
      if (in["Pin1"].is_empty()) in["Pin1"] = valve1;
      else valve1 = in["Pin1"];

      if (in["Pin2"].is_empty()) in["Pin2"] = valve2;
      else valve2 = in["Pin2"];
};

The platform recognizes the variable type and shows the field according, for boolen values shows the state switch, for numbers or text shows a textfield, into the device’s api.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
3

HI @ega,

Thanks for your reply. But I’m still little confused with your hint. Below is my code for your reference. I would like to switch ON both the valves 3 & 5 with the press of a spargingmanual button in the console. And switch ON the valves 4 & 5 with the press of purgignmanual button.

All the valves are connected to digital pins of ESP8266 via PWM.


  thing["spargingmanual"] << digitalPin(***********); // control valve 3 & valve 5
  thing["purgingmanual"] << digitalPin(*************); // control valve 4 & valve 5

Could you please explain your code with my logic?

4

Oh sorry, I missunderstood, I thought you want to add more than one resource in the same control.

Well as you want, what I would do is to define a boolean variable that will rule both pins, one way to do it is by the expanded code:

thing["ControlPins"] << [](pson & in) {
    if (in["Pin1"].is_empty()) in["Pin1"] = booleanVar;
    else booleanVar= in["Pin1"];

   digitalWrite(outputPin1, booleanVar);
   digitalWrite(outputPin2, booleanVar);
};

Note that it will run just every single time you execute a call to that reosurce.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
5

Yes, that actually worked. Thank you very much.

1 Like
6

Hi,

Just came across another hurdle. I would really appreciate if someone could help me out.

  1. I wanted to control multiple valves connected to digital pins on a ESP8266 by using a single button in thinger.
  2. And also wanted to show the status of the individual valves in thinger using on/off state switch.

I was able to achieve the first step but couldnt get the 2nd step working. Here’s my code for the thinger control.

thing["spargingmanual"] << [](pson &in){
     if(in.is_empty()){
        in=false;  //when it is empty no changes are made
     }else{
        bool val=in;   
        if(val==true){
               digitalWrite(15,!digitalRead(15));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               digitalWrite(13,!digitalRead(13));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               digitalWrite(12,!digitalRead(12));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               digitalWrite(14,!digitalRead(14));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               
         }
  //       delay(500);  //this delay is the time it will take for the button to return to its common position (off)
         in=false;
        } 
    };
     thing["purgingmanual"] << [](pson &in){
     if(in.is_empty()){
        in=false;  //when it is empty no changes are made
     }else{
        bool val=in;   
        if(val==true){
               digitalWrite(5,!digitalRead(5));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               digitalWrite(14,!digitalRead(14));      //new value will be the opposite as before  
               
         }
  //       delay(500);  //this delay is the time it will take for the button to return to its common position (off)
         in=false;
        } 
    };

Also here’s the screenshot of my dashboard

image
image1573×576 60.9 KB

The valves 10 to 15 are connected to sparging manual switch and valve 8 is connected to purging manual switch. If I hit the button sparging manual switch valves 10 to 15 should change the state to ON and so for the purging status.

Thank you.

7

Hi,

To get the actual status, I would try something like this:

thing["Status"] >> [](pson & out){
out["Pin1"] = digitalRead(pin1);
out["Pin2"] = digitalRead(pin2);
out["Pin3"] = digitalRead(pin3);
};

Hope this helps.