#306 KeyboardMatrixModule/SwitchInterrupts
Demo interrupt-driven switch input on a simple pushbutton/LED matrix module and how to use the EnableInterrupt library.
Notes
See LEAP#303 KeyboardMatrixModule for details of the module I am testing here.
It features 4 independent Push Buttons (S1-4).
4 Independent Push Buttons
There are 4 independant (red) pushbuttons S1-4.
With VCC connected to power and GND grounded, pins S1-4 are normally pulled HIGH with a 10kΩ built-in resistor. When pressed, the corresponding button pin will pull LOW.
Test Program
The SwitchInterrupts.ino sketch demonstrates handling key presses with interrupts.
With four switches, that means we need at least 4 interrupts. There are only two external interrupt pins on the ATmega168/328 (ie, in the Arduino Uno/Nano/Duemilanove), INT0 and INT1, and they are mapped to Arduino pins 2 and 3.
To get more external interrupts, you could instead use a Mega2560 for example, which supports external interrupts on digital GPIO pins 2, 3, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Another approach (the one I’ll use here) is to use pin change interrupts that can be enabled on any or all 20 of the pins of an ATmega168/328-based Arduinos. The EnableInterrupt library is a very easy way to do this.
The test script simply:
- sets up falling-edge interrupts on the four switch pins (normally pulled high)
- the interrupt routine records which switch was pressed
- the main loop looks for a switch press, prints to the serial console and clears the switch press flag
Test Run
Here’s an example of the console output, with me pressing all the switches from S1 to S4: