Arduino C++ Running two while loops at the same time - arduino-c++

Question

I am trying to figure out how to run 2 while loops at the same time but in the easiest way possible?
I want one loop to check for a signal from the joystick that i connected to the Arduino.I want the second loop to display a face in the LCD screen and i want it to blink every 5 minutes.(I know it sounds weird)

Answer 1

The term you are looking for here is called multi-threading. The first thread will be for your joystick loop and the second will be fore your LCD screen. Depending on the board you are using, the strain added to the hardware will be different.
Regardless of board type, you can use a library such as protothreads to accomplish this. Here is the code from Digikey's tutorial on multithreading in arduino programs.
#include "protothreads.h"
#define LED_1 2
#define LED_2 3
pt ptSlowBlink;
pt ptFastBlink;
int fastBlinkThread(struct pt* pt)
{
PT_BEGIN(pt);
while(true)
{
digitalWrite(LED_1, HIGH);
PT_SLEEP(pt, 250);
digitalWrite(LED_1, LOW);
PT_SLEEP(pt, 250);
}
PT_END(pt);
}
int slowBlinkThread(struct pt* pt)
{
PT_BEGIN(pt);
while(true)
{
digitalWrite(LED_2, HIGH);
PT_SLEEP(pt, 1000);
digitalWrite(LED_2, LOW);
PT_SLEEP(pt, 1000);
}
PT_END(pt);
}
void setup()
{
PT_INIT(&ptSlowBlink);
PT_INIT(&ptFastBlink);
pinMode(LED_1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED_2, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
PT_SCHEDULE(slowBlinkThread(&ptSlowBlink));
PT_SCHEDULE(fastBlinkThread(&ptFastBlink));
}
If the board you're using support Mbed OS, then there are also native features that will provide a significant increase in performance over the code above. It comes with some added learning curve but if you want to learn more the above tutorial also has a small introduction to Mbed OS multithreading.