Arduino Timer Protocol

OzTimer is a special countdown timer. It uses an 8 bit timer, wich is Timer 2 in both ATmega328P and ATmega2560 chips. Every tick increases a 64 bit global variable created in OzTimer.h. You can declare a lot of timers, because these are virtual timers based on the preciseness of Timer 2. You can set the initial value of the countdown timers to any year, day, hour, minute, second, millisecond and microsecond. It will start countdown immediately. The virtual timers will tick simultaneously. You can stop them all anytime. After any virtual timer finishes countdown it can run a predefined function that is added to the programcode.

How to test the OzTimer on Arduino Mega?
Arduino codes are included.

I. 'Welcome' event from microcontroller

Example

c=welcome&id=KT75pc&type=OzTimerController&pos=1&name=MyTimers&t=1

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'welcome' Identifies the welcome message.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.
type String 'OzTimer' Determines the type of the devicehandler.
pos Byte 0-255 Determines the position of the device on the list of the ID manager of the microcontroller. Please make sure there are no other devices in the same position.
name (optional) String e.g. 'MyTimers' You can give default names for devices.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of events and responses sent combined. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.


II. Commands to microcontroller

'Set status' command

Pauses or restarts the global timer. Timer 2 interrupts automatically increase the global timer. The virtual countdown timers use the global timer as reference.

Example

//Timer start
c=setstatus&val=1&t=0&id=KT75pc

//Timer stop
c=setstatus&val=0&t=1&id=KT75pc

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'setstatus' Identifies the command.
val Bool 0,1 0 pauses timers, 1 restarts them.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of commands and events sent combined. The 't' of the command is equal to the 't' of its response. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.

Response

Returns if the global timer is turned on. The same response is for the 'status' command. 

//Start timer response
c=status_resp&val=1&id=KT75pc&t=2

//Stop timer response
c=status_resp&val=0&id=KT75pc&t=3

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'status_resp' Identifies the response.
val Bool 0,1 0 means timers are paused.
1 means timers have been restarted.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of events and responses sent combined. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.


'Status' command

Queries the status of the global timer.

Example

c=status&t=2&id=KT75pc

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'status' Identifies the command.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of commands and events sent combined. The 't' of the command is equal to the 't' of its response. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.

Response

Returns if global timer is turned on. The same response is for the 'setstatus' command. 

c=status_resp&val=0&id=KT75pc&t=4

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'status_resp' Identifies the response.
val Bool 0,1 0 means the global timer is paused.
1 means the global timer is running.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of events and responses sent combined. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.


'Elapsed' command

Asks the current value of the global timer which stores elapsed time in milliseconds.

Example

c=elapsed&t=3&id=KT75pc

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'elapsed' Identifies the command.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of commands and events sent combined. The 't' of the command is equal to the 't' of its response. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.

Response

Returns the current value of the global timer which stores elapsed time in milliseconds.
The global timer starts from the boot of the microcontroller.

c=elapsed_resp&val=229094&id=KT75pc&t=5

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'elapsed_resp' Identifies the response.
val Unsigned Long 0-232 The time stored in the global timer. The time is stored in milliseconds.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of events and responses sent combined. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.


'Timers' command

Queries the status of every virtual timer. The virtual countdown timers use the global timer as reference.

Example

c=timers&t=4&id=KT75pc

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'timers' Identifies the command.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of commands and events sent combined. The 't' of the command is equal to the 't' of its response. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.

Response

You can see from the 'flag' parameter which countdown timer has reached 0. 

//There are no active timers
c=timers_resp&num=0&id=KT75pc&t=6

//There are some active timers
c=timers_resp&owner=test_1&time=5000&flag=1&id=KT75pc&t=6
c=timers_resp&owner=test_2&time=6000&flag=0&id=KT75pc&t=7
[...]

Parameters

Parameter Type Range Functionality
c String 'timers_resp' Identifies the response.
num Bool Can only get 0 as value. Parameter exists only if there are no active timers.
owner String any ( e.g. test_1 ) Actual timer's ID given in the ino file.
time Unsigned Long 0-232 It is NOT the remaining time left from the countdown. It is the initial value of the countdown timer in milliseconds (declared in the .ino file).
flag Bool 0,1 Flag which tells us whether the timer has expired or not.
id String 6 characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters) The ID of the device which is chosen by the microcontroller.
t Byte 0-255 Counts the number of events and responses sent combined. Counts from 0 to 255 then from 0 again.


III. Event from microcontroller

None

More information