Multiple Timers Arduino - c

Question

Hi I had a question about timers on that Arduino.
I have 5 physical buttons (piezos) that I am getting the analog input from. I am then having them write out a keyboard key. My issue is when one is hit I want it to be unable to hit for "x" amount of time. I tried using delay, but this ended up delaying the whole program, thus 2 buttons could not be hit at the same time. Could someone explain to me how to do this with timers? I want 5 separate timers 1 for each button that controls a Boolean, I would need 5 separate timers for 5 separate if statements. (See code).
//SNARE LOOP2
if(sensorValueA0 == 0)
{
if(SnareHit == false)
{
Keyboard.write(115);
SnareHit = true;
//Use timer here to delay this part of the system
SnareHit = false;
}
}
//BASS DRUM LOOP
if(sensorValueA1 == 0)
{
if(BassHit == false)
{
Keyboard.write(98);
BassHit = true;
//Use timer here to delay this part of the system
BassHit = false;
}
}
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use the millis() function, something similar to the following code:
if(ButtonPress==true){
time=millis() //time was previously declared as unsigned long
if(time>=5000){ //5000 = 5 sec
ButtonPress==false
}
}
It will not stop the arduino loop as dealy() does.
More info: http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/AvoidDelay

Answer 2

Perhaps you are trying to de-bounce the button. I usually do this in the main loop, and expect 5 consecutive "pressed" reads before I say the button is really pressed, something like this:
int button1PressedCount = 0;
int debounceCounter = 5; // Number of successive reads before we say the switch is pressed
boolean buttonPressed = false;
int inputPin1 = 7;
void setup() {
// Grounding the input pin causes it to actuate
pinMode(inputPin1, INPUT ); // set the input pin 1
digitalWrite(inputPin1, HIGH); // set pin 1 as a pull up resistor.
}
void loop()
{
// Some code
// Check button, we evaluate below
checkButton();
// Some more code
}
void checkButton() {
if (digitalRead(inputPin) == 0) {
// We need consecutive pressed counts to treat this is pressed
if (button1PressedCount < debounceCounter) {
button1PressedCount += 1;
// If we reach the debounce point, mark the start time
if (button1PressedCount == debounceCounter) {
// Button is detected as pressed!
buttonPressed = true;
}
}
} else {
if (button1PressedCount == debounceCounter) {
// We were pressed, but are not any more
buttonPressed = false;
}
button1PressedCount = 0;
}
}
Also it seems using an analogue input with a check if the analogue value is exactly equal to 0 might be a bit sensitive in noisy environments. This is why I use a digital input and the internal pull up resistor.