This is an excerpt from

Arduino Workshop by John Boxall.

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J O H N B O X A L L
ARDUINO
WORKSHOP
ARDUINO
WORKSHOP
A H A N D S - O N I N T R O D U C T I O N
W I T H 6 5 P R O J E C T S
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Arduino Workshop
2013, John Boxall
Project #5: Controlling Traffic
Now lets put your newfound knowledge to use by solving a hypothetical
problem. As the town planner for a rural shire, you have a problem with a
single-lane bridge that crosses the river. Every week, one or two accidents
occur at night, when tired drivers rush across the bridge without rst stop-
ping to see if the road is clear. You have suggested that trafc lights be
installed, but the mayor wants to see them demonstrated before signing
off on the purchase. You could rent temporary lights, but theyre expensive.
Instead, youve decided to build a model of the bridge with working trafc
lights using LEDs and an Arduino.
The Goal
Our goal is to install three-color trafc lights at each end of the single-lane
bridge. The lights allow trafc to ow only in one direction at a time. When
sensors located at either end of the bridge detect a car waiting at a red light,
the lights will change and allow the trafc to ow in the opposite direction.
The Algorithm
Well use two buttons to simulate the vehicle sensors at each end of the
bridge. Each set of lights will have red, yellow, and green LEDs. Initially, the
system will allow trafc to ow from west to east, so the west-facing lights
will be set to green and the east-facing lights will be set to red.
When a vehicle approaches the bridge (modeled by pressing the button)
and the light is red, the system will turn the light on the opposite side
from green to yellow to red, and then wait a set period of time to allow any
vehicles already on the bridge to nish crossing. Next, the yellow light on
the waiting vehicles side will blink as a get ready notice for the driver, and
nally the light will change to green. The light will remain green until a
vehicle approaches the other side, at which point the process repeats.
The Hardware
Heres what youll need to create this project:
Two red LEDs (LED1 and LED2)
Two yellow LEDs (LED3 and LED4)
Two green LEDs (LED5 and LED6)
Six 560 resistors (R1 to R6)
Two 10 k resistor (R7 and R8)
Two 100 nF capacitors (C1 and C2)
Two push buttons (S1 and S2)
One medium-sized breadboard
One Arduino and USB cable
Various connecting wires
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Arduino Workshop
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The Schematic
Because were controlling only six LEDs and receiving input from two but-
tons, the design will not be too difcult. Figure 4-26 shows the schematic
for our project.
N/C
IO REF
SCL
SDA
RST
AREF
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
3V3 5V V
in
A
n
a
l
o
g

I
n
p
u
t
D11
D10
D9
D8
D7
D6
D5
D4
D3
PWM
TX
RX
PWM
PWM
PWM
PWM
PWM
D2
D1
D13
D12
D0
D
i
g
i
t
a
l

I
n
p
u
t
/
O
u
t
p
u
t
Power
Arduino
GND
S2
S1
R5
560
R4
560
R6
560
R3
560
R2
560
R1
560
R8
10k
R7
10k
C2
100nF
C1
100nF
LED2
Red
LED1
Red
LED4
Yellow
LED3
Yellow
LED6
Green
LED5
Green
Figure 4-26: Schematic for Project 5
This circuit is basically a more elaborate version of the button and LED
circuit in Project 4, with resistors, more LEDs, and another button.
Be sure that the LEDs are inserted in the correct direction: the resistors
connect to LED anodes, and the LED cathodes connect to the Arduino
GND pin, as shown in Figure 4-27.
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Arduino Workshop
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Figure 4-27: Completed circuit
The Sketch
And now for the sketch. Can you see how it matches our algorithm?
// Project 5 - Controlling Traffic
// define the pins that the buttons and lights are connected to:
u #define westButton 3
#define eastButton 13
#define westRed 2
#define westYellow 1
#define westGreen 0
#define eastRed 12
#define eastYellow 11
#define eastGreen 10
#define yellowBlinkTime 500 // 0.5 seconds for yellow light blink
v boolean trafficWest = true; // west = true, east = false
w int flowTime = 10000; // amount of time to let traffic flow
x int changeDelay = 2000; // amount of time between color changes
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Arduino Workshop
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void setup()
{
// setup digital I/O pins
pinMode(westButton, INPUT);
pinMode(eastButton, INPUT);
pinMode(westRed, OUTPUT);
pinMode(westYellow, OUTPUT);
pinMode(westGreen, OUTPUT);
pinMode(eastRed, OUTPUT);
pinMode(eastYellow, OUTPUT);
pinMode(eastGreen, OUTPUT);

// set initial state for lights - west side is green first
digitalWrite(westRed, LOW);
digitalWrite(westYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(westGreen, HIGH);
digitalWrite(eastRed, HIGH);
digitalWrite(eastYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(eastGreen, LOW);
}
void loop()
{
if ( digitalRead(westButton) == HIGH ) // request west>east traffic flow
{
if ( trafficWest != true )
// only continue if traffic flowing in the opposite (east) direction
{
trafficWest = true; // change traffic flow flag to west>east
delay(flowTime); // give time for traffic to flow
digitalWrite(eastGreen, LOW); // change east-facing lights from green
// to yellow to red
digitalWrite(eastYellow, HIGH);
delay(changeDelay);
digitalWrite(eastYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(eastRed, HIGH);
delay(changeDelay);
for ( int a = 0; a < 5; a++ ) // blink yellow light
{
digitalWrite(westYellow, LOW);
delay(yellowBlinkTime);
digitalWrite(westYellow, HIGH);
delay(yellowBlinkTime);
}
digitalWrite(westYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(westRed, LOW); // change west-facing lights from red to green
digitalWrite(westGreen, HIGH);
}
}

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Arduino Workshop
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if ( digitalRead(eastButton) == HIGH ) // request east>west traffic flow
{
if ( trafficWest == true )
// only continue if traffic flow is in the opposite (west) direction
{
trafficWest = false; // change traffic flow flag to east>west
delay(flowTime); // give time for traffic to flow
digitalWrite(westGreen, LOW);
// change west lights from green to yellow to red
digitalWrite(westYellow, HIGH);
delay(changeDelay);
digitalWrite(westYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(westRed, HIGH);
delay(changeDelay);
for ( int a = 0 ; a < 5 ; a++ ) // blink yellow light
{
digitalWrite(eastYellow, LOW);
delay(yellowBlinkTime);
digitalWrite(eastYellow, HIGH);
delay(yellowBlinkTime);
}
digitalWrite(eastYellow, LOW);
digitalWrite(eastRed, LOW); // change east-facing lights from red to green
digitalWrite(eastGreen, HIGH);
}
}
}
Our sketch starts by using #define at u to associate digital pin
numbers with labels for all the LEDs used, as well as the two buttons.
We have red, yellow, and green LEDs and a button each for the west and
east sides of the bridge. The Boolean variable trafficWest at v is used to
keep track of which way the trafc is owingtrue is west to east, and
false is east to west.
NOTE Notice that trafficWest is a single Boolean variable with the trafc direction set as
either true or false. Having a single variable like this instead of two (one for east
and one for west) ensures that both directions cannot accidentally be true at the same
time, which helps avoid a crash!
The integer variable flowTime at w is the minimum period of time that
vehicles have to cross the bridge. When a vehicle pulls up at a red light,
the system delays this period to give the opposing trafc time to cross the
bridge. The integer variable changeDelay at x is the period of time between
the trafc lights switching from green to yellow to red.
Before the sketch enters the void loop() section, it is set for trafc to
ow from west to east in void setup().
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Arduino Workshop
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Running the Sketch
Once its running, the sketch does nothing until one of the buttons is
pressed. When the east button is pressed, the line
if ( trafficWest == true )
ensures that the lights change only if the trafc is heading in the opposite
direction. The rest of the code section is composed of a simple sequence of
waiting and then of turning on and off various LEDs to simulate the trafc-
light operation.