Time delay without using delay() and millis()

Question

I am designing an industrial control panel using arduino. I have to use time delays as long as 10 seconds and since using delay() makes a halt in the controller I tried using millis(). But it is complicated and it will work only for 50 days. I want the system to work continuously without any maintenance and I need to control as many as 6 relays. So, I need a better solution (hardware or software based) to tackle this problem. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You misunderstand the 50 day thing. Yes it rolls over after 50 days but that doesn't mean it stops working. As long as you program your comparisons correctly (something people often don't do in online examples) then all it means is the maximum delay you can have is 50 days.

Answer 2

You may have to find a library that eases the use of what you're trying to do.
I made some timer library, called SeqTimer.
You can find it here: Link
or use the Arduino library manager, it's there too.

It's a simple library using millis(), without callback, so it's pretty straightforward.
If you need more advanced timer, search for 'timer' for example in the arduino library manager, there's a bunch of libs related to timers.

Yet, I'm not really sure what you mean by:

work only for 50 days

Answer 3

it will work only for 50 days.

it overflows in 50 days but comparisons based on it can be good even if it overflows. you just need to recognize the overflow and program accordingly.

so millis() is perfectly fine for what you are trying to do. no need to reinvent the wheels.