Exercise - Using Component Macros

Component macros are sections of code that have been written to support the components included with Flowcode 6.
They take all the effort out of using these components. This exercise uses them to control a particularly complicated, but very common device, the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). It uses it to display the elapsed time.

The core sequence

The flowchart sequence for the elapsed time will be:

Check if the switch is pressed.

If it isn't, go back to the beginning.

If it is:

initialize the LCD;

display the text "Elapsed time";

initialize the time;

display the time

wait for one second;

increment the time;

display the new time;

loop back and repeat this process.

Set up the flowchart

• Open Flowcode, and set up the new flowchart as described in Creating Your First Flowchart.

Create the core sequence

• Locate the 'LCD' inside the 'Outputs' toolbox.

• Hover over the image to the left of the 'LCD' label, and click on the down-arrow that appears.
• Click on the 'Add to system panel' option to select it.
• Zoom in until the LCD image is big enough to read.

• Click and drag an infinite loop between the 'BEGIN' and 'END' icons.
• Inside the loop:

• Click and drag a 'Component macro' icon.

The program 'knows' when you have added a component to the System or Dashboard panel.