Add function for Modulino Knob to detect direction

[charlesbones]

Add a function that detect the direction of the Modulino Knob, something like if goes right returns 1, if goes left returns -1 and if no change returns 0

[sebromero]

The MicroPython library supports this, if we need something to take inspiration from.

[AntonioBerna]

Add a function that detect the direction of the Modulino Knob, something like if goes right returns 1, if goes left returns -1 and if no change returns 0

Hi! 👋
Thanks for the suggestion — it’s a great idea to have a function that returns the direction of rotation for the Modulino Knob.

I provide you a mini guide to add a new unofficial method called getDirection() to the ModulinoKnob class.

It compares the current position to the last known one and returns:

• 1 if the knob was turned right;
• -1 if the knob was turned left;
• 0 if there was no movement or the movement is within the debounce interval.

A debounce of 30ms is used to prevent noise or unintended fast reads.

✅ Example usage:

int8_t direction = knob.getDirection();

if (direction == 1) {
  Serial.println("Turned right");
} else if (direction == -1) {
  Serial.println("Turned left");
}

🛠️ Code changes:
Here’s the updated ModulinoKnob class with getDirection() and debounce logic:

class ModulinoKnob : public Module {
public:
  ModulinoKnob(uint8_t address = 0xFF)
    : Module(address, "ENCODER") {}

  bool begin() {
    auto ret = Module::begin();
    if (ret) {
      auto _val = get();
      _lastPosition = _val;
      _lastDebounceTime = millis();
      set(100);
      if (get() != 100) {
        _bug_on_set = true;
        set(-_val);
      } else {
        set(_val);
      }
    }
    return ret;
  }

  int16_t get() {
    uint8_t buf[3];
    auto res = read(buf, 3);
    if (res == false) {
      return 0;
    }
    _pressed = (buf[2] != 0);
    int16_t ret = buf[0] | (buf[1] << 8);
    return ret;
  }

  void set(int16_t value) {
    if (_bug_on_set) {
      value = -value;
    }
    uint8_t buf[4];
    memcpy(buf, &value, 2);
    write(buf, 4);
  }

  bool isPressed() {
    get();
    return _pressed;
  }

  int8_t getDirection() {
    unsigned long now = millis();
    if (now - _lastDebounceTime < DEBOUNCE_DELAY) {
      return 0; // Ignore noisy/too-fast reads
    }

    int16_t current = get();
    int8_t direction = 0;
    if (current > _lastPosition) {
      direction = 1;
    } else if (current < _lastPosition) {
      direction = -1;
    }

    if (direction != 0) {
      _lastDebounceTime = now;
      _lastPosition = current;
    }

    return direction;
  }

  virtual uint8_t discover() {
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < sizeof(match)/sizeof(match[0]); i++) {
      if (scan(match[i])) {
        return match[i];
      }
    }
    return 0xFF;
  }

private:
  bool _pressed = false;
  bool _bug_on_set = false;
  int16_t _lastPosition = 0;
  unsigned long _lastDebounceTime = 0;
  static constexpr unsigned long DEBOUNCE_DELAY = 30;

protected:
  uint8_t match[2] = { 0x74, 0x76 };
};

For more information about the read error check the issue #20

Happy hacking! 🚀