Blink without blocking the loop.

Use elapsed millis time instead of delay for a repeating action.

C++ snippet.ino
unsigned long previous = 0;
byte changes = 0;
bool led = false;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  unsigned long now = millis();
  if (changes < 3 && now - previous >= 100) {
    previous = now;
    led = !led;
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, led);
    changes++;
    Serial.println("Changed");
  }
}

Expected output EXAMPLE

Changed
Changed
Changed

Details

Targets Arduino Uno R3 (ATmega328P, 16 MHz) with the Arduino AVR core. Open as a sketch in the Arduino IDE and select Arduino Uno. Serial output uses 9600 baud. Tested with simavr; electrical characteristics and physical wiring are outside this simulation. This bounded example stops after three state changes. Unsigned subtraction handles millis rollover for ordinary intervals.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · Uno R3 / ATmega328P at 16 MHz; simavr 1.6+dfsg-3build2 · simavr 1.6+dfsg-3build2; arduino-cli Version: 1.5.1 Commit: 01f3d4f2b Date: 2026-06-05T10:22:17Z; Arduino AVR core 1.8.6

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. The exact sketch was compiled for Uno R3 and simulated at 16 MHz. UART output is shown below; compiler logs and measured GPIO traces are retained in the test evidence. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
arduino-cli compile --fqbn arduino:avr:uno; uno-sim sketch.ino.elf (capture UART and D13 transitions)
Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3
Code SHA-256
c39ed137da51d81afbcf28d5e46da074077c9d88af75f3b2a8183c824d3cd52c
Dependencies
simavr 1.6+dfsg-3build2; arduino-cli Version: 1.5.1 Commit: 01f3d4f2b Date: 2026-06-05T10:22:17Z; Arduino AVR core 1.8.6

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

Simulator inputs: {"sim_ms": 500, "serial_input": "", "pin_input": "none"}

Observed standard output

Changed
Changed
Changed

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.

Additional assertions that passed

Checks recorded by the test harness. Where Python assertions are shown, browser cases use Playwright and simulator cases may inspect pin transitions: result.stdout is captured output, work is the temporary directory, and Path is pathlib.Path. The harness also imports json and csv.

trace = [tuple(map(int, line.split(','))) for line in Path('pin13.csv').read_text().splitlines()]
assert [value for cycle, value in trace if cycle > 800_000] == [1, 0, 1]