Got burned by this one again…
The pgm_read_whatever() functions/macros require the address of the variable stored in PROGMEM (the program Flash ROM), not the variable’s value. More on that in the Arduino doc there.
So, for example, this does not work, no matter how easy it might be to type:
#include <avr/pgmspace.h>
#define TZ_INDEX 3 // hardcoded for simplicity
PROGMEM prog_char TimeZone[8] = {0,-3,-4,-5,-6,-7,-9,-10};
char TZOffset;
TZOffset = pgm_read_byte(TimeZone[TZ_INDEX]);
What you really want looks like this:
TZOffset = pgm_read_byte(&TimeZone[TZ_INDEX]);
See the difference?
Maybe next time I’ll remember that…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
6 responses to “Arduino: Remember the Ampersand with PROGMEM Variables!”
Thanks – that is exactly what I was missing
Hope it took you less time to find the answer than it did for me…
Having written it down, I know the next time I make that blunder, I’ll be on the solution quick as lightning!
The only problem is that I always seem to make *new* blunders…
(He says, having just today FINALLY found the Mickeysoft bug/misfeature that’s been blocking his project all bloody week.)
One of the absolute best programmers I ever worked with kept a notebook of (among other things) the errors he made while hammering out code. He said he eventually gave up recording them, having demonstrated to his own satisfaction that he kept making the same errors over and over again. Not, I must add, very many of them… he’d stopped making the really nasty ones years ago.
Man you have saved the day…….I have been struggling with reading data using PROGMEM and not getting the right outcome. The one thing missing “&” and it WORKS!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Now, if only we both remember it for the next time!