Timers to keep lights on

[A_L_E_X]

I have a system with two light bulbs and two buttons. When a button is pressed the corresponding light bulb should be on. But after the button is released the light must stay on for a specific time. I can make the system for only one light but for two lights i need to use timers. Does anyone have an example of how to use timers to just light a led for a specific time. I've read the example from the site but i don't understood how timers are working. Is there other way to do what i what or timers is the only solution. It doesn't matter what PIC i use. I was thinking at a pic12f615 because it have less pins. The thing i want to do can be done with two 555 or with just a 556 but i want to do it with a microcontroller. The main problem is how to separate the processes. I haven't used timers since now so a basic hello world application that blink a led using a timer would help me.

[Mike Walne]

Probably easiest and simplest to use interrupts for both buttons and timers.

You could use small delay_ms(xx)'s multiple times, for the timings.
Create counters to set the times.
Poll the buttons.

Mike

[A_L_E_X]

The maximum time is 12 seconds. Do you know any example similar to my case ?

[Ttelmah]

All you need is to have a 'tick' interrupt at some frequency that suits, then whenever the button is seen as 'on', load a counter with the number of counts of this interrupt you want it to stay on for. So (pseudo code):