Debounce

In tutorial 3, I planted a trap. Each day, I sat at morning tea, sipping my coffee deviously while I waited for you to stumble into the trap. But as time passed, it became clear that you were not going to stumble into the trap. The only way to activate the trap is to attempt the homework exercises! But, as luck would have it, an enthusiastic foreigner stumbled into the trap, drawn to the tantalizing bait found within.
So, what was the trap? It was the behavior of the button when it is pressed, which is what makes embedded systems so interesting! By taming this intersection of the physical world and the digital, we can make robotic limbs, spaceships, radars and everything in between. But first, the humble button must be wrangled into place.

What is debouncing?

Slap two pieces of metal together and they don’t just latch together. They bounce. It looks like this:

Push buttons are the same. They bounce.

Work In Progress!