Digital Inputs - What, Where & How? - Working with the 3 on-board Push Buttons

Digital Inputs

Digital Inputs helps us interface devices that ouput a HIGH / LOW signal.  There are a lot of devices - push buttons, proximity sensors, hall effect sensors, etc that output a digital signal. These devices can be connected to any of the Digital I/O pins (0-19).

Push Buttons

Push Buttons are momentary switches - they work as a switch when they are being pressed.

How do we connect a Push Button as a Digital Input? - if you are finding this part heavy to understand, You can skip this whole portion and scroll below to the Working with the On-Board Push Buttons section,   ;)

This is how we would connect a normal switch.  In this case, when the switch is being pressed, we would get a 1 and when the switch is not being pressed we would get a 0 at pin 7. However, This 0 does not correspond to a LOW logic level it rather corresponds to a disconnected line.  Also, in this case, when the switch is not being pressed, there is a chance of the un-connected lead picking up noise and triggering false signals.  Though this will work, this is not a good way to connect a switch as anytime we connect a digital input to a microcontroller, we need to ensure that the input provides a well defined HIGH / LOW signal at all times. So, Let's Modify this...

Now, Lets add a resistor as shown. In this case, when the switch is being pressed, we would get a 1 and when the switch is not being pressed we would get a 0 at pin 7 and both these are well defined states. This configuration of connecting a switch is called the Pull-Down Configuration. This still has a small dis-advantage. Look at the following image

A disconnect in the circuit will lead to the Pin 7 reading 0 as in the first case and our program would be under the impression that the user has not pressed the switch. We can prevent this by changing our connection as follows

In this configuration, when the switch is being pressed, we would get a 0 and when the switch is not being pressed we would get a 1 at pin 7 and both these are well defined states. This configuration of connecting a switch is called the Pull-Up Configuration.  Lets see what happens when a disconnect happens in the line as follows

A disconnect in the circuit will lead to the Pin 7 reading 0 as in the previous case. In our program the switch would appear to be pressed. However, we can deduce that the switch is being pressed for a abnormally long time and raise an error accordingly.

In  the Induino R3 board, We have made used of the internal pull-up resistors of the ATmega328 to connect the push-buttons in the Pull-up configuration.

Working with the On-Board Push Buttons

Lets see how we can work with the On-Board Push Buttons on the InduinoR3. There are 3 Push Buttons on the Induino R3 connected to pins 7, 8 & 9. These are configured to use the Internal Pull up resistor of the ATmega328.  For your understanding in this configuration, The Push Buttons will give a high signal by default and a low signal when the button is pressed. Enabling the internal pull up on the microcontroller will keep the corresponding pin HIGH unless the button is being pressed. When the button is being pressed, the corresponding pin will go LOW.

Debounce

The internal contacts of Buttons / Mechanical switches rebound when released leading to what is called a bounce. When a switch bounces, it can trigger a false signal during the process. We can correct this effect in our code. This correction is termed debounce. There are also hardware based debounce techniques available. You can read more about Debounce Here

Lets Build a Simple Button Based Toggle Control for a LED. When the Button on pin 7 is pressed, the LED on pin 13 will toggle state.

digitalRead(pin number) => digitalRead() function will read the current state (1 or 0 ) of the given pin number.

Heres the code for this...

/*   Induino R3 User Guide - Program 2.0 - LED State Toggle using Push Button */  
 
int state = 0;

void setup()  
 {  
  pinMode(7,INPUT_PULLUP); // declare the Button as INPUT pin with internal Pull up enabled
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);  // declare LED pin as output pin  

 }  
 void loop()  
 {  
  if(digitalRead(7)==0) // check if the button is being pressed
  {
    state =!state; // toggle the state variable
    digitalWrite(13,state); // write the value of the state variable to the led
    while(digitalRead(7)==0); // wait for the switch to be released - Part of Debounce
    delay(40); // give some time for the switch to settle back to normalcy - Part of Debounce
  }
 }  

Now Lets try and add the Button to increment our Binary Counter.

/*  Induino R3 User Guide - Program 2.1 - Button controlled Binary Counter
This sketch increases a 3 bit number every time a button is pressed by the user and shows the output on 3 LEDs   
 */  
 int i = 0;  
 void setup()  
 {  
  pinMode(11,OUTPUT);   // declare LED pins as output pins  
  pinMode(12,OUTPUT);  
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);  
  pinMode(7,INPUT_PULLUP);// declare the Button as INPUT pin with internal Pull up enabled

 }  
 void loop()  
 {  
  if(digitalRead(7)==0)  // if the button is pressed  
  {  
   if(i<7)        // if counter value is less than 7 or 3 bits  
    i++;        // increment counter value  
   else           
    i=0;        // reset counter to 0  
   int a=i%2;      // calculate LSB   
   int b=i/2 %2;     // calculate middle bit  
   int c=i/4 %2;     // calculate MSB   
   digitalWrite(11,a);  // write LSB 
   digitalWrite(12,b);  // write middle bit  
   digitalWrite(13,c);  // write MSB  
   while(digitalRead(7)==0);  // wait till button is released to avoid incrementing the counter again  
   delay(100);         // small delay to avoid debounce  
  }  
 }

Thats It For This Part! Enjoy... and feel free to drop us an email with questions you might have -> info@simplelabs.co.in

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