Internet of Things, Arduino/Netduino: Counting the closure of a switch
Counting things and then storing them for later use in data analysis requires a bunch of things. One of the main things is that the number of times a switch closes is an important data point for many categories of work: manufacturing, retail, physical security and safety to name a few.
It seems simple, a switch closes and you count that as a 1 so that the variable switchclosure = switchclosure + 1; or does it? Well in the physical world of mechanical things, magnetic fields, chemical interactions, a switch closure might be a number of things. One of the things it might be is a “bounce”. The switch could function in response to a physical movement of a rocker against a metallic contact that then connects to another metal plate. Easy. Oops, what about if the metal contacts touch and then bounce from the other surface breaking contact for a few milliseconds. And then contact again, breaking contact, contact and so forth. Those are all switch closures. Let’s say there were 4 bounces on each switch closure that was counted as, wait for it…switch closures!
Do those count as switch closures? Do they? Well, they could, but in the instance in which I am writing this, they are 4 EXTRA switch closures. Sometimes it’s only 2 extra and other times it is 5. What do you do?
Just asking. Any ideas?
Netduino Hint:
Arduino hint
