3D Printing and Button Debouncing

The 3D printer had more lessons to teach once it was put together and working. After several successes and failures in printing, it decided Luke needed to fix some wires to keep it running smoothly. Back in action, it went to stay with Phill for awhile so he could focus on printing while Luke switched to working on the electronics and programming elements. 

Phill designed and printed a way to mount the spool of filament. 

Luke working with an oscilloscope and Leonardo to debounce buttons.

(Luke's learning about surface mount soldering. This is a tiny chip to put in place!)

If you don't know what debouncing is (and perhaps your first thought was Rabbit wishing to debounce Tigger—hey, we've got a toddler in the house) then here is a handy definition from Whatis.com:

"Bouncing is the tendency of any two metal contacts in an electronic device to generate multiple signals as the contacts close or open; debouncing is any kind of hardware device or software that ensures that only a single signal will be acted upon for a single opening or closing of a contact" (Margaret Rouse TechTarget). 

If you find your TV remote doesn't respond correctly when punching buttons, likely it wasn't debounced. Your computer keys, however, should register only the single signals as you type so you shouldn't want to throw the keyboard the way you might throw your remote.