One of the uppermost priorities that technology businesses, Internet of Things (IoT) developers, and electronics enthusiasts alike need to have, is ensuring the products they create provide smooth and reliable user experiences.
Unfortunately, one problem that can arise quite often with user-facing systems – ranging from smart home devices to industrial control panels – is faulty inputs. This, in turn, can end up generating a high level of support tickets that could otherwise have been prevented.
As for what causes such false inputs, there are two particularly common culprits that we will focus on in this article: button bounce and false triggers.
Along the way, we will explain exactly what these issues are, in addition to setting out how businesses and developers can reduce them.
Success in accomplishing this will enable you to save time, money, and customer frustration.
Problem #1: Button Bounce
The action of the user pressing a button on a particular device – whether the system in question is a smart thermostat, a vending machine, or a factory control panel – should produce a single clean signal.
However, this does not always happen. A given mechanical switch may generate multiple rapid on-off transitions when operated, as a result of the physical contacts settling – a phenomenon known as “button bounce”.
This, in turn, can confuse microcontrollers or software, registering multiple presses instead of one. As a consequence, the device may behave in ways the user wasn’t expecting.
Problem #2: False Triggers
Electronics products can also sometimes be affected by electrical noise or interference mimicking a legitimate signal.
Such “false triggers” can wreak particular havoc in environments where heavy machinery is used. In such settings, Wi-Fi signals or other forms of electromagnetic interference can leave users frustrated.
Often, these users need to reach out to the relevant customer service team for the given device – thereby driving up the number of support tickets.
5 Steps You Can Take to Address Button Bounce and False Triggers
There are many good reasons why, as an individual or organisation, you should prioritise tackling the aforementioned problems.
After all, if button bounce and false triggers are common reasons for support tickets being generated for your organisation to deal with, each ticket will require time and resources in order to be diagnosed and resolved.
Plus, if customers experience repeated issues with your brand’s devices, such as their smart home hub misinterpreting inputs, this will hardly help your business’s reputation.
So, let’s outline the steps you can take to proactively address the problems of button bounce and false triggers:
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Identify The Problem
Pore over your organisation’s support tickets to pinpoint issues in relation to button bounce and/or false triggers.
Keep an eye out for consistent patterns, such as multiple registrations of a single press, or devices behaving unpredictably in noisy environments.
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Decide On a Debounce Strategy
The term “debouncing” refers to the process of ensuring a button press registers as a single, clean event – thereby eliminating the multiple signals caused by bounce.
When it comes to debouncing, there are two primary approaches: hardware debouncing and software debouncing. The former strategy, for instance, involves the addition of components like capacitors and resistors to smooth out the signal.
You might ultimately decide on either software or hardware debouncing as the best solution for your application… or you may opt for a combination of the two.
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Use A Noise Reduction Filter Calculator
If you decide in favour of hardware debouncing, you may proceed to select a low-pass filter design. This might then be followed by inputting parameters such as the anticipated bounce frequency into a filter calculator.
Also sometimes referred to as a high-pass/low-pass filter calculator, a noise-reduction filter calculator should be easy enough to find online; these tools are made available for free by various electronics suppliers and engineering platforms.
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Test And Iterate
Now, it will be time to prototype the circuit, before it is tested in real-world conditions, such as a home with multiple wireless devices, or a busy factory.
When you do subject your solution to such testing, it may become apparent that you need to further adjust the filter parameters to help achieve the right balance between responsiveness and the rejection of noise.
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Educate Your Team
Finally, it will also be crucial to make sure any engineers among your relevant personnel possess a strong knowledge and understanding of the importance of debouncing and filtering.
Particularly if your organisation is a young startup with a relatively small team, you may use free tools such as filter calculators to help train your engineers.
An Investment Well Made for Driving Down Support Tickets
Whether you are reading this as a decision-maker for a tech business, or you are instead perhaps an individual developer or even a hobbyist, knowing about false triggers and button bounce – and the ways you can begin to combat these issues – can be greatly useful.
Making good use of these tools and techniques can be instrumental in reducing costs, minimising user frustration, and lowering the volumes of support tickets that can otherwise put your team under strain.
This, in turn, can spell good news for your organisation’s longer-term reputation and growth.
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