Photon > Push Notifications: Too Sensitive! [SOLVED] (floating pin)

Troubleshooting
1

Hi Folks…

I’m building a photon to push notifications system using pushing box… it works great up to a point…

The problem is the push button is supposed to be connected to D1, which is imposible to do as touching D1 with anything metal sets it of… even when not connected to the ground… even my finger sets it off and i get push notifications like crazy??? So i have no idea how i’m suposeed to connect a button to this…

Any ideas why?

Heres my code.

int inputPin = D1; //push-button pin
int val = 0; //variable for push-button status
int state = 1; //variable for on/off state
int led = D7; // integrated LED

TCPClient client;
char reply[512];

void setup() {

    pinMode(inputPin, INPUT);
    pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
    Serial.begin(9600);
}


void loop() {
    val = digitalRead(inputPin); //read the state of the push-button

    if (val == LOW) { //if push-button pressed
        state = !state; //reverse on/off state
        delay(250); //primitive button debounce
        Serial.println("button pushed!");
        digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // Turn ON the LED pins
        notification();
    }
}


void notification()
{
  if (client.connect("api.pushingbox.com", 80))
  {
    out("GET /pushingbox?devid=XXXXXXXXXXX  HTTP/1.1\r\n");
    out("Host: api.pushingbox.com\r\n");
    out("User-Agent: Spark/1.0\r\n");
    out("Content-Type: text/html\r\n");
    out("Connection: close\r\n\r\n");
    //DEBUG_PRINTLN("Closing Connection...");
    in(reply, 3000);
    Serial.println("Complete");
    //
    digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // Blink LED
    delay(250);               
    digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   
    delay(250); 
    digitalWrite(led, LOW);  
  }
      else{
        Serial.println("connection failed");
        digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // Pulse LED Quickly
        delay(100);               
        digitalWrite(led, HIGH);    
        delay(100); 
        digitalWrite(led, LOW);    
        delay(100);               
        digitalWrite(led, HIGH);    
        delay(100); 
        digitalWrite(led, LOW);    
        delay(100);               
        digitalWrite(led, HIGH);    
        delay(100); 
        digitalWrite(led, LOW);   
    }
  //
}

void out(const char *s)
{
  client.write( (const uint8_t*)s, strlen(s) );
  //Serial.println("Writing");
}

void in(char *ptr, uint8_t timeout)
{
  int pos = 0;
  unsigned long lastTime = millis();
  while( client.available()==0 && millis()-lastTime<timeout)
  {
  }  //do nothing
  lastTime = millis();
  unsigned long lastdata = millis();
  while ( client.available() || (millis()-lastdata < 500))
  {
    if (client.available())
    {
      char c = client.read();
      //DEBUG_PRINTLN(c);
      lastdata = millis();
      ptr[pos] = c;
      pos++;
    }
    if (pos >= 512 - 1)
      break;
  }
  ptr[pos] = '\0'; //end the char array
  while (client.available()) client.read(); // makeshift client.flush()
  client.flush();  //for safety
  delay(400);
  client.stop();
}
1 Like
2

Try setting the pin mode to INPUT_PULLUP rather than INPUT

1 Like
3

Cool… thanks so much… i thought it would be something like that! Should i put a resistor between the button and pin?

4

INPUT* puts the pin into high impedance mode, so there will (virtually) no current be flowing --> no additional resistor required.

In OUTPUT mode, you’d need to limit the max current.

What you experienced in your original post is called “floating pin” - have a search how often this was asked before :wink:

2 Likes
5

Thank so much!

1 Like