Here is a collection of very powerful yet simple solutions to many problems we encounter as Embedded Systems Engineers…

Low Pass Filtering with minimal Computational Complexity
It’s extremely fast and only uses single-cycle instructions that are found in even the smallest Microcontrollers…
Simple Software Lowpass Filter – by Barry L. Dorr

Switch and Pushbutton Debouncing
This is a fantastic writeup with efficient software and hardware debouncing solutions complete with example waveforms. Jack Ganssle of The Ganssle Group is a respected source of embedded information and has decades of industry experience.
Software and Hardware Debouncing – by Jack Ganssle

The Decibel

Decibels become incredible useful and important when discussing electrical circuits that are relevant to signals, amplification, frequency, filters, any kind of signal conditioning and data aquisition. In other words getting useful analog information into our computational systems, which we should become masters of given our desire to be good embedded systems engineers. Unfortunately decibels also cause some major confusion because: They use math that we may not be 100% comfortable with, their purpose is not clearly visible until you have used them (the infamous chicken and egg problem of learning – that we need to learn it to see it’s strength but have difficulty learning something that we don’t understand its strength and applicability) and that there are multiple applications and definitions associated with decibels. No wonder it’s hard until you know it, then once you know it it’s easy. Welcome to the life of engineering, the constant struggle of not knowing things =) LOL.