While loop picking up button press twice with gpiozero

Question

good morning! I've been working on some python (pretty new to the language) to control some buttons and LEDs utilising gpiozero and I've run into a few issues which I've been trying to troubleshoot and look at other posts around similar problems. I'm no stranger to programming, do most of mine today in JS, but the python syntax and loop structures is giving me some grief and I'm not sure the correct term to look-up to help troubleshoot or find similar questions posted on here... which I looked at a dozen or so to make sure I wasn't wasting anyones time.

The main problem I'm encountering is:

1. button press is getting triggered twice (and is erratic)

Erratic meaning when I first press the button, my LEDs turn on/off and then a second press _may_ turn the LEDs off, or it may repeat the on/off sequence again. Other presses, again, may turn the LEDs on (as expected) and the second press _may_ turn the LEDs off, or do the off/on sequence.

I believe the error is in my while loop, but I can't seem to figure out what I need to get the right sequence to work and would love some guidance

Here's the code I've written and a link to a video I made which shows the behaviour I'm seeing. And I do apologise for not supplying a circuit board drawing, I'm also new to this and still trying to figure how I put my current Pi and breadboard into a circuit diagram. https://youtu.be/zipFbDusaXk

from gpiozero import LEDBoard, LED, Button, PWMLED
from time import sleep
from signal import pause

## Define the buttons
static_button = Button(2)

## Model Specific LED Colour Groups
body_leds = LEDBoard(6, 5, 13, 19, 16, 26, 20, 21, pwm=True)
hull_led = LEDBoard(18, pwm=True)
left_red_thruster = LEDBoard(27, pwm=True)
left_green_thruster = LEDBoard(22, pwm=True)
right_red_thruster = LEDBoard(4, pwm=True)
right_green_thruster = LEDBoard(17, pwm=True)
boosters = LEDBoard(24, 25, pwm=True)

## Functions for button actions
def static_display():
    print("Turning Serenity on in static mode")
    body_leds.toggle()
    hull_led.toggle()
    left_red_thruster.toggle()
    left_green_thruster.toggle()
    right_red_thruster.toggle()
    right_green_thruster.toggle()
    boosters.toggle()

def leds_off():
    print("Turning LEDs off")
    body_leds.off()
    hull_led.off()
    left_red_thruster.off()
    left_green_thruster.off()
    right_red_thruster.off()
    right_green_thruster.off()
    boosters.off()

while True:
    if static_button.is_pressed:
        if body_leds.is_active:
            leds_off()
            static_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)
        else:
            static_display()
            static_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)

pause()

Answer 1

After the helpful keyword from joan, it was indeed a contact bounce and after a few attempts, here's what my loop looks like now.

while True:
    print("Started loop sequence")
    if static_button.is_pressed:
        print("Static Button Pressed")
        print(static_running)
        if static_running==False:
            static_display()
            static_running = True
            print("Static LED sequence is active")
            print(static_running)
            sleep(.1)
        else:
            leds_off()
            static_running = False
            print("Static LED sequence is not active")
            print(static_running)
            sleep(.1)
        sleep(.1)
        static_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)

This is what works, but I'm sure there's a cleaner way and I'll continue to iterate through this to see if I can clean up. If anyone has any suggestions on how this can be cleaner, or a more efficient way, I am all ears!

Thanks again joan!

EDIT a helpful comment pointed out that the above was unnecessarily complex, which I thought it might be! But I do have multiple buttons and light sequences I'm trying to setup, so for transparency sake.. Here's my full code:

from gpiozero import LEDBoard, LED, Button, PWMLED
from time import sleep
from signal import pause

## Define the buttons
static_button = Button(2)
cruising_button = Button(8)
orbital_button = Button(15)

## Model Specific LED Colour Groups
body_leds = LEDBoard(6, 5, 13, 19, 16, 26, 20, 21, pwm=True)
hull_led = LEDBoard(18, pwm=True)
left_red_thruster = LEDBoard(27, pwm=True)
left_green_thruster = LEDBoard(22, pwm=True)
right_red_thruster = LEDBoard(4, pwm=True)
right_green_thruster = LEDBoard(17, pwm=True)
boosters = LEDBoard(24, 25, pwm=True)

static_running = False
cruising_running = False
orbital_running = False


## Functions for button actions
def static_display():
    body_leds.toggle()
    hull_led.toggle()
    left_red_thruster.toggle()
    left_green_thruster.toggle()
    right_red_thruster.toggle()
    right_green_thruster.toggle()
    boosters.toggle()

def cruising_display():
    body_leds.toggle()
    boosters.toggle()
    hull_led.pulse(1.5,1.5)
    left_red_thruster.pulse(.5,.5)
    sleep(.25)
    left_green_thruster.pulse(.5,.5)
    sleep(.25)
    right_red_thruster.pulse(.5,.5)
    sleep(.25)
    right_green_thruster.pulse(.5,.5)

def orbital_display():
    body_leds.toggle()
    hull_led.pulse(.25,.25)
    left_red_thruster.pulse(.25,.25)
    left_green_thruster.pulse(.25,.25)
    right_red_thruster.pulse(.25,.25)
    right_green_thruster.pulse(.25,.25)
    boosters.blink(0.02,0.02)

def leds_off():
    body_leds.off()
    hull_led.off()
    left_red_thruster.off()
    left_green_thruster.off()
    right_red_thruster.off()
    right_green_thruster.off()
    boosters.off()

## Button Activations
cruising_button.when_pressed = cruising_display
orbital_button.when_pressed = orbital_display


while True:
    if static_button.is_pressed:
        print("Static Button Pressed")
        if static_running==False:
            static_running = True
            static_display()
            print("Static LED sequence is active")
            sleep(.1)
        else:
            static_running = False
            leds_off()
            print("Static LED sequence is not active")
            sleep(.1)
        sleep(.1)
        static_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)
    elif cruising_button.is_pressed:
        if cruising_running==False:
            cruising_running==True
            cruising_display()
            print("Cruising LED sequence is active")
            sleep(.1)
        else:
            cruising_running==False
            leds_off()
            print("Cruising LED sequence is not active")
            sleep(.1)
        sleep(.1)
        cruising_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)
    elif orbital_button.is_pressed:
        if orbital_running==False:
            orbital_running = True
            orbital_display()
            print("Orbital LED sequence is active")
            sleep(.1)
        else:
            orbital_running = False
            leds_off()
            print("Orbital LED sequence is not active")
            sleep(.1)
        sleep(.1)
        orbital_button.wait_for_press(timeout=None)
pause()

Interesting enough... if I start pushing the buttons in the sequence of the static, cruising, orbital... it works fine. But if I start the script and then press say, cruising or orbital, it errors out with RuntimeError: cannot join thread before it is started

Still more to troubleshoot... but I am further than I was this morning and I'm cool with that. :)