Electrical – Resetting a microcontroller with a button connected to Vcc

debouncepowerreset

I would like to have a way to reset my PIC by removing power from the chip. My hacker self thinks that the simplest way would be to add a resistor between the output of my LDO and Vcc on the PIC, and then add a button between GND and after the resistor. To avoid any potential issues with switch bounce, I figure I could add a cap in parallel with the button and a resistor in between, like this: (ignore component values, those are the defaults from the editor)

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Is there anything seriously wrong with doing it like this? I'm trying to keep it simple and not require a bunch of components.

Best Answer

You'll suffer variable voltage drop depending on load current. It doesn't look too elegant.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Figure 1. Power cut button.

How about using a normally closed pushbutton? Switch bounce isn't a problem. The circuit will just reset again.