Using a micro controller? LOOK HERE

[lasersbee]

It is a decision making machine...
You tell it what to do in a program and it follow those directions
line by line..

If for instance.. lets say you have a Push Button connected
to pin #1 of the MCU and an LED on ppin #4....
You could write a program that would say "wait for pin #1 to
go LOW (Button Press) then send a High signal to pin #4" (Turn
On LED)..
When you release the button the LED would go OFF because
the Program line is no longer True...

You can basically sense and control the outside world with a
Micro-Controller..


Jerry

 

[wbp]

I wanted to build a wireless controller for my telescope. I got a pair of radio modules (zigbee), and a pair of these, some buttons, and a couple of aluminum boxes. Wrote a program for the transmitter side, another for the receiver side. Presto - wireless telescope paddle.

Or get a nice LCD display, a thermopile, some buttons, and one of these, and make an LPM... might need to add an A2D chip to get better resolution, but there are lots of those.

If you're a beginner at micros and embedded processing, you might want to look at the Basic Stamp series as well. Lots of resources and nice development environment.
Parallax Home

William

 

[Vaporizer]

It's really to good of a deal to pass on if you have any interests in the area of outside pc control.
I have full blown C, C+ & C++ compilers too.
It's command set may be limited to certain functions, but they should be pretty versatile to do most things you'll think of even as a beginner. I'd say they also have sample programs to use so you can get a feel of what it can do from a 101 level with schematics for the hardware side.
If it can read digital(1's & 0"s) plus analog voltages there are 1000+ things you can do once you see and understand what its reading.

 

[AUTO XX]

Sounds like a hobby for the future, I just got back from spending over $500 in lathe/milling machine tools.
I gotta stop going into machining stores.....

 

[kiyoukan]

man you have just got your foot into a money pit now. and you will find you have to spend more to get out... or just stay in and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Agreed. There is also a .Net version. I just picked up the Arduino Uno, nice (faster code loading) and the USB port can do many more things....

I have a collection of Megas, Della's, Twentyten's and a Uno. Fast and fun developing. I also have a stack of shields, Ethernet, breakouts, protoboards etc to suit.

The .NETduino is really powerful too compared to the generic Arduino and its ATmega chip--roughly the same price too. I tried getting that kind of ARM power from a Leaflabs Maple, but that damn board is such a pain to work with for loading designs that it shouldn't even be associated with the "-duino" type of MCU boards. Poor driver support with Windows 7 too.