I am attempting to do the following project.  If anyone has done a
similar project or part, thereof, I would appreciate any advice or
suggestions you may have.

Specs
-----
1.  Sense presence of card using some sensor.  Tell 16c84.

2.  Suck card into slot using stepper motor controlled via 16c84.

3.  Read Magnetic card strip.  All 3 tracks. (not sure whether to
    do in ttl or rs232).

4.  Feed data to pic 16c84.

5.  Store data in non-volatile memory chip - 500K to 2Mbytes.

6.  Eject card using stepper motor controlled via 16c84. + do not
    activate sensor on way out (or ignore it).


Questions
---------
0.  How difficult/feasible is this project?

1.  Which parts to use and where to get them:
    stepper motor, sensor, memory chip, card reader (or head).

2.  Which format to feed data from reader to 16c84.  ttl or rs232.
    advantages/disadvantages.

3.  Whether it is possible to feed so much data to 16c84.
    ie. all 3 tracks = 350 characters.

4.  Whether it is possible to store 500K to 2Mbytes on a memory chip.
    4a. Which chip?  (ie. EEPROM, NV-SRAM? + manufacturer)
    4b. Do I need to use i2c protocol to make it serial?

5.  Can 16c84 write to memory chip using i2c protocol?

6.  What is advantage of using 16c84 rather than other PIC m/c.
    (apart from EEPROM advantage?)


About me
--------
This is my second PIC project, so I thought I'll just jump in the deep
end.  My first project from Maplins (GT04 project), didn't work.  (Got
some smoke coming from a transistor!)

Please explain everything in detail  (especially references to
sites/components/code etc.), as I'm new to PIC.  Understand
digital electronics as have Computer Degree, but new to Analogue
electronics.

Thankyou for your help.

John.
ujsec@wmin.ac.uk