Todd Peterson wrote:

> An '84 should work well for this project if you implement a software
> UART.

  Sorry, but have I missed something here?  Whoever *ever* said he
wanted a UART?

  I seem to see an unholy rush to offer pre-packaged "solutions" to a
task which is a quite neat and easy exercise in using *ONE* PIC to
interface to a LCD in 4-bit mode, 16 pushbuttons and a stepper motor.

  As previously discussed, you *do* need a driver of some sort to
operate the stepper.  A 50 cent ULN2803 would do fine.  It may be quite
convenient to use a specialised stepper driver, though it is dead easy
to half-step, full-step or even microstep with a PIC.

  Sure, you *could* use a SLI-OEM (which is a re-packaged PIC, is it
not?) and a matching keyboard encoder to make the PIC (or better, AVR)'s
job completely trivial.  But there is certainly no *need* to introduce
extra interface problems (such as a UART) just to make other PICs (or in
fact, AVRs) perform trivial tasks!
--
  Cheers,
        Paul B.