I would start off by having a look at some of
the applications available for the PIC range at the microchip website, www.microchip.com. Since you know basic, it
might be worthwhile to have a look at the Parallax Basic Stamp device, which is,
as I understand it, a small PIC board with useable I/Os and built in Basic
interpreter. (I have never used it, since I don't use Basic and design my boards
myself.) I don't know their website, maybe somebody on the list can point to
it.
There are temperature sensors available from
Dallas, that use their 1-wire interface serial protocol. I've used it in a few
projects and it is very easy to implement with a PIC. The other variables you
want to monitor and display depend on the type of sensor you choose how you are
going to interface it to the PIC. How are you going to display it on the dash?
LCD readout? Arrays of LED's? If you need to use arrays of LED's, you can
use shift registers to output the data serially from the PIC and onto cascaded
shift registers. Another way is to use I2c port expanders (PCF8574) and
implement the 2-wire I2c protocol. The shift registers one is probably both
cheaper and easier.
It boils down to getting some background
information on how the PIC functions, how many I/O's you have available on the
different PICs, and then fit your hardware around that. All the rest is
programming, which depends on whether you use Parallax or native PIC assembler,
or even a C compiler like the $99 one from CCS. You'll need some kind of a PIC
programmer as well. I have a PicStart Plus, but probably hobbyists would prefer
a cheaper solution like the PIC16F84 programmer design floating around on the
net. I believe you'll get a lot info on that in the archives. O yes,
add the normal set of frustrations of debugging :-). But then, if it was that
easy, who'd pay us embedded engineers for making things work? And what would be
the fun in it for a hobbyist?
Cheers
Tom
"We’re not merely making a living , we are designing a
future"
MMS Electronic Systems
Tel +27-(0)12-6645696
Fax. +27-(0)12-6642682
Mobile. 0833109007
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 6:24
AM
Subject: New Member
I just got onto the list this evening and haven't had much
time
looking through the archives(need a password) and the same goes
for
doing anything with the PIC. The reason I am interested in the
PIC is
that it seems to fit the bill for what I want to do. The project
I
have in mind is making a digital automotive instrument
display(dash).
I want to display information like temp, oil pressure,
fuel, volts, speed,
RPM's and milage. I have done programming in
QBasic but none in the
PIC language. Where do I begin? What
kind of ship should I
use? A minimum of parts would be great
since there isn't much room in
the vehicle I hopefully will be putting
this
in.