--- Sami Barakat <furiousdog@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> This year I am going to be conducting my final year
> university project. 
> I have chosen to make a device that will control
> what media is being 
> played on a computer, like an advanced remote
> control. The control will 
> connect to the computer via bluetooth. It will also
> have an LCD screen 
> that displays the currently playing track, and with
> the use of buttons 
> on the control the user can browse through all the
> media on the computer 
> and select what he/she wants to listen to. I plan to
> use a PIC 
> Microcontroller in the device to receive data from a
> bluetooth module, 
> process it then display it on the LCD screen. The
> LCD screen will be 
> fairly small (something like 20mm x 50mm) as it is
> suppose to be a 
> compact device. To make production easier I hope to
> use an already built 
> bluetooth module that will take care of the
> handshaking, pairing, etc. 
> for me.
> 
> So far I have decided to use a basic 16x2 Hitachi
> LCD Display while I am 
> developing the project, then later change it to a
> graphic display so 
> that I can implement simple bar visualizations.
> As for the bluetooth module I found some that look
> appropriate: 
> QuickBlue (http://www.quickblue.co.uk/) and the
> Bluetooth DIP Module 
> from SparkFun Electronics (http://www.sparkfun.com/
> and search for 
> WRL-08461).
> The software part of the project I plan to program
> in C# using Mono 
> (http://www.mono-project.com/) so that it will be
> multi platform. I have 
> had a lot of experience programming in C# so
> hopefully I shouldn't run 
> into any problems here.
> 
> I have not had any experience using bluetooth or LCD
> modules but I have 
> some basic knowledge using the PIC16F88.
> 
> Now that you know what I am doing here is my
> question...
> Could anyone recommend which PIC would be
> appropriate for this project? 
> Also would this project be simple enough to program
> is ASM or would it 
> be better to do it in C? Has anyone attempted
> something like this 
> before? If so what components did you use and what
> problems did you run 
> into? Can anyone recommend any good books on this
> subject? I also want 
> to try and use the latest devices to try and keep up
> with the modern 
> day. I am not asking for someone to do this work for
> me, I am just 
> trying to get an idea of where to start.
> 
> Thanks for the help
> Sami 
> -- 
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> 

  Okay essentially you have a few parts. Bluetooth,
LCD display, rs232/USB to the PC. A lot of windows
programming and the controller itself. 

You are one ambitious student. For the LCD and the
rs232 I would suggest the following.

http://www.electronic-engineering.ch/microchip/index.html
I am not sure how basic your knowledge on PIC is but
you ought to be comfortable with it.... Anyway START
early. You have plenty of reading to do!

Regards,
John


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