Newbi & Pic Possibility

[Newbie!]

Hi Group,

Im looking at a Project to keep me out of trouble on a night <Grin>. Heres
what I would like to do:

Firstly to learn about Pic Programming and hopefully use this to:

Build a Project which will have either a Cat5 Network Connection and a Web
Browser on it, or a Serial interface to connect to a PC, This will Monitor
in 3 Rooms, the Temeratures and if there has been a Loss of Power. If the
Temperature gets to Hot or To cold, or if there was a loss of power My
project would either Ring a Mobile and a voice would say what condition we
had, or send a SMS. Idelly a Small LCD display in each room would tell me
the Temperature.

I would also like to be able to Monitor the Temperature and Power from A PC
Serial
Connection or Web Browser in real time, with graphs

I Know the basics about Electronics and am also an intermediate programmer,
with Visual Basic.Net

I don`t have any worries about learning new things!

Any Links or advise would be appriciated

Many Thanks
Si

 

[Tim Dicus]

Hi Group,

Im looking at a Project to keep me out of trouble on a night <Grin>. Heres
what I would like to do:

Firstly to learn about Pic Programming and hopefully use this to:

Build a Project which will have either a Cat5 Network Connection and a Web
Browser on it, or a Serial interface to connect to a PC, This will Monitor
in 3 Rooms, the Temeratures and if there has been a Loss of Power. If the
Temperature gets to Hot or To cold, or if there was a loss of power My
project would either Ring a Mobile and a voice would say what condition we
had, or send a SMS. Idelly a Small LCD display in each room would tell me
the Temperature.

I would also like to be able to Monitor the Temperature and Power from A PC
Serial
Connection or Web Browser in real time, with graphs

I Know the basics about Electronics and am also an intermediate programmer,
with Visual Basic.Net

I don`t have any worries about learning new things!

Any Links or advise would be appriciated

Many Thanks
Si

Hi Newbie!

It may be a little more than you want to spend initially, but take a look at the RabbitCore RCM2200.

http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/products/rcm2200/index.shtml

Has an Ethernet card onboard and includes a TCP/IP library. VERY SIMPLE to use! Take a look at some of the examples in
"Introduction to TCP/IP". Lots of program and data memory. Lots of I/O. Fast (22MHz).

It is about $239 for the development kit. You only need one of these!
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T041/0297.pdf
Includes the programmer, Dynamic-C compiler, and prototye board.

After that, the boards are $55 each at Digi-Key (www.digikey.com). To me, just the savings in development and programming time make
it a true bargain!

Just an alternative...

Tim

 

[Thomas C. Sefranek]

Hi Group,

Im looking at a Project to keep me out of trouble on a night <Grin>. Heres
what I would like to do:

Firstly to learn about Pic Programming and hopefully use this to:

Build a Project which will have either a Cat5 Network Connection and a Web
Browser on it, or a Serial interface to connect to a PC,

For the Ethernet connection, I have used the X-Port connected to the PIC
serial port.

Many PICs have serial ports which can be level shifted up to RS-232
compatable
with your PC Serial port.

This will Monitor
in 3 Rooms, the Temeratures

Easilly done with the A-D ports in a PIC...

and if there has been a Loss of Power.

Also easy via a digital port.

If the Temperature gets to Hot or To cold, or if there was a loss of power My
project would either Ring a Mobile and a voice would say what condition we
had, or send a SMS.
SMS?

Idelly a Small LCD display in each room would tell me the Temperature.

So you are now proposing a PIC per room...

I would also like to be able to Monitor the Temperature and Power from A PC
Serial Connection or Web Browser in real time, with graphs.

A visual basic solution on the PC.

 

[Merlin]

Hi,

Thnaks for your reply, in answer to your questions (Yes), tho im a lost as
to where to start?

What Pic Programmer would you think i would need? What Software and PIC
chip?

Could I use a VB program and interface to the Pic on the Project via maybe a
IP address?

What would I use if I wanted to upload a HTML web page to my project to
control it?

I`ve got loads of time available so learning is not a problem.

Many Thanks
Si