move a step motor at the right time

[hippy]

WOW. I will try anyway, I love chalenges... Well, I will learn as much as I can, and maybe if you could help me with doubts along the way I would count on it.

2 Timers would be good, I could also think about setting how much food to dispense. What do you mean about a hadful of digital I/O, I though of 6.
It would be nicer to use a LCD, but the seven segment would work as well. Is the LCD so hard? What other option would I have?

Thx for your help man.

 

[Rusttree]

I'm not much of a display guy, so I can't help too much with LCDs and such. I know they're not too complicated, but I've never done one before.

I'd definitely recommend sticking to 7-segment LEDs at first. You're going to be learning a lot of basic concepts and 7-segment LEDs are about as simple as you can get. You can learn about more advanced displays once you have everything working.

Just to get you started, try the PIC16F887. It's a bit overkill for your needs, I think. It's got 3 timers and a mess of digital I/Os. As well as a bunch of other peripherals like ADC and PWM, which you won't need for this project. After you're more comfortable with PICs, you can pick out a smaller one that fits your needs better.

 

[hippy]

Intersting! I thought I had to start with a smaller one. But I will check this one out.
Would you mind to keep on helping me along the project? Maybe by email?
Thank you a lot for all this you have passed to me on the forum.

 

[Rusttree]

That's what this forum is for. As you come across more questions, continue to post them in this thread. Future beginners will benefit from your questions and the solutions people help you find. Also use the search tool in the forum to find previous posts that may help as well.

 

[hippy]

thx again.
Just to start, What should I buy to save my program into the PIC?

 

[Rusttree]

Read the first link, "Introduction to PIC Microcontrollers" in the Gooligum tutorial I gave you the link for. It discusses what you'll need to get started. What you're asking about is under the section called "PIC Programmers".