Thank for the info,
I'd like to make this on a breadboard and then move it to a home-etched pcb.
While a uP development kit would speed things up considerably, I want to understand HOW each step interacts with the one before it.
From the input pulse -> advancing the counter-> displaying the result -> then reset the display by the user(me).
From the input pulse -> capturing the date/time stamp -> storing the data -> retrieving the data -> making sense of the data (displaying it on a PC) -> then rest the stored data by the user(me)
Additional things I'd want to try;
- From the input pulse -> gauge the speed of the input pulses and depending on upper and lower values, have the uC light up a series of LED's based on the input pulse speed (slow=green,medium=yellow,fast=red) <-- this LED sub circuit might be realized by a single red/green 3 pin LED to reduce uC pin outputs.
- using both hardware and software, create two different methods of multiplying the input pulse (by software, 1 pulse advances the memory count by 2 or by hardware split the input pulse into a second delayed pulse to create the same effect.)
I have decided to use a PIC 18F4520 as the uC to facilitate the USB interface option and still have enough output pins to drive both a 7seg LED display(x4 displays = 11 pins), SD card (4-6 pins), LEDs (power and frequency leds = 3 pins