PIC Based Home Security

hi all,

first of all i would like to apologize for being a complete noob when it comes to microcontrollers. im quite familiar with electronics, but just recently started research and purchase of a PIC16F88 and programmer.

i was wondering if i could get any tips, or help with a security system that could monitor a small room with a few input sensors (motion detecting, magnetic door switches, relays that activate different things upon certain detections etc...) and used a passworded keypad, with an LCD display.

something similar to this:
Mondo Technology - Pic Projects
is any of that doable with just a single microcontroller?


any help will be appreciated.
XxShadowxX

I'm pretty new at this myself, but I'm sure you could make a security system withen reason with one microcontroller. There may not be a tutorial on exactly what you want, but just look up tutorials on each component and put them together. For example theres a few on laser beam detectors, and a lot on sounding a buzzer. If you can understand them both you can surly make a device that goes off when a beam is broken.

Do like everyone does and start simple. Learn to blink an LED and read a switch. With that you can detect when a window or door opens and drive a relay. The more you learn the more you can do.

The first step is to figure out if you want to learn to program in asm, basic, or C.

From there you need to pick a set of tutorials and work through them. Or you may pick the language based on the tutorials you can find.

There is a lot of help here for ASM C and some swordfish basic.

3v0