What kind of micocontroller should i use

[zack501]

I have two questions. First, i plan on having an led inside the air/heat vent of my car. Not the leads just the top. Will it be able to withstand the heat and cold? will it cause it to not last as long? And second. i plan on having multiple led's throughout the car which i plan to have light up in different patterns depending on what they are set to: some blinking, all blinking, some bright some dim, all bright, ect.. i originally designed the circuit to work with a rotary switch to select how the were illuminated but i would like to use some sort of microcontroller. I know very little about them but i am trying to teach myself. Could a microcontroller control several LEDs and be able to change how they were illuminated with several presets? and how would i contol it? i would like to use 2 buttons and a potentiometer. one button to turn the whole thing on or off, on to select how the LEDs are illuminated, and the potentiometer to select overall brightness

 

[Rbeckett]

I would be very careful about installing a bunch of blinking and flashing leds in an automobile. You could be cited by the local cops for creating a distraction or unsafe light display. Here in Fl if you use red, blue or orange and are not an authorized emergency vehicle you will be stopped, cited and jailed in a heartbeat. Certain colors and certain flash speeds are reserved for emergency vehicles and will get you in a ton of trouble quick. So my advice is find out if your building a trip to jail before you start. Sorry for the negative reply, but better forewarned than in jail.
Bob

 

[audioguru]

Teenagers and people who live in their car have blinking lights in them. I don't know why.

 

[zack501]

the only flashing is actually going to be blinking to the music being played and it is only one setting. i know about the distraction and light regulations. most of the settings are just for a nice accent lighting

 

[zack501]

lol I can assure you i do not live in my car. As for the teenager thing, well....lol. but I am honestly only doing it for a nice accent lighting. Its a 300m and has nicely green light gauges and it would be complimented nicely by some more lighting

 

[3v0]

Do you know how to program ? What language ?

 

[zack501]

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[zack501]

Oh. I appologize. I thought you said "don't you know how to..." not "do you..". but im trying to teach myself c

 

[3v0]

It makes sense to learn c first on a PC. Then when you do jump into micro controllers you have less new stuff to contend with. What C compiler are you using ?

 

[Rbeckett]

Cool deal Zack, wasnt trying to discourage you, just didnt want you to get hassled by the man for nothing other than that and being younger. I got kids and I remeber the hassles I had back in the day too. Just about any Micro will work well and learning C or C+ is defiantely the way to go. It will be a pretty easy deal whatever system you choose. A lot of different chips are out there, so your task is to pick a platform so you can get the most out of what you want now and for the future. Most of the patforms have pluses and minuses, but once you buy in you are kinda locked so look at the different capabilities of each platform like arduino, ATMel. PICKIT3 and many many others and decide what you want most before spending your hard fought cash.
Bob

 

[zack501]

ok thanks guys. I have a school project coming up involving an rc car and the other kids in my group want to make the car look like a police car because style and overall pizazz is part of the judging so im going to get a picaxe just to kind of understand microcontrollers in general and then look into learning the actual programing language. electronics just interests me and idk why but i love making circuits to do what i want them to. Im thinking about minoring in electronic engineering maybe even double majoring because so far my planned major is mechanical engineering. again thanks for the help