RobotCity Workshop
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Twitter Ticker project
I won't have any classes until Spring B session begins at DeVry, so this a great opportunity for an 8-week design project. My project is called Twitter Ticker and consists of a microcontroller-based scrolling LED display that will display tweets recieved from a connected computer. I would like to put the ticker on my desk to display what I am up to when I am not in my cube (in meeting, at lunch, in datacenter, etc).
I am still in the initial design phase and need to make key design decisions. I have opted to use either PIC16 or PIC18 series microcontroller. I choose this over AVR microcontrollers as I already that several PIC dev kits and the PICKit2 & ICD2 debugger/programmers. I am continuing to evaluate whether PIC16 or PIC18 is the best choice. My intention is to code the project in C using the MPLAB IDE.
The project requires serial communication with an Internet-connected host computer. The simplest approach would be to use a standard RS-232 interface with 9-pin DSUB connector. However, many computers these days no longer has such a port - especially laptops. It seems cumbersome to require usage of a seperate USB-to-serial connector.
Therefore, I have decided to directly integrate an USB-to-RS-232 interface. Unfortunately, I have only found SMT interface chips. I would like to use only through-hole/PDIP parts. I am novice at soldering and am still getting the hang of through-hole soldeirng. Additionaly, I would like to be able to construct a breadboard prototype first.
