need help with first microcontroller project

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 10:14

Hello Danny,

although your request do not come in the right contest (this forum has been dedicated to motor controls topics) I advise you to consult this link:

http://www.st.com/mcu/inchtml-pages-st7lite.html

From what you wrote, I think the MCUs belonging to this family can fit perfectly your needs. By navigating on this pages, you will find out all the necessary information to get your project done (Product selector, Application Notes, Tools for debugging and programming your device and so on...).

Please, let me know if these indications match your needs or not.

Best regards,

Tanio

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 10:14

hello all,

i am a member of a my university's race team. in a club full of mechanical engineers, i have been charged with the task of programming a microcontroller to display gear on an led readout on the steering wheel of a formula 1 car. While i have a very good knowledge of the programming languages i may need for this (computer science engineering student), and some knowledge of circuitry and electronics, i am finding myself a little lost in where to get started. I have been researching these topics for a few days and heres what i have learned.

I'm going to need to choose a microcontroller that can handle the voltage to power led's so the 8051 probably wont be able to do this, and i should look toward something like an ATMEL 2051. does this sound right?

the main goal is to run a current to the microcontroller and depending on how much voltage is sent, it will display that gear, ie. 3rd gear would be 4 volts, 4th gear 5 volts, and so on. we will be able to regulate the voltage seen by the microcontroller but i still will need a MC that has a built in analogue to digital converter. Am i correct in assuming this?

next, I was planning on writing this in C or basic and then using MPLAB to convert it to an assembly language the MC will be able to use.

and finally we were looking to just purchase a device programmer rather then build one. i was looking for soemthing that just needed a usb, no secondary power supply and came across a K128-USB flash programmer. But any input on this would be helpful.

so my questions are am i on the right track in understanding what needs to be done and the parts and products i need to get. i will be heading to campus tomorrow to talk with some professors to learn some more but any help would be very appreciated from anyone here. thank you very much for reading through everything.