This log will be used to document my development of an PICMicro based remote terminal.
Basically, what I want is...
... to be able to display information from my home weather station elsewhere in the house. Currently, it can be seen on the internet at Mulvey Weather Page. Obviously, however, you need a browser of some sort to be able to see it.
My goal is to make a display terminal that can be run off of battery power, and that can be configured to poll the main weather server on demand to get the latest sensor readings.
The intial plan is:
A PIC-based controller. I chose the PIC because of the availability of free development tools, and a wealth of information on the net about how to use it. It also, as one author notes, can practically run of the field from random stray electrons, and thus is suitable for battery power.
An LCD display for the data. I'll probably start out with a standard 16 character x 4 line display, and then try to expand it to a graphic LCD, so I can show graphs, etc.
A set of pushbuttons. One button will cause the terminal to request the latest weather data. Other buttons will be used to page through different screens of data.
An interface. I'll probably use either a cheap WiFi/Serial port interface, or one of the commercial 900MHz data transceivers that come surprisingly cheap and small. Because, after all, we need more devices in our house that radiate RF.
The first step is to actually learn how to develop applications on the PIC. I'm taking an online programming course at AmQRP Elmer 160 course , and purchased the PIC-EL development board also found there. I have to add that the course is VERY well done, and is a credit to John McDonough, the author.
The next step is to wait for my PIC-EL board to arrive, so I can assemble it....