New project / advice for parts needed

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yigiter007
 
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New project / advice for parts needed

Post by yigiter007 »

I apologize in advance if I post this in the wrong section or if there is a better section to post this to.
I saw the micro touch product but it looks discontinued or abandoned, correct if I'm wrong. I want to make a similar project for a wearable screen device with apps or programable functions. Any suggestions for micro controllers and DIY kits. I'm a newly graduated electrical engineer with little programming experience, but willing to learn and research any options. I'm skilled in building and designing and circuit design and building.

A list of functions/features I want for my project:
A screen (touch if possible)
Temperature sensor
GPS
Notes
Calendar
Music player

If anyone with micro controller / DIY experience can give me some ideas and suggestions on what to buy to get started and what to research and learn so I can get started would be much appreciated. If I get this project off the ground I'll be sure to post finished products and progress on my project. Thank you to anyone who is willing to help.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: New project / advice for parts needed

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

That's a pretty large feature set, so you'll want to break it down into pieces. Here's a list of products that correspond to the features you've listed:
Yigiter007 wrote:A screen (touch if possible)
http://www.adafruit.com/products/335
Yigiter007 wrote:Temperature sensor
We have a whole bunch of those:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/374
http://www.adafruit.com/products/385
http://www.adafruit.com/products/386
http://www.adafruit.com/products/391
http://www.adafruit.com/products/393
http://www.adafruit.com/products/992
Yigiter007 wrote:GPS
http://www.adafruit.com/products/746
Yigiter007 wrote:Notes
Calendar
These are both features that lean more toward software than hardware, but you'll need storage space for the data. The TFT breakout has a built-in SD card slot, but you may want to expand beyond that.
Yigiter007 wrote:Music player
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1381

Learning to use any one of those is a project in its own right. I'd suggest starting with an inexpensive temperature sensor (http://www.adafruit.com/products/374) and using that to get familiar with the programming tools and environment.

The biggest challenge you'll face involves processing resources. Most microcontrollers only have about 8k of internal memory, which puts limits on the amount of code-intensive work you can do.

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yigiter007
 
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Re: New project / advice for parts needed

Post by yigiter007 »

Thank you for the reply, Which micro controller would be good to combine some or all the functions together? I was looking at the micro touch, but that isn't an option at the moment. I was hoping to make app based interface. If not an app based one a simple multi menu one works too.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: New project / advice for parts needed

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

To get all those features on a single device, you'll need more than the 8-bit microcontrollers in most development boards. That rules out all but three common options: The Arduino Yun, the Beaglebone Black, and the Raspberry Pi.

All three are full-scale Linux computers, each about the size of a credit card.

The Yun is a hybrid microcontroller/microcomputer.. two chips that communicate through a bridge. The microcontroller can handle real-time electronics and pass messages to the computer side. IMO, it's one of the first examples of what computing will look like in the mid-range future. It's brand new though, so we're all still learning what to make this awesome piece of kit do.

The Beaglebone Black probably has the most advanced hardware.. its designer, Gerald Coley, works creating development boards for Texas Instruments. I think this is about his 25th board. In some ways it's a showcase for TI technology, but that means it uses the hardware well. It's a powerful board, but probably has the steepest learning curve if you want to get down to the hardware level.

The Raspberry Pi is the device that kind of defined the product category.. the original $35 credit-card-sized computer. The design team had to make some serious tradeoffs to hit that size and price point, so the RasPi probably requires the most careful handling of the three devices. It has an enormous and active development community though.


I won't make any statements about which one is best because any such comparison would be false. They're all excellent devices, they're all affordable, and for your purposes they'd all serve about equally well. Take a look at the product pages:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1498 - Arduino Yun
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1278 - Beaglebone Black
http://www.adafruit.com/products/998 - Raspberry Pi

and get the one that appeals to you the most. You'll learn what the general category of devices can do as you work with your first one, and that knowledge will allow you to make a more refined choice if you decide another will suit your needs better down the line.

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yigiter007
 
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Re: New project / advice for parts needed

Post by yigiter007 »

Thank you for the quick and detailed replys. This will make my decision a lot easier and now I have a place to start from. I'm sure anyone who want to dive into this can look at this forum and gain some knowledge like I am of where to start and parts to use thank you. I'll start by getting one of the micro controllers and doing the tutorial projects then start my project. I'll post updates on my project each milestone. Thanks again.

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