RTC & Microcontroller design help

[Dan Marz]

Are you interested in a part-time design project working from home or
can you point me in the right direction?

I need an inexpensive RTC / controller that can be programmed to switch
a low power circuit at regular times of the day on selected days, during
the year. Also considering daylight saving time to make things
interesting. It will be used in remote locations, so it needs to be set
(pre-program) and forget.

I have looked at various pre-assembled RTC / Microcontroller boards but
these are expensive. Unit price is an issue as I need quite a few.

The design needs to be from the ground up, unless someone knows
otherwise. My weeks of searching has not come up with a practical
solution yet. I have a background in electronics but not microcontroller
design or programming.

If someone is interested in a bit of extra pocket money email me directly.

Any pointers is appreciated?

Daniel
Northbridge NSW

Direct reply to:
medcirc@tpg.com.au

 

[David L. Jones]

Dan Marz <medcircDELETETHIS@tpg.com.au> wrote in message news:<3fb07a8f@dnews.tpgi.com.au>...

Are you interested in a part-time design project working from home or
can you point me in the right direction?

I need an inexpensive RTC / controller that can be programmed to switch
a low power circuit at regular times of the day on selected days, during
the year. Also considering daylight saving time to make things
interesting. It will be used in remote locations, so it needs to be set
(pre-program) and forget.

I have looked at various pre-assembled RTC / Microcontroller boards but
these are expensive. Unit price is an issue as I need quite a few.

The design needs to be from the ground up, unless someone knows
otherwise. My weeks of searching has not come up with a practical
solution yet. I have a background in electronics but not microcontroller
design or programming.

If someone is interested in a bit of extra pocket money email me directly.

Any pointers is appreciated?

Daniel
Northbridge NSW

Direct reply to:
medcirc@tpg.com.au

Hi Daniel,

How accurate to do you need the timing over the course of a year?
Drift of the RTC may be a problem in a remote location, with
temperature extremes and diffcult access, so make sure any solution
has a low drift RTC if you need the accuracy.
Dallis Semi have a nice low drift RTC module (DS32KHz) +/-1 min/year
over full temp range.

Any micro teamed with one of these RTCs would do the trick. Cheap and
simple. Could easily run from batteries too.

If you have the electronics skills then learning to program a micro
should be pretty simple. Something like a BASIC Stamp or PIC-AXE are
simple to program for beginners.

Regards
Dave

 

[Alex Gibson]

"Dan Marz" <medcircDELETETHIS@tpg.com.au> wrote in message news:3fb07a8f@dnews.tpgi.com.au...

Are you interested in a part-time design project working from home or
can you point me in the right direction?

I need an inexpensive RTC / controller that can be programmed to switch
a low power circuit at regular times of the day on selected days, during
the year. Also considering daylight saving time to make things
interesting. It will be used in remote locations, so it needs to be set
(pre-program) and forget.

I have looked at various pre-assembled RTC / Microcontroller boards but
these are expensive. Unit price is an issue as I need quite a few.

The design needs to be from the ground up, unless someone knows
otherwise. My weeks of searching has not come up with a practical
solution yet. I have a background in electronics but not microcontroller
design or programming.

If someone is interested in a bit of extra pocket money email me directly.

Any pointers is appreciated?

Daniel
Northbridge NSW

Direct reply to:
medcirc@tpg.com.au

One or two of the futurlec boards should do the trick.
dallas rtc + choice of pic or avr or 8051 or 68hcxxx
http://www.futurlec.com/DevelopmentBoards.html
http://www.futurlec.com/BasicControllers.html
http://www.futurlec.com/ATMegaDevBoard.shtml
plenty of space on this one to mount optocouplers
and a few relays or six

http://www.futurlec.com/ATMegaControlBoard.shtml this may be a good one for you, have a couple here I'm starting to use for robotics / small projects

Their head office is
2 / 136 Broadmeadow Rd,
Broadmeadow,
NSW 2292
Australia , warehouse / facilities in Thailand

could do it just as easily with a simmstick board or two
from dontronics.com with either pic or avr
http://www.dontronics.com/

I'm sure if you want to buy a hundred or more
of any board you would get a reasonable discount.

Alex