Exhibit Programming Help

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1

Hello - We are a company that builds mechanical and electrical exhibits. We have been using PIC Microcontrollers however, our latest venture will require more complexity and hence more control power. Wondering if Arduino will be a good match for us?
Project outline: 6 variables that users have control over (rheostats), 2 forms of feedback to users (servo's driven arrows) - then layered into all this 4 rotary encoders that the users interact with. Each encoder will also have an LCD screen for feedback depending upon speed of encoder. Feedback given to user is dependent upon a combination of rheostat and encoder inputs.
2 questions:
Is this too complicated for Arduino?
If not, is there someone out there with sufficient experience with such complicated controls that we can hire them to help us or at least pick their brains?

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks
KidZ

2

That doesnt look complicated not even for a small PIC, maybe you need a lot of pins, and some smart programming, but having 2 lcd's, one for each encoder seems a bit silly..

3

That doesnt look complicated not even for a small PIC

And even if it was they do make big PICs so you could stay with the PIC family if you want.

However I'm sure we'd love to see you cross over from the dark side, on the surface this sounds like a pretty easy thing for the Arduino.

Rob

4

Just as a thought. Regarding the 4 LCD screens, you might consider running them with I2C, so 2 pins will run all 4. You just add an I2C GPIO with different address to each. Someone wrote a nice library for Arduino handling them:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hmario/arduino/LiquidCrystal_I2C/
(instructions and schematic are included in the "info" folder)
FWIMBW