I'm hoping to develop a fairly straightforward project. I'm looking for advice on whether Arduino is a suitable platform for the job.Some time ago I used to be able to program in C and can understand many of the examples provided here. I've done some electronic projects in the past.
The project is roughly:
- Countdown timer with LCD or LED display showing MM:SS on the countdown. After countdown completes the display will show 'stopwatch' time.
- At precise predetermined intervals activate a car horn for either 250milli-seconds or 1 second (e.g. sound horn for 250ms at 8mins to go, 1 second at 1 mins to go, 25ms at 30 seconds to go, 1second at 1 minute after stopwatch timer begins).
- provide a push-to-make button to allow the operator to sound horn on an as-needed basis.
- Provide a reset button to re-start the sequence.
Car horn will operate on a 12v battery and I'd like to package the whole thing up to work off a single 12v battery in a sealed waterproof unit.
The questions I have:
- Is Arduino a suitable platform to deliver such a project?
- Would an LCD or LED 7-segment display be easier to use (i.e. program or wire in)?
- Where would the key problem areas lie? (I've read about stable supply voltage being problematic.)
- Any general advice before embarking down the Arduino route?
Thanks.