Well my project will basically be nothing more then working with LED's, separate controls for each. The project will consists of a Beer Pong table (what better project to tackle as a young man) ;D
I'll have LED's (10 probably) spinning around a wash cup on each side, then I'll have the triangles on each end with cups and I haven't figured out what design I would use with LED's yet in that area but I know it will be there. Then I'll have another set of lights running like runway lights along the sides, everything will be controled in the middle(side) of the table by a judge with push buttons or switches.
So basically the LED's that will have different light schemes around the wash cup will be on one processor, the ones on the triangle LED's will be on another and the runway will be on a third possibly. Maybe I will have enough space on ONE chip for my program, but highly unlikely.
The thing is that this is my first attempt to play around with PIC's and electronics in general, so its going to be a slow process/project. I bought the Arduino and I'm experimenting before I start working on the table itself. Need to get my programs ready first. The problem will be once I take my processor off the Arduino, how do I get it to work without that board? Do I just hook it up to a bread board, are there other boards out there that are similar to bread boards that I can just solder everything onto? I'm looking for something cost effective I guess, buying 3-5 Arduino's for a small project would be a little expensive. :-[