what about making it standalone? this is one very small project i wanted to start off with, i don't want to lose a 40 dollar arduino board just for this small circuit
It's probably not worth the trouble to make a "stand-alone" circuit if you are going to use a microcontroller... That's up to you, bit I think it's really cool that the Arduino comes on a fully-functional circuit board with USB and a voltage regulator, boot loader, and all that. I might have a custom PC board made if I needed to save space or if I was manufacturing a product for sale. But for a one-off hobby project, I'm going to use the pre-assembnled board.
A microcontroller is total is overkill for blinking an LED. The "blink LED" example serves two purposes... It introduces you to programming with the simplest possible program (sketch), and it helps you to confirm that the complier is working and that you can upload your program to the Arduino. (It also assures you that the Arduino is working.)
When you take a "regular" programming class, your 1st program is "Hello world!". All it does is display "Hello world!" on the screen. Since the Arduino doesn't have a screen, we blink the LED.
Even if you already know how to program, whenever you get a new compiler (or new development system), or you are learning a new programming language, you always try to get "Hello world!" working first, before any real programming.
A [u]'555'[/u] sells for less than $1 USD. It doesn't use programming/software/firmware, and you don't need a microcontroller/microprocessor. The timing is controlled by resistor & capacitor values (R-C time constants*).
It can be used as a "one shot" or as a multivibrator (continuous oscillator).
i need to turn the led on for aproximately 1 second then off, then on for 2 seconds then off and not have it repeat.
I'm not sure I understand... If it doesn't repeat, how can it be off for only one second? ...It's off "forever" (or until triggered), on for 2 seconds, and then off "forever" again.
Or, is that a delay? i.e. It's off and you trigger it... One second later it comes on for two more seconds? For that, I think you'd need two 555 timers (or a 556, which as two 555s built into one package). You might also need a couple of "logic chips" (and-gates, or-gates, flip-flops). ...No, I think it can be done with one timer and some logic, but I can't design it in my head.
I assume you learned enough from your digital class to do that... It should be really "simple", but not as simple as copying an example sketch, if you are a beginner in electronics & programming.
- R-C time constants are not as accurate as the crystal oscillator in a microcontroller. So for example, if you are blinking once per second, and it's really important to blink exactly 3600 times in one hour, an R-C oscillator won't cut-it. You can use a cristal oscillator with simple logic circuits (instead of something like a 555), but they don't come in "slow", so you need a divider (more logic circuitry) if you're going to use a megahertz crystal to blink an LED at 1 Hz.