Needed Info before I begin

Projects General Guidance
1

good evening, I will be starting my first arduino project shortly, but I am not sure what to buy. Here is what i wish to accomplish: 1, power up a stepper motor in a specific starting position,given an input (dry contact closure or whatever) drive the motor for about 1.5 seconds or a specific number of steps. 2.delay the start of the driver for about 10 seconds. 3.have the units all powered from batteries.
some notes. this will need to be energized for approx 20 minutes total. it only needs to happen once on command. i would like to integrate some status LEDS into it eventually. The motor will need to rotate a 5lb piece of (wood ?) 180 degrees. So my questions are as follows:

  1. Is this too much for a stepper motor? I will also be using some sort of chain and sprocket reduction.
    2.which products does anyone recommend, processor,drivers etc?
    3.is this possible with the ardunio family of products
  2. eventually i would like to control it using the android platform and make changes to some parameters if need be. is this possible?
    I will be ordering some books on these products if you think I am on the right track to learn the needed code.
2

My projetct Rotaing Plant Stand is very similar in scope to what you are looking to do.
Have a look at it. Basically you need an Arduino, a stepper motor and an H-Bridge.

3

Thanks, I'll have a look at it. Any Idea how big of a stepper motor i might need?

4

The stepper I used works for my project which is moving a 3 or 4 pound plant. http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9238. I'm not sure how you calculate how much weight a motor can move. Maybe someone else can answer that.