Total newbie looking for hardware suggestions to expand on existing project

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everyone.
I'll just start out by saying I've had very little exposure to Arduino hardware and have zero programming skills.
I've played with Picaxe in the past and have modified some existing code to tailor my needs but other than that I'm a total noob; although I have spent several days working my way through the reference material on the site.

I'm looking to expand on a device I've built but need some hardware suggestions. The device is a simple counter which is triggered off of a signal from a PIR (infrared sensor). Quite simple really, the sensor sees motion and sends a signal to the counter which keeps track of how many people have passed by. I've added a reset button as well but that's all part of the counter circuitry.
Here's the counter I'm using
And the PIR kit

What I'd like to do is add an SD card to the device so that every time the sensor sees motion it will, not only increment the counter, but log a time/date stamp to the SD card in the form of a .txt file I can open in Excel.

The concept seems simple enough but I'm not familiar with all the Arduino hardware and dont know enough about the platform to pick and choose parts on my own. This is where I need some help choosing the right parts (assuming this can be done realistically and affordably).

Also, from a programming standpoint how hard would this be to code? I have zero programming skills but there's a few guys here at work that are savvy with C+.
I shouldn't say I have zero programming skills. I am able to look at code and understand what it's doing and modify certain aspects of the code to suit my purposes. What I cannot do is come up with an idea and start from a blank page writing code.

...so I guess that's pretty much zero skills.

Thanks in advance!

2

There are several vendors selling microSD breakout boards - have a look around for these, there are also several SD libraries - search these forums? Should be similar projects to learn from.

3

Welcome to Arduinoworld,

Buy this - Data-Logger Shield for Arduino - It contains a RTC (real TIme CLock) and a SD card writer. The example code shows how to log a temperature sensor, that should be replaced with a PIR sensor.

The RTC is important as you have a time reference of your measurements. If you write the data in the format
time, counter stands for Carriage Return aka a new line
time, counter
time, counter
etc
you can read it into Excel and make beautiful graphs.

Succes

4

I would still need the Arduino Uno to plug that data logger into right? Once plugged in does the Uno stay with the stack for the remainder of its career? In other words; if I were to make a few of these devices would I need an Uno for each one?

Also what about this one from Sparkfun

It's a bit spendier but it sounds like this eliminates the need for a programmer. Could this be used as a standalone data logger?

I just need it to write a time/date stamp each time a input pin goes high from the PIR. This would happen once a minute during peak hours of the day and not at all during the nights.

5

Note that you will have SIGNIFICANTLY more control with an UNO + the ADA shield. If you find that you're getting false positives / want to change the cooldown time / want to add a laser / more cowbell ETC, you will be happier with the Arduino + shield.

Sparkfun also sells nice black cases for the Uno that would makeit a nice clean package, and the ADA shield will fit on top while it's cased.