Main Control Board

The Arduino micrcontroller package was chosen as the main control board for this project. The Arduino was chosen for the following reasons:

• Inexpensive - Arduino boards are relatively inexpensive compared to other microcontroller platforms.

• Simple, clear programming environment - The Arduino programming environment is easy-to-use for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users.

• Hardware Capabilities - The Arduino is based on Atmel's ATMEGA168 microcontroller. This controller has the all the capabilities required to complete this project. The processor specifications are listed below.

The ATMEGA 168 microcontroller has teh following specifications:

• High Performance, Low Power AVR® 8-Bit Microcontroller
• Advanced RISC Architecture
  • 131 Powerful Instructions – Most Single Clock Cycle Execution
  • 32 x 8 General Purpose Working Registers
  • Fully Static Operation
  • Up to 20 MIPS Throughput at 20 MHz
• High Endurance Non-volatile Memory segments
  • 16K Bytes of In-System Self-programmable Flash program memory
  • 512 Bytes EEPROM
  • 1K Bytes Internal SRAM
  • Write/Erase cyles: 10,000 Flash/100,000 EEPROM
  • Data retention: 20 years at 85°C/100 years at 25°C()
• Peripheral Features
  • Two 8-bit Timer/Counters with Separate Prescaler and Compare Mode
  • One 16-bit Timer/Counter with Separate Prescaler, Compare Mode, and Capture Mode
  • Real Time Counter with Separate Oscillator
  • Six PWM Channels
  • 6-channel 10-bit ADC in PDIP Package
  • Programmable Serial USART
  • Master/Slave SPI Serial Interface
  • Byte-oriented 2-wire Serial Interface (Philips I²C compatible)
  • Programmable Watchdog Timer with Separate On-chip Oscillator
  • On-chip Analog Comparator
  • Interrupt and Wake-up on Pin Change
• Special Microcontroller Features
  • DebugWIRE On-Chip Debug System
  • Power-on Reset and Programmable Brown-out Detection
  • Internal Calibrated Oscillator
  • External and Internal Interrupt Sources
  • Five Sleep Modes: Idle, ADC Noise Reduction, Power-save, Power-down, and Standby
• I/O and Packages
  • 23 Programmable I/O Lines
  • 28-pin PDIP
• Operating Voltage:
  • 2.7 - 5.5V
• Temperature Range:
  • -40°C to 85°C
• Speed Grade:
  • ATmega48/88/168: 0 - 10 MHz @ 2.7 - 5.5V, 0 - 20 MHz @ 4.5 - 5.5V
• Low Power Consumption
  • Active Mode:
    • 250 μA at 1 MHz, 1.8V
    • 15 μA at 32 kHz, 1.8V (including Oscillator)
  • Power-down Mode:
    • 0.1μA at 1.8V

More detail can be found in the Datasheet.