I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps someone can point me to the path.
I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all). Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some resources to learn up on it.
I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about support - if that's really an issue.
What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a single serial connection for some really basic stuff.
My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly sketchy on it's specs.
So if someone was just getting into PICs is there a good book to buy? A concise website designed for the newbie? Anyone have opinions about going the Stamp/MakeThings route for my application? I've read a number of the PIC vs Stamp emails in the forum already but knowing WRT my applications would be more helpful. Any resources you can point me to would be very helpful.
Thanks,
-Jeff
So any suggestions about