Everytime I ask someone what I can build to learn electronics I'm told to "pick a project". I just returned from a snowboarding trip and realized controlling my iPod was a huge pain with gloves on. I want to build an iPod remote that has huge buttons and can strap onto the arm of my jacket.

Of course the long term goal would be to make it wireless (probably rf), but I don't want to make this too difficult for a beginner to build. If I could just take the initial leap to changing tracks on an iPod I would consider this a success.

Here's what I've found so far and why I still need help.
http://ipodlinux.org/wiki/IPod_to_TandA_remotecontrol_adapter

The article seems very detailed and has a great circuit diagram. I'm confident I can do most of this with a little help. I don't know much about PIC programming. Being a beginner I don't know if that portion of the project makes it "out of my league" or just an additional step in the process.

Any advice is appreciated. Should I find another project or should I not let the PIC portion of this scare me? If you believe this shouldn't scare me, any suggestions for how to start this project would be appreciated.

 

Have you done any kind of programming before? You can get a PIC demo board and programmer for about $50. I use the PicKit 2.

 

Yes. Sorry, I should have included more details about myself.

I am a c# software developer. I have never done any type of chip programming.

Which of these is the proper PicKit 2?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...f836594&itemid=360122987173&ff4=263602_263622

or

http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en023805

Also, would I benefit from the PICKit 3 instead of the PICKit 2?

Thank you for all of your help.

 

The one from microchip is what you want. It looks like the Pickit 3 has some extra stuff to aid in debugging certain chips. It lets you use all the pins of the chip and debug at the same time I think. I'm not the expert which of these is best. I got the PicKit 2 debug express and have been happy with it.

So get that and do the examples in C. The cover blinking some led's and getting input from a potentiometer.

The iPod remote sounds like a project you could use so go for it. It will take a while to get your chops to the point of making it work but there's nothing that's too hard if you put in the time to learn how the stuff works.

Sparkfun is a great resource for tutorials on setting up MCU's on breadboards and things like that. They sell breakout boards for a lot of parts (like the RF radio you want) so you don't have to build everything.

 

Excellent information. Thank you!