Hi,
My group and I are working on our senior Capstone project, which consists of building a UV device capable of estimating sun exposure time before sunburn. We are using LPC2148 as our microcontroller (purchased the header board from Sparkfun). Unfortunately, since we are bioengineers, we are inexperienced in electrical stuffs.
Anyways, so for this project, we need to be able to input the user data (i.e. SPF factors, age, and skin type). And we need to have some kind of interface buttons (think of it like watch buttons) or any type of small interfaces that would work well with entering SPF numbers, age, and skin type. I was thinking 4-way directional button with central pressing as “enter” I would assume the connection between this interface and the board would be by pin slot. But I have no idea if I am right or not :(, so please give insights or suggestions! Any advices are truly welcomed. 
Jack and the team
Some sort of display would be a good idea. An LCD character display would be quite easy to interface. You could use a rotary encoder for inputting numerical data, with a menu system on the display, and a push button or two for entering the data.
Leon
leon_heller:
Some sort of display would be a good idea. An LCD character display would be quite easy to interface. You could use a rotary encoder for inputting numerical data, with a menu system on the display, and a push button or two for entering the data.
Leon
Yes, we do have an LCD display (we bought the Nokia knock-off from Sparkfun) and we are using Scheme for displaying characters as well as calculations. Can you suggest an easy-to-use accessory for this sort of input (an link example please)?
P.S. I emailed Sparkfun tech, and they direct me here to the forum :? So, I was thinking they do not carry the parts. Otherwise, they would suggest it. Everyone thoughts are welcome! 
ALPS makes suitable rotary encoders:
http://www.potentiometers.com/alpsencoder.cfm
What Scheme implementation are you using?
Leon
leon_heller:
ALPS makes suitable rotary encoders:
http://www.potentiometers.com/alpsencoder.cfm
What Scheme implementation are you using?
Leon
We are just starting to familiarize ourselves with Scheme language. Since our professor has worked with Hyperterminal in the past, we are going with that program. Although I found other programs such as Drscheme from University of Chicago site. What implementation do you think we should use?
Thanks!!
I don’t think there is one for the ARM. There is a LISP implementation, written in assembler!
Leon