Need ideas for school project

[Bally]

Hi,
This is my first time posting. I am doing a project for my microcontrollers class and we work pretty much with basic stamp 2(parallax) and 555 timer chips and such. We have access to stepper motors etc and other stuff thats not too expensive.
I browsed through the nuts and votls website and also through the magazine but everything seemed a little too complicated or expensive.
Do you guys have any ideas of what I could build?
Any information will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance..<p>
Bally+

[bodgy]

If your stuck for ideas, then have a look at things/situations/hobbies that interest you and go from there.<p>Complicated - often things aren't as complicated as they seem, it is just the way they've been described or the way in which one has read it. <p>Off the cuff some bog standard ideas using 555 timers.<p>Bedtime reading light dimmer.
Rain detector.
Auto night light.
Flashing LED for a display stand/brooch/bike rear light constant brightness thingo.<p>Stamps.<p>See the Earth science book from Stamp - downloadable - nothing in there is expensive or that complicated- though some of the coding explanations do need a re-read.<p>Alarm of some kind.
Pretty display for some flashing LEDS - I recall that N&V had something like this a year or so back for Crimble time.<p>There are many others.<p>bodgy

[Dimbulb]

how about interfacing a 24 bit A/D
The project measures voltage to 6 1/2 places but the LCD display shows 5 1/2 digits accurately.

[Bernius1]

I saw in a Manhattan office (and plan to build)
the following item:
A ceiling fan , mounted on the wall, with very
thin blades. On the blades are a series of LED's.
The blades (2 or 4??) rotate, and the LED's blink
in time , so that you see a floating image of a clock,with the hands, lines ( not numbers),and the one I saw had "space invaders" crawling around the periphery. High RPM, so blades are
'invisible'.

[bodgy]

I have come up with the ultimate Stamp project - I would say this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but that may not be too appropiate.<p>How about a toilet roll level warner? Nothing more I hate than suddenly finding myself in a 'lack of depth' predicament at a crucial moment.<p>Now you could have the sensor as either a weight sensing device or perhaps a infra led set at a certain height above the cardboard roll level then when weight or depth goes below the preset - hey presto a buzzer, flashing light and electric shock to wherever you feel appropriate. <p>You could of course institute a turns counter for this - though you'd then have to program in the roll capacity.<p>I'm full of good ideas - Can't wait to see the patent for this and available in the Innovations catalogue.<p>I'll accept 20% of fees for the idea the rest is yours!<p>bodgy