AVR-Chat

I have both AVR STK-500 board and AVR ISP mkII in-system programmer.
I know some electronic science, C language but no microcontrollers. Now I'm
reading AVR book "programming, customizing AVr microcontrollers" which I
bought in Amazon. I'm going to use AT-Mega8535 chip.
My idea is to design electronic timer to rain my garden driving two
electrovalves. It's necessary calendar which covers 7 days; I'd like raining
my garden twice a day.

What do you suggest me to start ?

1- to having experience on stk500 board or directly building simple circuit
with breadboard using ISP programmer ?
Other suggestions please ?


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