AVR-Chat

G'day all

I'm looking into a project for an outdoor time/temp/date giant
display (20" high possibly).

As the unit will be mounted on the side a multistory building as
I understand, I don't think the client will want to get a cherry
picker or climb a window washing lift to reset the time twice a
year to cater for the dreaded daylight time changes.

So I'm looking at 3 options:

1) Have the display connected to a computer which will be always
on with a small application that will send time and date out every
minute to the display via an RS485 link. This would take care of the
daylight saving automatically.

2) Have a plug in keypad somewhere at ground level.

3) Best option-have an off air time and date signal like the one
on my PVR. I know that in some parts of the world you can get this
kind of signal but from my research it seems to be giving way to
GPS time signal.

So my question is has anyone used some kind of receiver that is
dedicated to simply receive this kind of signal? Any experience?

Also as far as temperature reading is concerned, a simple temperature
chip on the PCB may not work because the air temp inside the case would
be much higher than the actual air temp. Again any hints on this? I'm
thinking along the lines of a small box with lots of holes and a temp
chip inside that may work well. Again I don't have any experience with
outdoor temp measurements so any guidance would be appreciated.

Of course I may not get the job but the research is interesting. :-)


Regards

John Samperi

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Ampertronics Pty. Ltd.
11 Brokenwood Place Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 AUSTRALIA
Tel. (02) 9674-6495       Fax (02) 9674-8745
Email: john@ampertronics.com.au
Website  http://www.ampertronics.com.au
*Electronic Design * Custom Products * Contract Assembly
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