It's finished ! - My homemade elevator control panel / simulator
Channel: TarzanAndConz
Date: 2010-11-21

Today i finally moved all components from my prototyping breadboard to their final destination, something that looks like an elevator control panel. After some attempts at speeding up the software i ran into the limitations of the C-Control pro system by Conrad electronics. It is just not designed for high speed serial communication at 1Mbps. Even after the program is compiled, it still runs in an interpreter which really slows things down. That's why i have decided to move onto the Arduino platform for future projects. The C-Control development board now has its permanent place in this project, giving me a chance to add the LCD to the end product as well. A new LCD is underway from Hong Kong (these things are just 7 US$ including shipping) so that will be available for future projects.
I may still add sound to this project as well, a sound module ($14 iirc) is underway and if there's enough processor time left in one of the interrupts i will add that to this panel. If not it will appear in the next version of the panel/simulator but then on Arduino. That one will feature full animation of the floor indicator and direction arrow.
For those who are handy with micro controllers: you can get your own led board from Sure Electronics (find them on Ebay) for just 14 dollars with free shipping. With just 3 wires plus ground for an SPI like serial bus you can get it to work and build your own stand-alone elevator simulator.
Other components: LCD 2x16 available everywhere on Ebay for around 7 dollars, the illuminated push buttons are by Velleman from Belgium and are about 7 euros each. Then there's a microcontroller (any type with at least 16 I/Os will do), an 8 bit shift register (74HC164) for the LCD and a few transistors and resistors for the leds in the buttons. Add a 12volts power supply, an 7805 for the 5 volts supply and you are done!
Almost forgot to mention the hours and hours you need to spend on writing the software for the controller? :P