Help pick microcontroller for senior project

[Frankthetank360]

need some help picking out a microcontroller for my electric snowmobile senior project.   I've been doing lots of research into possible candidates but there are just so many option I've been getting overwhelmed and a point in the right direction would be much appreciated.  Basically I need a microcontroller capable of taking lots of measurements like battery level, motor armature current , RPM and temperature.  I'd also like to have an instrument cluster display these measurements on an LCD display and a few analog dials.  Also if time permits I'd like to use PWM to control the DC motor.  So I need a microcontroller with lots of A/D channels, PWM, a pulse accumulator for RPM measurments and stepper motor drivers.  Any help would be very helpful!  thanks

[bigmac]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

Here are a few considerations.

Being an educational project, I assume that your time frame will be relatively short.  To this end you would probably need to utilize an available MCU evaluation board.  In addition, you are likely to require other third-party boards containing the power electronics for the motor drives, battery power management, etc.

If your display requirement is more complex than can be accommodated by a simple 2-line or 4-line alphanumeric LCD display, perhaps you should consider a laptop computer to provide a more elaborate graphics display.  This would also provide the capability of handling the Bluetooth short range wireless communications, if this is really a requirement.  Communications with the laptop could be by means of USB, or even RS232 serial communications (using a USB to serial adaptor lead).

You would need to be aware of the sampling rates required for the various sensors, as this may influence the MCU speed requirements if very rapid sampling is necessary

Make a detailed list of all the currently envisaged I/O and peripheral requirements.  You will need to ascertain whether this need can be satisfied by a single MCU.  If not, maybe multiple MCUs will be required, or perhaps external A/D converters, etc.  You would then need to decide how these would communicate with the main MCU.

You will also need to choose between 8-bit or 16-bit MCU type.  This choice may be dictated by the complexity of the required processing, and processing speed requirements.  Keep in mind that some of the 8-bit types also have a 32-bit (Coldfire) equivalent, with identical peripherals.  Another consideration may be whether the MCU can operate from 5 volts, or is restricted to a maximum of about 3.3 volts.  This may be influenced by the requirements of the majority of the external peripherals and sensors.

For a relatively complex project, the choice of the optimum MCU type is not a simple matter.

Regards,

Mac