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Shipping Forecast Timer using an 8 pin device

Shipping Forecast Timer using an 8 pin device

Here is a design to turn a cassette recorder on at the times of the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast. It is intended to be used at sea or on a mooring, possibly when the crew are asleep.
My Original design original design used a PIC16F84, and was relatively easy to use and quite simple in function. I decided to port my design to an 8 pin device, to make it smaller.

I do not have the ability to use custom LCD displays or use surface mount devices, so the design is limited to an 8 pin PIC12F675, using one button and LED and a sounder. So here is a design. It is still not perfect, and much more complicated than it seems.

The user is expected to set up the cassette recorder and radio to record Radio 4 as you would if you were to record it live. Use the button to toggle turn off the power.The original design turns on the radio cassette recorder when the Shipping forecast is broadcast.

However, you need to be able to set the time. The original design allowed the user to set the time by use of two buttons, NEXT and SET. You use NEXT to toggle on and off. The SET button is recessed and used to enter the Time Setting mode.



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To set the time, enter the time setting mode and enter the time HH:MM by entering each digit in sequence. Use the SET button to increment the digit, and NEXT to move onto the next digit. Finally, use the SET button to confirm the new time and set the timer at HH:MM:45. To read the time, beep out the time as the time is being set and then do not bother to confirm the entered time.

I decided to use one button and still use the beeps and LED. NEXT is done by a dab of the button and SET is done by a longer press. This is quite easy to do, but turns out to be very difficult to use.

The functions for the timer were:

Turn the cassette power on while the shipping forecast was being broadcast.
The user to review the time.
The user to set the time.
The user to update the on off times stored in the EEPROM.

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