latched on/off momentary w/ brake kill

Thanks for the replies oldspark. I didnt realize this was going to be as complex as it has turned out. A few of the replies even have verbiage and diagrams I dont fully understand. I am trying to stay away from 2 buttons and latching switches. One button for on and off and a brake switch backup off. I do believe you are right that a PIC is what we need to accomplish exactly what I want. I have never worked with them and have none of the equipment to do so. What would someone charge me to program one and send it to me in a plug and play fashion?

Maybe $20 if it were a school project. Otherwise I'd assume $hundreds as a contract job. There are a few cheap PIC circuits or kits at mp3car.com from people that have developed dome light dimming solutions ($20-$40). They could be reprogrammed....

Is there anyone on this forum that has the PIC equipment and could program one for me?

I'm currently working on a pretty important project for a customer that is supposed to be done by Friday (I'm not sure if I'm going to pull it off).  Once I get that project done if you are still looking for someone I can do it.  I would do it for cost of parts plus shipping - typically around $25.  This would include the AVR microcontroller (no PICs, sorry), circuit board, power supply, necesarry current limited I/O, with a detachable Molex wiring harness. Kevin Pierson

Wow! Excellent - not that I am the OP, I'm just wowing! IMO AVR is much better than a PIC etc. FYI - I went the AVR-uPC Audrino route in part because it was cheaper ($35) than other PIC/PICAXE solutions on the market ($70), though also largely due my familiarity with older uPCs (68HC11, 6502, 6511 etc) and thinking that was easier than learning PICs. But maybe the biggest reason was uPC (AVR etc) can do just about anything whereas PICs are limited to their features and program space (though I may go the 8-pin PIC route for some simple project like this and dome/LED dimmers etc). AVR - FTW! And $25!! Wow!!

We use 1000s of 8 pin AVRs - mostly Tiny13s. For more advanced 8 pin stuff we use a Tiny45. Typically the Tiny45 comes in to play when trying to calculate RPM (frequency). It's hard to say if PICs are better then AVRs or vice versa - they are just different (like comparing Ford and Chevy). $25 covers the hardware parts out of my pocket and I donate my time for assembly and programming to help out the community!Kevin Pierson

WOW is right. Thank you so much Kevin! This task done the way I wanted was a bit out of my league it would seem. Let me know when you are finished up with what you got going on and we can go over the details and make sure we are on the same page. This is why forums are so great. This one specifically. And to think I thought it was great just for the diagrams...

I sent you a PM kevin

My other project is starting to wind down - why don't you post up, in detail, exactly how you want the system to work and I can start planning it out in my head.Kevin Pierson