PIC KICK TWEET !

This is an Instructable showing you how to integrate Twitter in your embedded application. Watch this Instructable in Action http://www.instructables.com/id/PIC-KICK-TWEET-1/

Working: A desktop application is created with ease for grabbing the latest tweet from your twitter account. The application then forwards the tweet to the serial port to which the embedded device is connected. A firmware is written to capture the tweet sent by the application. The tweet is displayed on the 16x2 CLCD on the embedded device.

Stuffs your need to complete this Instructable with ease:

1. A Workstation with a USB port.
2. Internet connectivity for the Workstation.
3. A Twitter account from which the tweets are to becaptured.
4. Processing IDE for creating the desktop application.
5. MPLABX IDE with C18 compiler for writing the firmware for the microcontroller.
6. A PIC KICK development board from www.entesla.com.
7. Enthusiasm.

For Beginners I would like to brief you to about Processing, MPLABX and PIC KICK....

Processing (or processing.org as known on the web) is a an opensource programming language and environment for people who want to create animations and interactions with a variety of devices and other applications with ease. Initially targeted at artists and designers with no prior programming experience for prototyping, today it is also used by students, researchers, hobbyist and  even professionals to rapidly prototype their ideas by making desktop applications without breaking a sweat. The language is itself based on the popular programming language Java but you need not know Java to start Processing. Processing runs on Windows® OS, MAC® OS and Linux.

MPLABX IDE is a graphical, debugging toolset for all of Microchip's product line of microcontrollers and memory devices.It includes a feature-rich editor, source-level debugger, project manager, software simulator, and supports Microchip’s popular hardware tools.Based on the open-source NetBeans platform, MPLAB X runs on Windows® OS, MAC® OS and Linux, supports many third-party tools, and is compatible with many NetBeans plug-ins.

PIC KICK is an embedded system development board by ENTESLA for Microchip’s 40 pin 8-bit microcontroller. It is a low cost kick start board designed to help professionals, students and amateurs to explore the capability of PIC16, PIC18 architecture and practice application development for various interfaces with minimal hardware reconfiguration. It features a USB-Serial converter on-board, leds,buttons,16x2 Character LCD, Analog Input using a potentiometer and USB. It comes pre-programmed with the ds30Bootloader which makes it easy to program via usb-serial port. And yes.. you can power it using your workstation's USB port.

Step 1 Setup your Twitter

1. If you already have a twitter account jump to the developers page for twitter at https://dev.twitter.com/  If you do not have a twitter account create one and jump to the developers page.
2. Sign In to your twitter account from the developers page.
3. Create a new application as shown in the image.
4. Describe your application to twitter.
5. Goto the Settings tab. Under Application Type select Access type to Read,Write and Access direct Messages. Wait for a couple of minutes and check if the change has been reflected in the Details tab.
6. Twitter uses OAUTH authentication protocol for authenticating applications before they access a twitter account. More about OAUTH at https://dev.twitter.com/docs/auth/oauth/faq
7. Once the Access type has been changes Create Access tokens for the application under the Details tab.
8. It may take a moment to generate the Access tokens. Once created, goto the OAUTH tool tab to find the keys that you need for authenticating the application that you will be making it the next few steps. Copy these keys to your notepad. Do not share these keys with others.

Download the attached images to clearly view the steps mentioned above.

The most critical step is done now. You now need to create you application before you can start accessing the tweets!