The project will evolve, which makes it difficult to define. But I understand the importance of trying to define it before beginning, so here goes:
The entire system will reside in a space about 15' x 8' x 7', with plenty of nominal 12V (7V - 15V) power available. Sensors, switches, and control will be distributed throughout this space. The control components will reside in a ventilated, heated, but not cooled environment. I expect temperatures between 5°C and 60°C are possible.
Phase I
- Completely customizable touch screen interface maybe 6-14", stupidly high definition not required
- Main controller attached to touch screen, capable of talking to everything else in the system
- 3-6 current sensors (0-75 mV shunt, best possible accuracy
- 4-6 point analog voltage monitoring (0.005 V accuracy)
- 10 analog temperature monitoring (0.5 °C accuracy) (could also be digital single wire if cheap sensors exist)
- 10 digital inputs
- 4-8 PWM LED outputs
- 2-4 PWM outputs to control variable speed fans
- 10+ miscellaneous digital outputs
Phase II
- Add second touch interface, capable of controlling anything the main interface can
- GPS logging
- GPS navigation (OSMAND) on second touch interface
- Read CAN bus interface
- Add 4 humidity sensor inputs
- 4-6 PWM servo outputs
Phase III
- 4-6 HD video and audio recording 10 hour loop (if possible... haven't done the math for storage requirements)
- Interface with speakers (of some sort) for audio playback, don't need to be stupidly high quality
- Write CAN bus interface
- Remote server I/O through cellular data interface
So, as you can see if I get all the way to Phase III I'm beyond the scope of a simple microcontroller development board...