Electronics Projects and PC Interfacing

[Matthew Kotys <mattkotys@gmail.com>]

Does anybody here have experience with electronics design, and interfacing USB / Serial / Parallel ports on Linux hosts?  My intent is to mess around with controlling DC/stepper motors, temperature sensors, maybe a USB <--> IR adapter for TV remotes.  I have done a few "Hello World" projects on PIC uCs, but I'm sort of bored with blinking lights in succession and triggering a piezo buzzer.  I have a basic understanding of DC circuits, but I'm not so good at peripherals and drivers.  I use C, Perl, Python, PHP, bash scripting all the time...

Maybe I would start like this:

project 1: build a USB morse code receiver, translating to text as it takes in user input

The translation software for this would be interesting to write

project 2: build a USB morse code transceiver, allowing for tty sessions entirely in morse - (funny)

project 3: rip out an LCD from an old calculator, connect it to a keyboard and a breadboard, and run a serial (or USB) cable across the room from my PC.  So, an actual (and really dumb) tty

Any pushes in the right direction are welcome, since googling tends to make the hours pass way too quickly.

-- 
Matt Kotys