AVR-Chat

> LED's are in use at the moment, but useless under nominal lighting
> conditions. Bright daylight.

There are a variety of very bright daylight-visible LEDs on the market.
Some output hundreds of mcd in only tens of milliamps. 

Consider this option - arrange six high output bi-color (red-green) LEDs
in a line. Use the PWM capability of the MSP430 to drive each of them.
As the indicator "rises", first the LED begins to glow green, then
becomes a brighter green, then the PWM begins to introduce red. As more
red is proportionally added, the color changes from green to yellowish.
At 50/50, the LED appears yellow. Then, as the indication continues to
rise, the light begins to appear more and more orange, then red. 

This would have sort of a "VU meter effect" and would be very good for
at-a-glance readings. All functionality could be achieved on-chip.

A quick Digi-Key search returns a high-output red/green LED in a 5mm
case, the Lite-On LTL-293SJW. It outputs 90mcd red, 40mcd green -
intensity will look about the same due to varying spectral sensitivity
of the eye when both are run at 20mA. They are $0.37 each and there are
thousands in stock - might as well pick up a few and try them. At that
price, even if it doesn't work, it's not much invested!

Dave