External device control/monitoring

hiya, my friend and are trying to make a digital dashboard for a truck. i have had quite a bit of experience with VB, but never done any thing with external devices.

this will just need to be a standard app, running on a laptop.

the lapy has a Serial/Com port and USBs (duh') and all of the devices are just standard sensors that need an Ohm reading and 5volts to trip a relay.

the program will have stuff like a speedometer and control over several valves to switch between fuel tanks. (other stuff may come later, but i would just like to start small and build from there.)

all i really need for this is any input you may have on device control/monitoring. i just wanted to give you some context as to what it would be used for, any help would be greatly appreciated, and i will be sure to let you know how it is going.

Just so I understand the question;

You're creating a dashboard that will display on the laptop. You want to output 0/5V signals to control relays to switch between fuel tanks. You want to display the speed on the laptop screen (can you explain what kind of sesor you have for measuring the truck's speed?)

Have I got the general idea here?

totally! you've got it.

the dashboard will just be an app running and displaying on the laptop screen. i haven't got much information on the speedometer part of it, he said it was somthing like a generator (but i haven't seen it yet)

thanks

You need a piece of hardware for your laptop.

You can buy several type of A to D/ D to A cards. These allow your laptop to monitor and send both digital (0-5V) and analog voltages.

The cards come with a software library which can be called from VB.