"Richard Smith" wrote in message ...
....
I've programmed in Basic. Access to devices / ports - hadn't thought
about it being that convenient and tailor-made.

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I can't claim credit for the idea, it was the engineer's suggestion when we
(Unitrode / Texas Instruments) wanted to design and operate evaluation
boards for new user-configurable ICs from customers' unmodified laboratory
computers, which at the time were typically former office desktops and
laptops running Win98. We started with Visual Basic but quickly found that
it lacks the hardware control instructions of QBasic, and Windows polls the
printer port to detect newly attached devices. DOS + QB give full read/write
access to the I/O address space, interrupted only to update the clock.

The only change to the computer was setting the BIOS to boot from a DOS
floppy if present, else to Windows. The same can be done with a USB flash
drive using HPUSBFW. FAT32 USB flash drives are big enough to store programs
and large data files without access to the NTFS internal drive though older
FAT32 hard drives could handle either DOS or Windows, up through XP.
https://www.handheldgroup.com/knowle...ble-usb-drive/

The computer boots normally with the flash drive removed and you can read
any data log files the QB program created, such as cycle intervals which
might increase when the sample began to stretch, and indicate the point of
failure if you can't otherwise sense it.

I had previously assembled one-time computer to hardware interfaces with
added plug-in boards, a purchased digital I/O card and a 16 bit A/D
converter for the Macintosh that I designed. The printer port and DOS/QB
method turned out to be easier for relatively simple tasks. I'm also very
familiar with relay ladder logic controls if you choose to go that way.

Do you have the equipment or machinist friends to consider custom machining
as part of solutions? I couldn't do nearly as much without my lathe and
milling machine.