>I'm looking into an industrial application that would require reading some remote temperatures, and controlling a few motors through relays. Basically I want to build a VFP application that does "normal" business stuff, but in addition ... monitor and control (to a minor extent) some remote gear. I read a bit on the "Raspberry Pi" microcomputer, but thought that I saw some issues that pushed me away. I also found the "Arduino" ... another computer on a chip device that supported some serial communication. The bottom line on my quick review was that I could write my code in VFP faster than I could write it in Python3 or C++ (which the two mentioned use respectively), and all I really need to build myself a Programable Logic Controller ("PLC") is VFP, access to a serial port, a handful of relays and temperature probes, a big spool of wire and some electrical connectors.
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>Oh yea ... I also need to be pointed to some appropriate literature that can tell me how to make this all happen. I don't have any details on the specifics of the project, as there is no project. I thought that if I picked up some capability along these lines, that I could go out and find a project.
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>Actually I did something a lot like this many years ago in a Clipper program that I wrote to talk to a "smart valve". It needed a special board to hook up to, that got installed inside the PC that was used to run the process. I was talking over a couple of rs232 serial lines at the time, "directly" from my Clipper app.
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>Any thoughts on where to pick up info on generating serial input/output to multiple devices from my VFP code, and what to look out for once I get past the edge of my computer?
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>Bob

I agree with Lutz -- but it you really want to use VFP I'd suggest looking at relays / sensors that use TCP/IP (which would be easier to work with) rather than serial ports. For example (using Ethernet or Wifi) : http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/acatalog/Relay_Modules.html