Advise and direction please

[kruznlowdime]

I have been toying with an idea for a while that I want to do with in the next year and could use some advise from the experts please.
I have played with VC++ VBasic and Borland C++ alittle over the years so I have alittle experince nothig to brang about but i do have a start and I want to expand on it.
My project is kind of a data aquasition for recording temps, pressures and such on my car. I already have a aftermarket computer that I can ajust on the fly. I want to be able to monitor every thing that I need to and be able to record for future adjustments.
Now my plan as of right now is to use Digital display sending units which use a varying voltage to send to the display. I have done some reading on using printer and serial ports but was wondering if its possible to use USB I know there would have to be some sort of i/o converter to change from the varying voltage to usb but on the programing side which one would be more practical? USB or Serial?
The other question is would I be better learning C++ or Visual Basic for this project? I would like to have it look nice not just all numbers as I will be displaing it on my indash display. And would like to make it apealing to other people!

Any help or links would be a great help
Thanks
Ryan

[Jason]

well, visual basic from my understanding is mainly for a windows operating system so unless your in dash display is going to be using windows then that wont work. C++ could be used on any OS and would run fairly smooth and would also be portable as well you create the type of display you want it to have. As far as serial or USB it all depends. They are just different ports on the computer and are addressed with different numbers, I don't know much about programing and using them.


Jason

[kruznlowdime]

Thats the thing Im not sure of I know that using serial you can just address the right pin. but with USB there has to be a driver to direct which device is which on the usb chain. Correct?

[lostinjava]

i would go with usb, since with USB u can actually power small devices aswell... gives u the double of action of either pluggin a laptop in, or just a smaller device that can run off the USB charge. charge your mobile phone whilst driving etc. USB webcams are usually powered in this way.

[Jason]

I think USB is similar to that of serial in that you just need to tell it what to do. I think drivers are for the specific devices on the other end, they are needed for serial devices aswell eg: printers. Basically your program will act as the driver for the device connected. I believe that is how it would work.


Jason

[kruznlowdime]

Thanks for the help so c++ and USB sounds like the way to go no time to get on it! Thanks agian!

[Mhtml]

I disagree I would go for serial.

[obiwanjabroni]

You don't need drivers to use the USB port with your application. Essentially, what you are writing IS the driver for what you are working with (since you're writing the thing that interprets the data being sent over the port). With the tools you have with C++, it shouldn't be too difficult to enumerate all USB devices that are plugged in and to find the address of the correct USB device.

The issue with the serial port is that it's aging and rather unwieldy, as well as slower compared to USB 2.0 compatible devices. I would go with USB.

[Roy Sinclair]

Add another vote for USB. It'll be more work than doing the same with serial but serial is a dying interface while USB has a future. You don't want to spend effort now to develop something that may end up working only on older computers.