[donquichotte]

I have worked with a very similar setup to prototype devices for a customer. One of the peripherals controlled was also a pump and interestingly, our interface looked almost exactly like what is being proposed here.

In terms of hardware, I can highly recommend Tinkerforge [1]. They support a wide range of sensors and actuators and can be controlled either via USB from a computer (all major platforms and many programming languages supported) or, for standalone devices, with an ESP32-based base-board called ESP32 Brick or ESP32 Ethernet Brick.

Since their products are open source (code AND schematics!) a design can be easily transferred to a custom PCB once the design is working.

Add either a web interface (native on the ESP32 or on your host computer if using a USB brick) or slap on a DearImgui frontend, and you have very powerful prototyping platform at your hands.

[1] https://www.tinkerforge.com/en/

[lynaghk]

Author here. Thanks for writing about Tinkerforge! I hadn't seen it, and it looks like it hits most of the requirements I sketched out:

- inexpensive modules: $35 USB-C master per 4 modules; $17 for 16 GPIO, $35 for RS-485, $25 for CAN, etc. https://www.tinkerforge.com/en/shop/bricklets.html

- plug and play fieldbus (TCP/IP request/response; seems like bricks have IDs from the factory https://www.tinkerforge.com/en/doc/Programming_Interface.htm...)

- excellent docs for multiple programming languages

- easy setup and logging GUIs https://www.tinkerforge.com/en/doc/Software/Brick_Logger.htm...

I'm super impressed they built a 7 person business around this concept and have been going since 2011 (all while doing their manufacturing in Germany!)