Why use home brew you could do it with a PLC of almost any brand(most likely AB or Omron) over an Ethernet network that way you could automate the whole plant and remote monitor from home. If you go with AB you can use the DF1 protocol to read the information directly off the PLC it's not difficult at all. I just graduated from college and my senior project was similar to this with some other fancy stuff such as QC and a nice HMI and SCADA system. I say for 25k you could automate your plant and control product flow. By the sounds of it that might put you out of a job. well best of luck and make sure you don't use anything home brew because when something goes wrong with the hardware you made you will be the one in court trying to explain why the valve read open but wasn't and the pressure vessel exploded.
PS. you could do it for cheaper but then you sacrifice quality and that means more repair time and down time.
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Why use home brew you could do it with a PLC of almost any brand(most likely AB or Omron) over an Ethernet network that way you could automate the whole plant and remote monitor from home. If you go with AB you can use the DF1 protocol to read the information directly off the PLC it's not difficult at all. I just graduated from college and my senior project was similar to this with some other fancy stuff such as QC and a nice HMI and SCADA system. I say for 25k you could automate your plant and control product flow. By the sounds of it that might put you out of a job. well best of luck and make sure you don't use anything home brew because when something goes wrong with the hardware you made you will be the one in court trying to explain why the valve read open but wasn't and the pressure vessel exploded. PS. you could do it for cheaper but then you sacrifice quality and that means more repair time and down time.