home automation

First off, I am an auto mechanic with beginner knowledge of VB. I have a project that I have almost completed written in QBASIC. This program interfaces with a "k8000 interface board" [login to view URL] In essence the board interfaces with the LPT1 and reads real time external digital inputs. I can generate variables that can be outputted to "MsgBox" but that is about as far as I can go. What I want is a vb program that will continuously read the data stream that is generated (I can get the data into the VB program) and update the screen with the changing data. The data will be only "true/false and on/off" . Would like to have the data displayed in a "label box" with the status of the data in this box, and have the "box" update as the data changes state. In a nut shell ,the program runs in a continuous loop, a variable changes , the change is presented on the screen in a "box". Will eventually want the program to play a "wav" files when specific conditions are met, and ideally dial out on the modem and play a "wav" file over the telephone. But for now all I want is a 4x4 grid of 16 boxes on the screan and the text "on" or "off" to come up in them when their associated variable changes. Here is a couple of lines of what I have: Do MsgBox "Read Input channel 10" If IO%(10) >= 1 Then MsgBox "Input channel 10 is ON " Else MsgBox "Input channel 10 is OFF" End If Loop This is basically what I want to happen but using "MsgBox" pauses the program until I click. Don't want it to be like that, this program will be totally controlled externally through the interface board. The only time the keyboard or mouse is used is to modify the code when the system is down, and to exit the program. I realize that testing the code will not be possible for a code writer with out the interface hardware but that is not what I expect. I can write the logic code myself (like I said the QBasic program works fine) but my VB5 skills are nonexistant except for what I have learned from my VB5 learning edition. ## Deliverables Do not expect any obligations from the code writer, just some guidance. ## Platform win98 ,celeron 500 ## Deadline information eventually will want to get wav files to be played and the telephone dailer to work.