Bereket:

I've used Rigel hardware in the past (I actually learned about the HW & SW in a course I took at university) and I think it might work for your friend's datalogger. I've had experience programming the Rigel boards in ASM and C, but they also have an Intel implementation of BASIC burned into the ROM. I've also had experience interfacing with the board through the network port in Python (www.python.org).

Using a prebuilt board with a fully supported BASIC might be the jumpstart your friend needs to finish the board within his limited timetable.

Rigel also offers grants to students for school projects; they'll provide your friend with equipment, software, and textbooks. He'll need to fill out a grant application, which is available from the Rigel website (www.rigelcorp.com). Response time (including receipt of the equipment) can be as little as several days.

Check out the website - it'll provide your friend with more information than I can give here. Good luck!

-joshua