Hello, my name's Jorge, I am an electronics engineer with experience writing firmware for embedded devices.
I took the time to read your project description, I'd like to know more details about the "laser beam" or different connection you want to track, will you handle its voltages properly? Other than that, please give me more details about the whole structure of the project:
* How do you want to retrieve the spreadsheet? which kind of information it will save?
* Do you have any size constrain?
* Any deadlines? proposed way to handle milestones?
I am thinking this could be done with a raspberry, but based on other kind of information you may have, I could consider other options and we can decide together what's best for your project.
Please contact me to talk about your project, I'd be glad to answer your questions in order to start working with you as soon as possible.
Thanks for your time.