A Guide to Portable Data Loggers
Steve Killick
Data loggers can be used to effectively pinpoint building issues and explore opportunities for energy savings projects in your facility. Portable data loggers are often used in field studies, educational science, and even by hobbyists of various sorts. If you are considering a portable data logger, it can be helpful to understand their use and functionality.
You can connect a variety of sensors with the remote data logger to gather data for remote monitoring and control. The sensors are supplied on extra cost. Sensors commonly connected include: Thermocouples , RTDs , Thermistors , strain gages, load cells, pressure sensors, event counters such as turnstiles, liquid level and many more.
Perhaps the most common application for the use of the data logger in the world today is for temperature logging. The temperature data logger is used in factories, offices, hospitals, museums, road transport, and outdoors for environmental monitoring.
Portable data loggers are utilized in lab projects for collecting data that is then manipulated and analyzed on a spreadsheet. Portable data loggers are excellent tools for facility staff to obtain a host of operating measurements from important systems and equipment like air handlers, air temperatures, motor run time, and much more.
When placed inside a unit of fresh produce (container, pallet, box, bag, etc.), loggers could record produce environmental conditions from packing right up to when the content of the unit is stacked in the retail display.
To use portable Data Loggers is very easy and no training is required. Simply plug the device into your USB port and the USB-TC01 Launch Screen is loaded from built-in memory on the device. The Launch Screen displays the current thermocouple reading and lets you configure the thermocouple type and temperature units. You can use the Temperature Logger to graph and log data.
Lots of configuration options for capturing data. Downloading the data from the GPS device can take several minutes, depending on how much data has to be transferred.
Not only can data loggers record data but they can also provide an alert. Software alarms can be configured for both temperature and humidity so as to provide a warning when measurements go out of a specified range.
Portable data loggers are becoming smaller and more economical every year. Being smaller and cheaper means that data loggers are becoming more commonly used and as a wider user range utilises them.
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