lukemiller.org

Updated with new Arduino code July 8 2012.

It never hurts to collect more data, and I often find myself wanting to record temperatures from a few extra animals. Most (all?) commercial thermocouple dataloggers that will record temperatures from multiple thermocouples cost several hundred or thousands of dollars. I set out to put together a relatively cheap 8-channel thermocouple datalogger based on the open-source Arduino development platform.

My 8-channel thermocouple datalogger. A single type-T thermocouple is plugged in to one of … Continue Reading

As a follow-up to this earlier post on the USB-501TC thermocouple datalogger, I’ve now successfully gotten the USB-500 software running under Windows 7, in a slightly roundabout way.

You might recall that Measurement Computing has been spectacularly tardy in updating their various software to install and run under the newer 64-bit versions of Windows (Vista and Windows 7). Fortunately, if you run Windows 7, you can run the USB-500 software in Windows 7’s Virtual XP mode, provided you have appropriate hardware and Windows 7 Professional (Home Premium and below won’t cut it) to run the virtual machine. If you do … Continue Reading

In 2008, Measurement Computing released a self-contained datalogger that will record temperatures from a thermocouple continuously.

USB-501TC

The USB-501TC will read 32,510 temperature samples, each time-stamped. It will read K, J, and T-type thermocouples, and ships with the K-type thermocouple shown in the picture. The temperature readings can be taken at a number of intervals ranging from 1 second out to 12 hours.

Under the cap you find a standard USB plug, and the housing can be opened to access the replaceable 3.6V  lithium battery … Continue Reading