Portable or stand alone data loggers. What's your application?
The need to monitor and document temperature and humidity has
created a huge market for chart recorders, and data loggers. One
segment of this market is the portable data logger. This useful
tool is being deployed in the transportation industry and
building engineering in ever increasing numbers. They are
battery powered, waterproof, and rugged. One manufacture
describes them as, "small, paperless, lightweight,
battery-powered, electronic monitoring devices used for data
acquisition." They can be programmed to collect temperature
samples every few minutes, and at a later date downloaded into a
computer where the data appears as a chart for archiving or
printing.
The portable data logger is a relative recent innovation made
possible by the computer industry that has driven the
miniaturization of computer chips and other components. The
portable data logger can be made as small as a couple of inches
in width and length so that they can be placed in a basket of
strawberries to monitor the temperature changes while in
transit. Tracking the temperature changes in merchandise being
transported by trucks has until recent years been impossible.
Some fleets were equipped with chart recorders but the results
were not satisfactory.
Advances in battery technology have also contributed to the
improvements in the portable data logger. Data loggers that can
operate in the field for up to five years without a battery
change are now available which makes long term monitoring of
remote locations possible.
Increasing government regulations requiring the documentation of
temperature and humidity for safety and quality assurance
purposes, are driving more and more industries to use chart
recorders and data loggers. Expect to see the portable data
logger employed in increasing numbers as the price comes down
and new uses are found for this very useful tool.