Here’s the first chapter is a new series of articles on measurement devices or sensors: How to go about choosing them with care.
I originally wrote this as a single article for the November 2006 issue of Sensors Magazine. It was edited by their staff editor at the time and she did a wonderful job of helping get the best out of my thoughts and experiences.
Later, I began a series of 12 articles based on this original for the Industrial Automation Newsletter published by SensorsMag. I expect to complete the series with the twelfth story, early in 2009.
This article and the balance of the series are online, as of December 2008, at www.Sensormag.com. They are reprinted here with links to the originals as a series and with the kind permission of the publisher of SensorsMag.com, Questex Media Group, Inc. Is is modified slightly in format to make it more readable on these Web pages.
Selecting a device to measure a physical property, such as temperature, can be a confusing process. But shortcuts and inattention to detail can get you into a real jam. Here, in chronological order, are the steps I try to use most of the time, especially when the measurement is really important.
The underlying concept is akin to the carpenter’s maxim: Measure twice; cut once.
1. Establish Measurement Span or Range Requirements
Find out your measurement range and any allowable variations. Many vendors specify accuracy or uncertainty as a percentage of measurement span. Be sure you understand what those specs mean. Many suppliers play fast and loose with the definition of terms as used in their literature. Some do a better job. And yet others omit some of those critical to your application: effects of ambient temperatures, especially the residual temperature coefficient; response time constant; or effects of vibration, radio frequency interference, or magnetic fields. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, like this week, I found two new education resources on the Web that have a distinct focus on measurement. I’ll describe the first below because it has an extensive reach and is a widely used resource in Elementary & Secondary education.
The first find, Fourier Systems, was an accident during through a search for an image to illustrate the dataloggers used by Green Edge Systems in their wireless monitoring systems for food service, hospital and pharmaceutical organizations as described in a recent story on TempSensorNEWS.com. They utilize basic wireless broadband loggers from an outfit called Fourier Systems Ltd.. Their website proclaims:
The Data Logging ExpertsFourier Systems is a worldwide leader of compact portable data logging devices and accessories for the industrial market.
Digging a little deeper brought me to the realization that this apparently UK organization is an offshoot of Fourier Systems (1989) Inc., a completely different organization based in Orland Park, IL in the good old US of A. Imagine that!
Their self description reads:
Fourier is foremost an education company, with 95% of business coming from the education market. We are committed to improving student achievement and providing students with tools and skills that are critical for the 21st century.
It continues:
Fourier is widely recognized as one of the most innovative companies for education-centric solutions. The Nova solution line, comprising tablet PC and clamshell design options, are truly unique solutions providing a complete learning environment and representing a trusted brand customers can count on. Our partners are world class organizations including Dell, CDWG and a host of local Ingram resellers. Nova was designed for education and includes Fourier’s award winning MultiLogPRO data logger built-in.
Now that Nova device and the built-in datalogger sounds to me like the inroad into some serious measurements. And it is.
Turns out that the Nova products and much more can be combined, as Fourier has done, into a radical approach to science learning through a web site called Science-On-Line-ExperiNet.
Their website describes them as:
The world’s first fully equipped e-Learning laboratory that is completely automated and controlled through the Internet. Science On-Line’s patented remote laboratory facility allows students of all ages to perform real scientific experiments while surfing the Web.
Most interesting is the bottom line on this last site visited. It reads:
The ExperiNet Center is brought to you by FOURIER SYSTEMS, the worldwide leader of compact portable data logging and computing devices and accessories for the educational market. FOURIER’s popular science kits for biology, chemistry, physics and environmental studies are sold in over 25 countries worldwide. FOURIER is dedicated to elevating the standard of scientific learning by continually introducing new and innovative ways of making scientific studies more exciting for today’s digital generation. www.fourier-sys.com
It’s not clear from the three websites visited just how well the Online educational products are doing, especially given the recent competition from OLPC and others in the same marketplace. But I heartily commend their forward-reaching efforts. It looks like Fourier is doing its best to keep the two or three areas of their expertise seperate and distinct and the fact that they now have a seperate organization doing the industrial sales from Israel clearly separates them.
It’s worth noting that measurement devices and sensors supported for the Nova product line alone and sold into the education market by Fourier include:
While following a web lead the other day I found these most interesting measurement publications on sale at the PTB web site in Germany. Here’s some of the text and an image from their pages.
Monograph series of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) Braunschweig, Germany - The monograph series serves to present subjects which ensue from, or are closely related to, the activities of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) The National Metrology Institute for Germany. These subjects relate not only to metrological issues but also to the various aspects of the physical and technical research work undertaken by the PTB and its sister institutes.
The content and form of the volumes – which are published in German or English – allow for the variety of the tasks and subjects.
The following volumes are available in bookshops:
* Herausforderung Metrologie (in German)
Die Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt und die Entwicklung seit 1945
Author: Dieter Kind (NW-Verlag, 2002) Read the rest of this entry »
He’s not alone, many teachers are using the Web, but Steve seems very adept and progressive in the things he does. We need to encourage such efforts and help promote them, I believe. Spotlighting them whenever possible is one way, I can help.
He’s involved in a contest on a Website called Instructables.com. I propose that anyone interested in science education would learn a thing or two by visiting this website and do a good turn for a very deserving teacher and help further his educational goals by voting for it.
Note the link to several free, online software programs available for such instructional and personal use. Even the comments to his information page provide links to more free technical PC programs.
Here’s Steve’s description of what “Cheap, Easy Light Probe” is and does:
I teach high school physics and I use a lot of expensive probeware to collect data. The only reason I can do this is my school has been collecting the probes over a number of years, building our collection slowly over time. For those who aren’t science teachers, probeware refers to a collection of interfaces used to connect a variety of sensors to a computer or graphing calculator. These interfaces can allow for real time data collection and graphing or can serve as data-loggers collecting data over time.
Deming Vs Dilbert: Teacher & Student Irrationality
Physicists are not gods, nor are they always right. I’ve learned that hard lesson many times over while both working for and learning from some noted and not-so noted physicists and trying to act god-like in my own encounters with geeks of any persuasion (I admit to being one, too).
Doctors of Medicine fall into the same category, yet that’s another story or three…later.
There’s a few experiences on physicist encounters of the first kind that I’d like to share.
First, I have to say, I have met many Physicists who were incredibly brilliant and also down-to-earth people. Same thing with Medical Doctors. But even exceptional people have feet of clay like my own, I think, at times.
Bottom line: we all can act like idiots sometime, again proving the Dilbert hypothesis that we all do, sooner of later. It’s truly a human condition. Read the rest of this entry »
I believe one of the most ambitious and potentially rewarding International programs in Computer literacy is the One Laptop Per Child initiative that began in Boston. It has been shipping the XO laptop since November 2007 and I think their updates are worth a report, at least every now and then, to our visitors. Here’s their latest
From The update One Laptop per Child Vol. 4 No. 27 July 6, 2008
Deployment
Rollout Update: Since November 2007, OLPC has shipped nearly 400,000 laptops. Better than a quarter of those machines went to donors who participated in the G1G1 program. Simultaneously, OLPC has been working with countries to prepare for their donee XOs, many of which already have been received. The two largest rollouts, Peru and Uruguay, account for nearly half of all units shipped to date, but have yet to receive the bulk of their orders. Read the rest of this entry »
For those of you who do not know Dilbert, you have been missing some of the wittiest and most humorous satire about American organization work life and technology ever published. It is the creation of Scott Adams, a talented observer and cartoonist.
It is loved by most hard-working nerds and underlings who work in large organizations, especially those who work for poor and or uncaring bosses. Many have survived such experiences, but few forget them.
It is a part-time model for symptoms of idiocy in corporate life in far too many organizations in the USA, and doubtless elsewhere now with Globalization. Too many people identify regularly with certain Dilbert themes and situations! Adams has a limitless wealth of situations available! Read the rest of this entry »
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Recently, like this week, I found two new education resources on the Web that have a distinct focus on measurement. I’ll describe the first below because it has an extensive reach and is a widely used resource in Elementary & Secondary education.
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