We recently had an email from a scientist at a major US university with some interesting questions about Thermochrons. Here are the questions and our answers.
What happens if the temperature is higher than the ranges listed on your website?
The range for the DS1922E (TCU) is 59°-284° F (15°C to 140°C) and for the DS1923 (HC) it’s -4° – 185° F (-30°C to 85°C).
The loggers will not record any readings higher than the limits. While they may not break if you go slightly over, the readings will just show a ceiling where the temperature sits at the highest range. If the temperature is significantly above, the logger will likely be damaged.
For the DS1923 Hygrochron, does the logger still track humidity outside of the listed temperature range, or do both the temperature and humidity tracking capabilities stop outside of the temperature range?
Both will stop outside the temperature range.
What software comes with the loggers?
No software comes with the loggers by default. Some fairly terrible free software is available, or you can try eTemperature, which is the software we have developed at OnSolution over the past 10 years. It is refined and waaaayyy easier to use that the free download.
I understand your website as saying I need to have a USB reader kit to get data off of the loggers and set them up. If I have three different loggers, do I need three different USB readers or is it OK to just have one for all of them?
One software and reader kit will work with every logger.
I see that the loggers are “water resistant” but wanted to know what happens to them if they are in an environment with too much water? I will be using the loggers to track the temperature (and hopefully the humidity) of a drying cycle, so the environment is going from wet to dry on the time scale of minutes and hours. Would you recommend I get the waterproof capsule? And if so, does the waterproof capsule inhibit the DS1923’s ability to log humidity?
Unfortunately, we have not had much luck with people monitoring a drying cycle without using the waterproof capsule. More often than not, it damages the logger after a few cycles. The only way to effectively monitor this is by using the waterproofing capsule. As you said, this will inhibit humidity monitoring on the DS1923.
Lastly, what is the approximate shipping time for these loggers to get to the USA?
We have plenty of the loggers in stock in Australia, and an order would be shipped out same business day. Generally, shipping time to the US is around 4-6 business days, depending on how fast customs clears the shipment.