We now have a low cost USB temperature and humidity logger. At $110 it is more expensive than the Thermocron or Logtag humidity loggers, but has the benefit that you don’t require a reader to plug into a PC. This device will plug directly into the USB port of a PC.
So if you are only logging one or a few locations, this is a good solution.
The logger itself looks and feels like a good quality unit. It has a small display to show the current temperature and humidity as well as a push button start. The tripod mount is an odd feature, but when you see the other loggers in the same family (more information to come on these) you see why it’s there.
The logger is reusable and has a replaceable half-AA battery. It’s accuracy makes it acceptable for HACCP but the Thermocron and Logtags offer better accuracy.
The software is adequate for most users. It doesn’t have many of the features that you would fine in eTemperature or the Logtag software, but it is free software. You can view results as a graph or table and save them for later recall. It has a zoom feature for the graph but we did find it initially very frustrating to use and you do have to read the manual to work out how to do it. But it does the job.
We have been testing a number of cheaper units coming out of China. Most of them have a very flimsy feel to them, with poor software and no support. As I said, we liked the quality of the hardware. The software is sufficient. And we support it locally so hopefully you will find the support very good. So over all, it’s a good unit.
We are expecting this unit to be popular with places that only need to monitor a single location or have a one-off type project that they need to do.