Thermocouple to USB Temperature Measurement

by **Grant** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:46 am

Just got this in my e-mail this morning from Omega...

http://www.omega.com/pptst/UTC-USB.html

...might come in handy for those of you that want to do some temperature measurement from a PC instead of a meter etc.

by **gscace** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:17 pm

Cool idea. Accuracy spec is pretty poor at +- 2C (3.6 Deg F). Dunno about reproducibility. but the accuracy is unsuitable.

-Greg

by **OkcEspresso** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:35 pm

Here is another alternative that is a bit more flexible but also more expensive:

http://www.weedtech.com/wttci-m.html

They also make a USB adapter for around $15 I think. You can connect up to 4 thermocouples. The accuracy is also a bit suspect. They have some windows based software which does all kinds of stuff.

http://www.weedtech.com/

by **another_jim** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:04 pm

Lascar makes some nice single channel loggers that are the shape of USB plugs, but store readings and do alarms.

I was looking at these more for roasters more than espresso machines.

by **jmc** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:50 pm

Coffeesnobs website has a very good setup for roasting and software available.

http://beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au/ViewP...ata-logger

John

http://users.rcn.com/erics/ · by **erics** on Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:26 pm

But back to Grant's original bit-o-info - thanks Grant.

I ordered one today to play with and true, their accuracy spec leaves a little to be desired. I called them (Labor Day weekend, right) and they SEEM to think the accuracy numbers are a little "messed up" and promised to get back with me soonest. Naturally, here you are dealing with the accuracy of the device itself and the connecting thermocouple accuracy would be additive.

by **Yeti** on Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:18 pm

Any update after playing with the USB TC?

http://users.rcn.com/erics/ · by **erics** on Sun Jan 23, 2011 4:10 pm

Yes - the accuracy specs are correct as published by Omega in the link that Grant originally provide. This info received in a phonecon with them a couple of months ago. Installation of the accompanying software is easy and really lends itself to use (naturally) with a laptop or netbook computer.

Ambient temperature resolution is 0.1 degrees but process temperature resolution is only 1 degree. Both values have an offset calibration that can be manually entered at any time so, it would be pretty easy to improve the accuracy of the "system". The software can handle up to 12 channels of temperature information - YIKES! and does a nice job of graphing on the screen. The chart itself can be exported in various graphics formats and the data can be exported as a CSV (comma seperated values) file for Microsoft Excel.

by **Jeff** on Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:36 am

Any feeling on repeatability as ambient temperature changes?

I was looking a the TC4 project http://code.google.com/p/tc4-shield/ and was somewhat dismayed not to clearly see how they monitored the internal junction temperature.

Edit: Looks like if these USB units only measure to 1 deg. F, I still need to keep my ancient HH506 out

by **randytsuch** on Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:44 am

Jeff wrote:I was looking a the TC4 project http://code.google.com/p/tc4-shield/ and was somewhat dismayed not to clearly see how they monitored the internal junction temperature.

http://tc4-shield.googlecode.com/svn/hardware/TC4/TC4%20V400/tc4-controller-0400-sch.pdf

If you look at the schematic, top left there is a MCP9800 to measure ambient temp of the board, to let the SW compensate for the temp of the board.

Obviously it doesn't measure the internal temps of the ADC, but it seems to work well enough.

Is that what you were looking for?


Contact Us	Legal disclaimer and copyright: This content and all its parts are copyrighted, all rights reserved. Content including all text and images in part or in whole may not be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission. Home-Barista, Home-Barista.com and related logos are trademarks of Home-Barista.com, LLC. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. By accessing this site, you agree to the terms of service. Overall speed: , current page: s, avg: s, max: s