Remote Data Collection

Logger Pro remote data collection mode - Set up an experiment on the LabPro unit, disconnect LabPro, collect the field data, then reconnect and download the data into Logger Pro.

Data collection across a network - The LabPro can be attached directly to a serial port on a computer and commands can be sent and received through a terminal program such as HyperTerminal in the Windows environment. Kyle Forinash and Raymond Wisman (School of Natural Sciences, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana) have taken this one step further by creating TCP2Serial (1). The TCP2Serial package is GNU licensed software that allows a user to send commands over the internet to a LabPro (or to any other serial device). A terminal program anywhere on the internet can communicate with a publicly accessible computer with an attached LabPro and TCP2Serial running.

Vernier Software & Technology has made one such system available at www1.vernier.com on TCP port 8388. The LabPro on this port has a light sensor (5000 lux scale), a temperature probe, a barometric pressure sensor and a relative humdity sensor on ports 1 through 4, respectively. The fifth value displayed is the elapsed time from the previous sample, in this case; 0.1 second. Every connection to this computer will receive the same data.

The TCP2Serial program can be used with any interface that responds to commands in ASCII text. In Vernier Software & Technology's case, this includes all models of the ULI as well as LabPro.

Use LabVIEW for data collection - You can design a LabVIEW VI and then share it across a network using remote panels (available in LabVIEW 6.1.) To see how Vernier Software & Technology has been experimenting with this, install the LabVIEW browser plug-in (for Mac or Windows), then visit our classroom weather station. Remote panels is a client-server product from National Instruments which we are licensed for a single user and so you may need to wait while another computer is using the program. When you get to control the classroom weather station VI, you may need to click the arrow in the toolbar to start data collection.

1) K. Forinash and R. Wisman, Simple Internet data collection for physics laboratories, Am. J. Physics., Vol. 70, No. 4, April 2002, p. 458