Featured Product of The Month

The PCMeasure Low Cost Data Display & Acquisition System with Free Software and Networking Capabilities

Physikalische Größen preiswert mit dem PC messen - auch im Netzwerk!

The concept is simple: connect physical sensors like thermocouples, rtds and humidity sensors, via adapters, to the serial and/or parallel interfaces of a standard PC. PCMeasure offers the software interfaces that can accept inputs from up to 4 sensors at each port. The free, supplied software can use ports COM1-COM4 and LPT1- LPT3. So, up to 28 sensors can be connected to one PC.

Today, many PCs are connected to the Internet or a local (LAN) or Wide area (WAN) network. PCMeasure software has features enabling transfer of result data using the IP protocol. One can access the data with a web browser, use an XML file or read results via a TCP-Port. PCMeasure software for Windows(TM) can act as client and server simultaneously. It can work together with the software tools, SNMPView, MRTG and RRDTools . These tools are free (the links take you to further information about them) and, together with the PCMeasure system, offer a way to support hundreds of measurement points. The PCMeasure web site provides free configuration scripts or commands to use these free tools with their system. The PCMeasure system also allows one to set up alarms or threshold trips and send notifications of such alarm conditions by e-mail, SMS, Syslog messages and SNMP traps.

Sensors that already have RJ-45 or CAT5 plugs can use a local ethernet system to connect from many locations in a facility to a PC with the PCMeasure software.

PCMeasure system is the only product on the market offering this combination of features and is a significant bargain or "value for money". There are two web sites www.PCMeasure.com in English and www.messpc.de in German. Products and software support can be found there along with many examples of configurations and other sensors. Items can be purchased over the Web and paid for using a PayPal account for quick shipment virtually anywhere in the world.

Upcoming Meetings, CFPs etc.

Thermosense XXV (Silver Anniversary Meeting)
April 21-24, 2003, Gaylord Palms Resort & Conference Center, Orlando, Florida, USA. Held as part of SPIE's Aerosense Meeting each Spring, this has become the premier infrared imaging and temperature measurement meeting in the world. In 2003, the ASTM's Sub-committee E20.02 on Radiation Thermometry and ASNT's Infrared Methods Committee will meet again (for the third year in a row-each) during the conference week. It is expected that the newly formed ISPoT, The International Society of Professional Thermographers,an organization "By Thermographers and For Thermographers" will have a presence at the meeting at least informally to continue their organizational activities.

New, Advanced, Downloadable Thermowell Wake Software at www.tempsensor.net

Wellstr2.exe is a free software program for the estimation of vibration effects in Thermowells by Dr. David Bartran, PE. Presently it is limited to steam and condensate situations and available only to members at www.tempsensor.net. It is a more advanced set of code than the software posted last month, Wellstr.exe, but not for the novice. See the new page at www.temperatures.com/twellwakes.html to get a more complete idea of the problem, the conventional method for thermowell wake calculations and the more accurate but complex methods already developed and implemented in this free software.

NEW Links of Interest -February 2003

CD-ROMs Page

JMS Southeast, Inc
Temperature Measurement and Interactive Catalog and Conventional Thermowell Design Guide

Mikron Infrared (Mikron Instrument Co., Inc.)
Infrared Sensors, Black Bodies and IR Imaging Products Catalog

Thermowell Pages

Thermowell resonance and wakes or von Karman vortices.
Are discussed on a new page devoted to the subject. It is a very significant topic since the consequences of innattention to this important problem can lead to thermowell rupture and subsequent personnel hazards or complete destruction of the temperature sensor within the well.

Dewpoint & Moisture Sensor Vendors

Thermocouple Resources Page

Sensor Scientific's web site has comparison of four popular contact temperature sensor types , Thermocouples, Resistance, Thermistors and Semiconductor, shown on a one page chart and in a very readable article.

Thermocouple Vendors Page

Duro-Sense (USA)
A leading manufacturer of thermocouples and temperature sensors in California for the past 24 years.

Thermal Corporation (USA)
Temperature sensors and industrial heater manufacturer in Alabama seriving all the USA.

Thermography Resources: Organizations & Meetings Page

ThermaQuest, Inc. (Canada & USA)
A new, unique safety rating organization for commercial vehicles, provides vehicle safety rating on Brakes, Wheels and Tires through its own REDFLAG™ Vehicle Screening System made up of trained Technicians and their Mobile Screening Vans. the resulting analyzed data is compiled and available in the INFRAREAD™ database to Fleet Operators, Insurance Carriers and Manufacturers depending on just-in-time deliveries.

ISPoT, The International Society of Professional Thermographers,
A new organization "By Thermographers and For Thermographers" will be seeking additional members at the forthcoming April SPIE Thermosense meeting and exhibition at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando. An international Board of Directors has been elected and a website set up at www.professionalthermographer.org . The website has a sign up form for members and volunteers plus a new message board. You can also join their email forum by sending an email to ISPoT-subscribe@topica.com . The list is moderated by Jack Kleinfeld of Kleinfeld Technical Services, Inc.

Thermography Service Company Page

InfraredPredictive Surveys, Inc. (USA)
A Maryland Corporation is "The Total Inspection and Survey Service for Architects, Owners and Industry", that performs infrared inspections of electrical systems, ovens, bearings, gears, condensers, heat exchangers, belt drives, chain drives, refractory insulation, valves, hydraulic systems, pumps, tanks and electrical equipment and more.

Metrum (UK)
Metrum provides complete solutions from the supply of thermal imaging camera equipment through to consultancy, rental and training, the company assists its customers to understand the complex issues surrounding heat management and its effects.

Predictive Service Corporation (USA),
Provides a corporate solution for national and regional organizations, focusing on the standardization of service and information quality, the elimination of down time, and improved operation safety. They inventory and id all equipment to be surveyed. The data, including past IR images are saved. Information is available to the client over the web.

RTD Page

Sensor Scientific's web site has comparison of four popular contact temperature sensor types , Thermocouples, Resistance, Thermistors and Semiconductor, shown on a one page chart and in a very readable article.

Data Logger Vendors Page

AKCP Inc.
A manufacturer of SensorProbe environmental monitoring sevices that can accept two sensor inputs from special versions of temperature, humidity and other sensors. It s a low cost SNMP enabled and web based device, ready to run right out of the box needing only an IP address and connection to a local network or the Internet.

PCmeasure.com (Germany)
A simple, cost-effective way to measure physical values including temperature, humidity, brightness and others with a PC. It's easy to distribute the results over a network, and send e-mail, SNMP traps or SMS messages on threshold violation. You can create graphics from the measurement results quickly and simply with the PC Measure software.

Zeta-tec (UK)
Multiple channel, compact, battery powered data-logging devices to measure Temperature, Resistance, Voltage, Pulses, Humidity, Barometric pressure, 4 - 20 mA current and other variables.

The next issue will feature IR Thermometery and Imaging as a special issue covering the rapidly changing field of Infrared Radiation Thermometery and Quantitative Thermal Imaging. This is one of the most dynamic areas of temperature sensor and measurement innovation and certainly is "where the action is" in temperature sensors. The promised excerpts for an ISA Section meeting presentation by our editor and publisher is being held until that issue.

In the meanwhile, remember that the 25th Anniversary meeting of the ThermoSense Group of SPIE takes place the week of April 20th in Orlando,FL. Co-located at that meeting are the ASTM Radiation Thermometery Sub-committee meeting (Monday 8:30 am) and the ASNT Infrared interest Group (Thursday 6:00pm) in addition to the huge IR and Optics Exhibition that is a part of every ThermoSense and SPIE AeroSense meeting.

COMMENTS and Alexa™ SITE RANKINGS

Notice to PR and Ad staffs in equipment and service companies:

Now you can list your organization and your new product or services or meetings information at the Temperature Sensor Community web site, www.tempsensor.net. It is a self-service feature that anyone who joins as amemebr can access. Membership is free!

Listed below are the Alexa Web site rankings at the end of February and the preceeding two months. The rose color indicates that a site became less popular during the month, the green or aqua indicates more popular. The numbers provide a quantitative measure of the site popularity according to the Alexa ranking system. Needless to say, lower values mean more popular (like:"Yahoo is Number 1!").

Green is back again as the dominant color for last month. That's good news, and some trends are beginning to appear . There is some real optimism indicated on the right side of the table, however, with the increase in the number of green cells for January. Several of the increases were huge: Indigo Systems+ 59%, Raytek + 54%, Mikron Instruments and SnellInfrared, both + 53% and Pyromation + 44%. The only significant negative notes are the drop of JMS-Southeast by 68% and the continued slide of Land Instruments for the third month in a row; 38% down in January.

According to www.netcraft.com there are 38,118,962 web sites accesible on the Internet. In context of a popularity rating, a position of 1 or 2 million doesn't seem so bad. However the rankings of sites of similar organizations competing for Web visitors and exposure does seem to indicate at least relative success in attracting visitors.

Note, too, that the links indicated by the underline and color of the indivdual web site entries in the table below now take you to the corresponding Alexa report page for each site.

We have also joined with Alexa as an Amazon Associate web site (Amazon owns Alexa) to offer an Alexa Toolbar for your IE web browser, if you wish to use Alexa on a regular basis yourself. See the small banner ad at the bottom of the page to access it. It is one small way that you can help support About Temperature Sensors.

Note from the above Alexa ratings that our Web site consistently achieves a lower ranking (meaning it is more popular) than nearly all the vendors of temperature sensors, with the major exceptions of GlobalSpec and Omega Engineering, two gigantic web sites. Our site passed ASNT, The American Society for Non-Destructive Testing, in January and continued to grow more rapidly in popularity by gaining +20% in the latest month. These gains were made without benefit of any Internet services other than our own.

If your organization wants help in improving its Web marketing and popularity contact us at web@temperatures.com and ask for a free estimate.

If you only need more exposure of your organization's name and special capabilities, consider a banner ad on one of our websites. Our page view rates are high and prices reasonable. We have a two for one special that runs until March 31.