Dataloggers

Mar Gomez Lobon <mar.gomez [at] qvmag__tas__gov__au> writes

>The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Tasmania is considering
>to purchase some data loggers for climate measurement during
>travelling exhibitions as well as for control of exhibition and
>storage climate. I would like to ask for some recommendation from
>other museums and galleries in Australia with experience with data
>loggers ...

We purchased ACR Smart Reader SR-008 loggers and EH-101A Temp/RH
probes in 1996 and it was useful to have an ACR service
representative in Australia (in Brisbane).  However our experience
has not been great.

    1.  The method of attaching the probes to the loggers is not
        very secure and it may not be obvious that the probe wire is
        not properly attached to the logger.  If this happens you
        will not get readings for that probe.

    2.  The Windows based software is not compatible with our
        department's network (Microsoft Windows XP via Citrix) and
        despite numerous attempts we have not been able to overcome
        this.  So the software and records have to be kept on a
        stand-alone machine  which is inconvenient for printing and
        impossible to access from other locations.

    3.  We recently sent all our equipment in for servicing and
        calibration and we were told that most of our probes were so
        far out of calibration that they could not be serviced and
        had to be discarded. The probes are not expensive  and we
        had chosen the ACR system because the sensor probes were
        separate to the loggers so that they could be replaced if
        necessary. However ACR no longer makes these types of probes
        and their new Temp/RH probes are not compatible with our
        loggers.  So we are now going to have to buy new loggers as
        well even though our loggers are fine.  Apparently if we had
        used the probes in a 'pristine' environment they would have
        lasted longer.  I would consider that we subjected our
        loggers and probes to fairly normal use--i.e. we sent to
        them to other museums who were borrowing our objects, and
        used them in rooms with standard air-conditioning and in an
        un-airconditioned basement.  And we should have had them
        serviced more often.  Still it has left a bad taste.  We do
        not have the budget to buy new loggers every 6 years.

So we are looking at buying new loggers as well.  The article by
Rachael Arenstein in AIC  News Vol 26 no 1 January 2001 is very
useful and I can send it to you if you do not have it.  There is
also some good discussions in the CoOL archives.  As well as the
questions Arenstein lists  I think that one should also ask
companies about longevity and durability and check that they are
planning for their future upgrades to be compatible with earlier
versions of equipment and software.

If anyone has any recently calibrated ACR EH-101A Temp/RH probes we
would be interested in purchasing them.  And I would be interested
in comment on the expected longevity of dataloggers.  Perhaps 6
years is not unreasonable but I would have hoped for at least 10
years.

Jenny Dickens
Senior Conservator
Heritage Victoria
4 Harper Street
Abbotsford  VIC  3067
Australia
+61 3 9419 2555
Fax: +61 3 9419 4827


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:75
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 29, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-75-001
                                  ***