event/pulse datalogger

[energyeverywhere]

Hi,

I'm looking for a simple, low-cost data logger than can be used to log
pulses from a powermeter. It should be a stand alone device. At its
simplest it could just date/time stamp each pulse. Alternatively it
could count pulses, then at a regular logging interval record the
number of pulses in the period. Anyone know of anything?

 

[David L. Jones]

Hi,

I'm looking for a simple, low-cost data logger than can be used to log
pulses from a powermeter. It should be a stand alone device. At its
simplest it could just date/time stamp each pulse. Alternatively it
could count pulses, then at a regular logging interval record the
number of pulses in the period. Anyone know of anything?

How about an old DOS notebook computer with a few lines of BASIC code
to read the parallel port?
Cheap (can be had on eBay for under $50), easy to program, fast, and
can output data into usable format for further graphing or analysis
etc.

I recently did a quick and dirty logger just like this to record and
time stamp TTL pulses coming from DTCXO clock drift circuits. Four old
DOS machines running a QuickBASIC program logging multiple parallel
port channels which time/date stamped the pulses (upto several tens
KHz) did a little bit of processing and then logged them to a CSV file
on disk for later Excel analysis. All four machines successfully logged
for over a month continuously and didn't miss a pulse. The notebook
battery will provide power during any mains fluctuations over long term
testing periods. The whole project only took half a day to write the
code and contruct the cables, and essentially cost nothing.
Not the worlds most compact solution, but it's hard to beat for a low
cost, quick and flexible solution.

Dave