The Radio Data Logger Company

The Etherlog 3000

The Radio Data Logger Company's products centre around the Etherlog 3000, a versatile battery-powered data acquisition machine featuring:

precision eight-channel analogue front end
eight digital inputs with pulse counting
four digital outputs for equipment control
built-in license-exempt 433MHz radio communications
GSM and land-line modem compatibility
SMS (GSM text) control and reporting capability
power management for extended battery life
input expansion using RDT radio telemetry modules
simple but very powerful lucid programming language

A separate connection for an external power supply allows the Etherlog 3000 to be used in mains-powered situations, while retaining battery-backed operation in the case of power failure.

An RS-232C serial port allows external GSM or land-line modems to be used to connect to the logger, or a direct connection to a laptop computer. Modems are fully supported in the on-board software that controls the logger.

The logger is available in the following formats:

fully functional data logger in an environmental enclosure
unboxed data acquisition module
RDL3000 circuit board for use in customers' own equipment

Data storage

The Etherlog 3000 stores all logging programs and data records in 500 kilobytes of battery backed memory. Storage is organised using an internal filing system, similar to the way that data is held on a PC. Using this facility:

several logging programs may be stored on the logger ready for immediate use
different kinds of data can be routed to separate storage files to simplify subsequent analysis

There is also considerable flexibility in the way that data is stored. If a logging task wrote the state of a single digital input to a data file every five minutes then 500 000 readings could be stored on the logger - almost a year's data. A more realistic data acquisition task would be to store hourly readings from all eight analogue inputs together with timestamps. In this application the logger would store about 150 000 records, over 15 months' information.

Sensors in use with the Etherlog 3000

The Etherlog 3000 has been designed to accept a wide range of sensors directly. The examples below are just some of the quantities which are currently being measured with Etherlogs:

temperature
solar radiation
humidity
displacement
atmospheric pollution
wind speed and direction
electricity consumption
fluid flow

In short, almost any sensor with a voltage or current output can be interfaced directly to the Etherlog 3000 and monitored at whatever interval is required.

More information

You can find more details on various aspects of the Etherlog 3000 by following these links:

In addition, documentation for the Etherlog, including Manuals, Technical Information Notes and Application Notes is available from the Radio Data Logger Company library.