PICO USB TC-08 User Manual
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PICO USB TC-08 User Manual

Temperature logger
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USB TC-08
Temperature Logger
User guide
© 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
USBTC08044-2

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Summary of Contents for PICO USB TC-08

  • Page 1 USB TC-08 Temperature Logger User guide © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    2 How a thermocouple works .....................10 3 Technical reference ....................10 1 Introduction ....................10 2 Modes of operation ....................15 3 Driver routines ....................34 4 Programming ....................36 5 Troubleshooting ....................37 6 Glossary ......................40 Index © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 3: Overview

    The driver provides cold junction compensation for thermocouples. PicoLog supports up to 10 USB TC-08 devices and the driver can support more (as many as 64, if you have a high-specification PC.) This manual describes the physical and electrical properties of the USB TC-08, and provides an explanation of how to use the software drivers.
  • Page 4 The device name and serial number should appear in the USB Devices pane and the USB enumeration progress bar gradually expands to 100%. If the progress bar does not start moving, disconnect and reconnect the USB TC-08, then click Refresh 6.
  • Page 5 Thermocouple and click the button. The TC-08 Channels dialog box reappears 10. Click the button. Channel 1 should now appear in the monitor window with the current temperature reading. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...

  • Page 6: Legal Information

    The licensee agrees to allow access to this software only to persons who have been informed of these conditions and agree to abide by them. Usage The software in this release is for use only with Pico products or with data collected using Pico products. Copyright Pico Technology Limited claims the copyright of, and retains the rights to, all material (software, documents etc.) contained in this release.

  • Page 7: Safety Warning

    This could result in damage to your computer and/or injury to yourself or others. Maximum input range The USB TC-08 is designed to measure voltages in the range of ±70 mV. Any voltages in excess of ±30 V may cause permanent damage to the unit. Mains voltages Pico products are not designed for use with mains voltages.

  • Page 8: Company Details

    Pico Technology Limited The Mill House Cambridge Street St Neots Cambridgeshire PE19 1QB United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)1480 396395 Fax: +44 (0)1480 396296 Email: Technical Support: support@picotech.com Sales: sales@picotech.com Web site: www.picotech.com USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 9: Specifications

    Type N -270°C to 1300°C -270°C to 1300°C Type R -50°C to 1760°C -50°C to 1760°C Type S -50°C to 1760°C -50°C to 1760°C Type T -270°C to 400°C -270°C to 400°C © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...

  • Page 10: How A Thermocouple Works

    A change in this temperature difference produces some net change in the voltage. Note: More information on choosing and using thermocouples can be found at this page on our website. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 11: Introduction

    Microsoft Excel, where the macro language is a form of Visual Basic. Modes of operation 3.2.1 Introduction The USB TC-08 is designed for three specific modes of operation to suit a variety of applications. The following modes are supported: Streaming mode Get Single mode Legacy mode 3.2.2...
  • Page 12 Since the function relies entirely on the timing of the calling application, it is ideal for time intervals greater than 1 minute. If high-speed sampling is required, use Streaming mode. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 13 // no overflow printf("\nChannel %d: %f", c, value_array[c]); (i < 9) > while (60000 (GetTickCount() - last_time)) // 60000ms = 1 minute Sleep(100); // let other applications run last_time = GetTickCount(); © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 14 Place the new DLL in the directory of the application Set the mains frequency Run and stop the unit Store a handle returned from usb_tc08_open_unit instead of using the serial port number USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 15 // check that they have not overflowed // by comparing each reading with 2147483647L // or LONG_MAX (include limits.h) usb_tc08_legacy_get_cold_junction(handle, &cold_junction); // now do something with the cold junction temperature usb_tc08_stop(handle); © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...

  • Page 16: Driver Routines

    USB TC-08 Help Driver routines 3.3.1 Introduction The following table explains each of the USB TC-08 routines: Routine Description New USB and serial mode usb_tc08_open_unit Opens the USB TC-08 unit and gets a valid USB handle. usb_tc08_open_unit_async Opens the unit asynchronously.
  • Page 17 New USB mode and legacy mode 3.3.2.1 usb_tc08_open_unit short usb_tc08_open_unit (void) This routine returns a valid handle to the USB TC-08 if the driver successfully opens it. If the routine fais, see the error code explanations in the usb_tc08_get_last_error section. If you wish to use more than one USB TC-08, call this routine once for each unit connected to the PC.
  • Page 18 Note: The driver is thread safe and will not allow access to a single unit from more than one application. If, therefore, usb_tc08_open_unit_async does not find a unit, check that other applications are not using the same USB TC-08. This includes applications on other user accounts on the same computer, where fast user switching is supported.
  • Page 19 0 to obtain the error code. 0 (USBTC08_PROGRESS_PENDING) Enumeration has not completed (keep calling usb_tc08_open_unit_progres 1 (USBTC08_PROGRESS_COMPLETE) Enumeration has completed and the handle is now valid. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 20 - Unit stopped streaming successfully. 3.3.2.6 usb_tc08_set_mains short usb_tc08_set_mains( short handle, short sixty_hertz) This routine sets the USB TC-08 to reject either 50 or 60 Hz. Arguments: handle - Specifies the USB TC-08 unit. sixty_hertz - Specifies whether to reject 50Hz or 60Hz. If set to 1, the unit will reject 60Hz, if set to 0, the unit will reject 50Hz.
  • Page 21 Interval milliseconds). Note: The USB TC-08 can sample, from a single channel, at a rate of 10 samples per second. The absolute minimum sampling interval, with all 8 channels and the cold junction enabled, is 900 ms. You must set up all the channels that you wish to use before calling this routine.
  • Page 22 - Length of the string to be copied. Should be at least 256 (USBTC08_MAX_INFO_CHARS) characters long. Returns: - Too many bytes to copy, will copy as many full lines as possible. - Routine was successful. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 23 (or usb_tc08_get_single was called while in streaming mode.) USBTC08_ERROR_ENUMERATION_INCOMPL usb_tc08_open_unit_async was called again while a background enumeration was already in progress. Note: For more details on error codes, see troubleshooting. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 24 An old picopp.sys driver was found on the system. Note: These reserved error code values are only meaningful to Pico technical support staff, but they are supplied to allow developers to display warnings in their applications. For more details on error codes, see troubleshooting.
  • Page 25 - Specifies the requested sampling period. You can use usb_tc08_get_minimum_interval_ms to obtain the smallest sampling period permitted with the current setup. Returns: - Use usb_tc08_get_last_error. Interval - Actual interval allowed by the driver. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 26 - Specifies the USB TC-08 unit. temp - Pointer to an array of length [9]. There are 9 channels on the USB TC-08 (8 + cold junction) and the readings are always placed in the array subscript corresponding to the channel number.
  • Page 27 Once you open the driver and set up some channels, you can call the usb_tc08_run routine. The driver will then begin to continually take readings from the USB TC-08. Use the usb_tc08_get_temp routine to retrieve readings from the driver's buffer periodically.
  • Page 28 - Currently no readings to collect. > 0 - Number of readings copied into array (there may still be more readings in the driver's internal buffer.) USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 29 - Choose whether or not to replace QNaN values (missing readings) with the last known value: 0 - Use QNaNs to represent missing readings. 1 - Fill missing readings (no QNaNs.) © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 30 This routine starts the sampling thread and forces the specified unit to run in legacy mode. Arguments: handle - Specifies the USB TC-08 unit. Returns: - Use usb_tc08_get_last_error. - Legacy run successful. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 31 USB TC-08. Returns: - Use usb_tc08_get_last_error. - Legacy set channel successful. Note: Do not call this function unless you are operating the USB TC-08 in legacy mode, having called usb_tc08_legacy_run. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 32 Returns: - Use usb_tc08_get_last_error. - Temperature retrieval successful. Note: Do not call this function unless you are operating the USB TC-08 in legacy mode, having called usb_tc08_legacy_run. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 33 Driver version number 3.3.4.6 usb_tc08_legacy_get_version short usb_tc08_legacy_get_version (short * version, short handle) This routine sets the 'version' variable to match the version of the USB TC-08 currently being used. Arguments: handle - Specifies the USB TC-08 unit. version - Pointer to a location where the version number is to be stored.
  • Page 34 See the Legacy mode section for an example. Note: Do not call this function unless you are operating the USB TC-08 in legacy mode, having called usb_tc08_legacy_run. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 35: Programming

    The file USBTC08.inc contains procedure prototypes for the driver routines: you can include this file in your application. This example has been tested with Delphi versions 1, 2 and 3. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 36 The DRIVERS directory contains the following files, created in Visual Basic 6: USBTC0832.VBP USBTC0832.BAS USBTC0832.FRM USBTC0832.VBW 3.4.7 HP-Vee The example program usb_tc08.vee shows how to collect a block of data from the usb_tc08. There are prototypes in USB_TC08.vh. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 37: Troubleshooting

    USBTC08_ERROR_PICOPP_TOO_OLD - Errors in this category indicate that a fault has occurred with the USB TC-08 unit or your PC. Try disconnecting the USB TC-08, then reconnecting it. If this does not work, restart your PC. If this does not work, do the following: 1.

  • Page 38: Glossary

    The maximum input voltage that can be applied without damaging the unit. QNaN Quiet Not a Number. In the context of the USB TC-08, QNaNs are numbers created artificially to fill in gaps in sampling. These gaps are interruptions caused by lack of available PC or laptop processor time, normally caused by too many applications being open simultaneously.
  • Page 39 S thermocouples are used as the standard of calibration for the melting point of gold. Type T thermocouple Type T thermocouples are made from copper and constantan, are highly accurate, and operate in the -270°C to +400°C temperature range. © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved. USBTC08044-2...
  • Page 40 This structure is used to receive information from the usb_tc08_get_unit_info function and is defined in the usbtc08.h header file. Note: If the programming language you are using does not support structures, use the usb_tc08_get_formatted_info function. USBTC08044-2 © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.

  • Page 41: Index

    15, 17 LabVIEW usb_tc08_open_unit_progress 15, 18 Visual Basic usb_tc08_run 15, 24 usb_tc08_set_channel 15, 24 usb_tc08_set_mains 15, 19 usb_tc08_stop 15, 19 usb_tc08_temp_deskew QNaN 26, 28 Error codes 22, 36 Repairs Excel Resolution © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 42 15, 32 usb_tc08_legacy_run 15, 29 usb_tc08_legacy_set_channel 15, 30 usb_tc08_open_unit 15, 16 usb_tc08_open_unit_async 15, 17 usb_tc08_open_unit_progress 15, 18 usb_tc08_run 15, 24 usb_tc08_set_channel 15, 24 usb_tc08_set_mains 15, 19 usb_tc08_stop 15, 19 usb_tc08_temp_deskew Visual Basic © 2005 Pico Technology Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Page 43 Pico Technology Ltd The Mill House Cambridge Street St Neots PE19 1QB United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1480 396 395 Fax: +44 (0) 1480 396 296 Web: www.picotech.com USBTC08044-2 1.7.05...

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