Sensors Magazine articles from January 2002

Sensors Magazine archives from January 2002

Career strategy for a soft economy. (Guest Editorial).(Sensors Online)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Would you dump your life savings into a single NASDAQ stock? Probably not. It's far too risky. And yet, many of us manage our careers with a single-stock mindset. We toil away, year after year, investing our talents in a narrow field of...

Xemics S.A. (Business Sense).(venture capital financing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Xemics S.A. (Neuchatel, Switzerland, and Mountain View, CA), specializing in short-range wireless connectivity solutions, closed a second round of venture capital financing of $6 million, following a previous round of $7 million completed last...

Photon vision systems. (Business Sense).(opens new corporate headquarters)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Photon Vision Systems (PVS) of Homer, NY, opened its new $4.6 million corporate headquarters, which houses a clean room for electronic packaging and testing of CMOS integrated circuit chips and wafers. Part of the project cost for the new...

MTS Systems Corp. (Business Sense).(Dactron partnership)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Dactron (Milpitas, CA), manufacturer of real-time DSP systems, is partnering with MTS Systems Corp. (Minneapolis, MN) to provide measurement and analysis solutions for the automotive, aerospace, and consumer product industries. The partnership...

Ocean Optics Inc. (Business Sense).(Guided Wave Inc. management buyout)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Guided Wave (El Dorado Hills, CA) brand process instrument and fiber-optic probe business has been purchased from Ocean Optics Inc. (Dunedin, FL) by a group of past and present managers of Guided Wave who will keep Guided Wave in name and...

Soil and groundwater chemical sniffer may help protect nation's water supply. (Research & Developments).(Sandia National Laboratories)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Sandia researchers Cliff Ho and Bob Hughes are working on a real-time, on-site gas- and water-quality monitoring sensor system that could play a role in protecting the U.S. water supply. The device is based on a chemiresistor, an array of...

"Smart pebbles" aid security and surveillance operations. (Research & Developments).(Crossbow Technology Inc. and University of California commercialize MICA microsensors)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Crossbow and UC Berkeley's Computer Science Department are commercializing microsensor motes, a sort of "smart pebbles" first developed at Berkeley with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Named for the thin,...

knovel. (Web Picks).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... This month I've got a couple of reference sites and a newsgroup for you. The first of the reference sites (and it's a doozy) is knovel. Here you can search an array of engineering and scientific references online, including Perry's and the CRC...

MathWorld. (Web Picks).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... If you occasionally find yourself wracking your brain attempting to recall some mathematical tidbit, then you should go to Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics (supported by Wolfram Research) and bookmark the site right away. MathWorld went...

Engineering tips. (Web Picks).(Brief Article)(Column)
January 1, 2002... Thanks to Tony Tschanz for telling us about the Eng-Tips engineering tips forum. As the name suggests, this is a site dedicated to engineering discussion forums; all the engineering flavors are represented as, well as the more specialized...

Handheld devices, wireless communications, and smart sensors: What it all means for field service. (Portable).
January 1, 2002... Look into the future of field service and remote sensing and what do you see--monitoring and diagnosing systems remotely, warning users of the impending failure of machinery and instruments, and arming field technicians with smart handheld...

An argument for open source software. (Interoperability).
January 1, 2002... Open source software is an idea whose time has come. Once a tool used primarily by the same technical community that brought us the Internet and Web, this approach is now a contender in the commercial arena, and it's breaking all the rules. ...

The 1 - wire thermocouple. (Sensor Technology and Design).
January 1, 2002... A standard thermocouple can be combined with a lithium ion monitor chip to create a smart sensor that communicates with a PC or microcontroller over a single twisted-pair cable. This article describes a method of measuring temperatures...

Planning and designing gas detection systems: With a grasp of gas sensor basics, and a methodical plan for installing the detectors, you can build a system smart enough to save your life. (Putting Sensors to Work).
January 1, 2002... Whenever combustible and/or toxic substances are stored, processed, or transported in the chemical industry, the potential risks are high. For example, if pressurized gases are accidentally released, pipelines leak, or combustible liquid vapors...

A low differential pressure transmitter for HVAC applications: DIN-rail mounting, a small footprint, and a novel method of calibration make the Ashcroft DXLdp well suited to high-end HVAC applications. (Sensor Technology and Design).(heating, ventilation, air conditioning)
January 1, 2002... The current methods used for in-place diagnostics and calibration verification of low differential pressure transmitters in high-precision or critical airflow systems are very labor intensive and can lead to problems. Agency regulations...

Carbon monoxide sensor. (Product News).
January 1, 2002... Based on high-specification industrial gas sensors, the ECO-Sure electrochemical CO sensor from Sixth Sense, Poole, England, is guaranteed to operate continuously in air for >5 yr. Measurement range is 0-500 ppm CO with

Ethernet serial gateway. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Advantech Automation Corp., Cincinnati, OH; introduces the ADAM-4579 that provides RS-232/422/485 and Ethernet interfaces to allow almost any devices with serial ports to connect to the Ethernet. With no need to write a special driver for a...

Digital telemetry system. (Product News).
January 1, 2002... The Torque Trak 9000-IP permanently powered digital radio telemetry system from Binsfeld Engineering, Inc., Maple City; MI. converts shafts-up to 4 in dia into rotating torque sensors. The system includes a fiberglass rotating collar with a...

Open source SCADA. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Control.com Inc., Westborough, MA, announces the availability of PuffinSCADA, a new open source SCADA software package for the Limix operating system. Available through the Control.com Web community, the combination modular software toolkit and...

Remote control, automation kit. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The AutoLog GSM-14 Demo Kit from FF-Automation Ltd., Vantaa, Finland, provides wireless remote monitoring, control, and system data transmission between any 2 locations. The kit includes a GSM control unit, an analog input potentiometer, 2...

Documenting calibrator. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The BetaFLEX handheld modular calibrator from TTI, Inc. Williston, VT, is a keypad/display computer that lets you change its capabilities by loading different modules into its base; each module is a parameter/range-specific calibrator. Module...

Controller with AS-I. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Operating as an AS-I module with 4 inputs and 4 outputs, the SmartLogic unit from ifm efector inc., Exton, PA, also incorporates a programmable microprocessor enabling simple addition of local control functions to AS-i installations. The module...

Remote monitoring system. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The IMS-4000 Infrastructure Monitoring System from Phonetics, Inc., Aston, PA, can simultaneously monitor the network environment for parameters such as temperature and humidity as well as monitor IP devices such as servers and hubs,...

Handheld [CO.sub.2] meter. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Suited for spot-checking measurements, the GM70 from Vaisala Inc Wobum, MA, measures carbon dioxide from as low as 0-2000 ppm to as high as 20% concentration. Interchangeable probes allow you to change the measurement range. The unit...

Impact transmitter. (Product News).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The IT6810 from Metrix Instrument Co., Houston TX, detects mechanical looseness in reciprocating, machinery and other faults not detected by vibration measurements. The loop powered unit measures impact severity in early stages of development...

Real-Time DSP software. (Product News).(digital signal processors)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DSP developer from SDL, Cincinnati, OH, offers graphical programming data logging, plotting debugging, and monitoring so that engineers with no prior DSP programming skills can more efficiently implement DSP solutions. DSP developer works with...

Liquid-Sea led proximity sensors. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Amphibian inductive proximity sensors from Turck, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, are constructed with SS housings, special PVDF front caps, and Viton O-rings to provide reliable sensing in extreme environmental conditions. Sensing distances are 3-7 mm...

Image sensors. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Pixel Devices, Intl., Inc Sunnyvale, CA, introduces LNL low-noise linear 2048-pixel 12-it image sensors designed to produce 12 bits/pixel or higher depending on the imaging mode. The LNL2048R is designed for the spectrographic market arid...

USB DA and control device. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The LabJack U12 from LabJack Corp, Lakewood, CO, features 12-bit analog inputs (8 single-ended, 4 differential) with PGA, 2 analog outputs, 20 bits of digital I/O, a 32-bit counter, a watchdog tinier, and a USB connection. Software tuning...

Solid-State vibration switch. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Model 8810 K-Guard from Kistler Instrument Corp., Amherst, NY, guards rotating machinery and other equipment against excessive vibration levels, activating a relay when the vibration set point is exceeded. Field set-point range is 2-50...

Wireless data link system. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Featuring Bluetooth technology, the BlueLynx from Wilcoxon Research, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, consists of the BLT-1 transmitter module and BLR-1 receiver module and is specifically designed for industrial process control applications. The...

Loop calibrator. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The 707 protable calibrtor from Fluke Corp., Everett, WA, can source, measure, and simulate loop current, providing simultaneous mA and % span readouts. Accuracy is .0.015% and resolution is 1[micro]A in any current mode; a 24V internal loop...

Digital oscilloscope. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The DL1720 from Yokogawa Corp. of America, Newnan, CA, is a 2-channel, I Gsps, 500 MHz bandwidth digital oscilloscope with memory length up to 1 Mword/channel. The unit uses the company's DSE chip to provide high-speed extraction and screen...

Wireless fuel system combats waste and fraud.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A wireless fuel management system based on Israeli military technology for in-flight refueling of aircraft is giving U.S. vehicle fleet managers a new tool to combat mistakes, waste, and fraud at company fuel pumps. SmartFuel is based on...

Wish list.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Noncontact Level Interface Detection We are seeking a noninvasive level interface detection system that can be mounted on a vessel's exterior and detect a density change in the fluid. The application is on a stainless steel chromatography...