USB Thermometer Temperature Sensor Data Log for Computer(Temper 2)

I wanted to compare the ambient air temperature to the temperature inside my insulin travel container, and went looking for an inexpensive digital thermometer that would record to my PC and have two sensors. The TEMPer2 from PCSensors seemed ideal. It connects via USB; has one sensor in the device; has a waterproof probe on a 1 meter cord; and, it cost only $22.99 with free shipping (not Prime). Ordered April 9. Arrived April 23. (14 days) OH, it ships from China!Product was packaged nicely. Downloaded updated software on the web site, which installs and runs on both Windows 7 and Windows 10 (I tried both, see below.)The box and all documentation are in Chinese and English. The English is not as bad as some I've seen. (Can you imagine the embarrassment if Americans tried to write documentation in Chinese?)Attached the probe, Instead of plugging the device directly into my PC, I used a USB extension cable so that I could put the device and the probe away from the PC.That's when the trouble started. The software did NOT detect the external probe, which the whole point of buying it in the first place. Clicked on "Instruction". Got nothing. No FAQ, no User Help, no link to web site... nothing! Clicked on "About", which brought up a screen saying that the device was not TEMPer2, but a TEMPerX_V3.2 (which is frustrating because I cannot find a TEMPerX on their product list.) No problem: the web site has a Chat function. Oops. "We're not around, but we'd love to chat another time." OK. There's also a way to email them. Oops. The CAPTCHA function (to prevent email from robots) isn't working. The "About" box mentioned [email protected]. I composed an email with lots of screen shots, and sent it off. REJECTED: no such mailbox or mailbox is not accepting mail.I then downloaded several other versions of software. None worked. This sucks! Went on Amazon and sent an email to the seller asking what to do. They wrote back very quickly and said, "we'll give you a refund." I can't blame them. They didn't make this or write the software. So, I set up a refund through Amazon.Having nothing better to do, I installed the latest software on my Windows 10 laptop. OMG - it worked! So, I went back to my desktop, installed the latest software again, plugged it in.... and it works! I have NO EXPLANATION. (Software still doesn't think it's a TEMPer2.) Right now, it's set up doing the experiment that I wanted to conduct and I'm keeping it.The software has some irritating quirks, such as no help information and bizarre language translations. The default location to store results has Chinese in the Windows path. (There is no option or function that I can find to save the data. It just happens automatically when the program is closed. Of course, this wipes out the last file (without asking. Or does it append to the end - I didn't try to find out.) There's no START or STOP. Plug in the device and it starts recording. Pull it out and it stops. The software update function doesn't seem to work. The file written to disk converts each entry into two lines in Excel. The data is written with "(degree symbol)F" after each entry, so doing arithmetic will require stripping those characters out of each cell. (Probably edit the CSV file before importing into Excel.)If you don't want to use their software, pressing the red TXT button on the case will turn it into a keyboard device and start sending data directly to the PC. You could capture data into a text editor or Excel. It keeps sending until you press TXT again. Quite a versatile device.Devices like this are built around a cheap computer chip that measures in Celsuis and gets converted to Fahrenheit. The web site claims a "precision" of 0.06C and "accuracy" of +/- 2C. That means it will only report temperatures that are different by some multiple of 0.06C (converted to F). So, if it reports 75.52F and then 75.42F, there will never be a reading in between. All you know is that the chip reported it was closest to 75.52 and then it was closest to 75.42. However, since 1 degree Centigrade equals 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the accuracy of +/-2C means that the "real" temperature could be 3.6 degrees (F) higher or 3.6 degrees (F) lower than it reports. This is not a laboratory grade thermometer (it cost $22.99!)Right now, it reports that my room is 74.62F and my insulin container is 59.45F. I'm supposed to keep the insulin under 86F, so even if the measurements are off by a couple of degrees, this storage package seems to be doing what it's supposed to.I don't know how many stars to give this. I got it to work after some effort. It does what it's supposed to do. It's inexpensive. The seller did everything within their power quickly. However, the documentation is nonexistent and there appears to be zero support from the manufacturer. So, one star off. I'd say, you've got nothing to lose. If you can't get it to work, they'll refund your money.

I wasn't expecting much, but a little more than this. Sensor has to be calibrated before every use and software leaves a lot to be desired.