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Philip Harris range

Comment: Science supplier Philip Harris appear to have a policy of innovation. In its time PH has introduced ideas that might have been successful. The DL+ logger with its useful feedback from a screen; the First Sense range with sensor recognition and nice primary style look were good innovations. Like the Blue Box range before them this set was plagued by a mixture of short battery life and a serial port connection that needed some understanding to work. There followed the SensorMeter range where each sensor had a meter and a battery to impact on overall reliabilty. There was a knack to connecting these to the interface and making it work. Then came a Cardlogger where data could be stored on a card. The advantages of doing this were ephemeral. Later came the eLog offering an all-in solution.

But while innovation offers a means to turn heads, each time I've picked up some kit I've needed to draw on a lot of knowledge just to get to the business of measuring. The innovative frills, cables, adapters, batteries, power supplies have made the experience more complicated than it needed to be.

Each new range (Blue box; SensorMeter; First sense; CardLogger; eLog) has introduced new types of sensors. And I have to ask what's different about measuring temperature today compared to 20 years ago? I get the impression that the idea is to shift equipment - and while there's nothing wrong with that, new kit also needs to move minds.

Today competing ranges coming from PASCO; Vernier; Sciencescope; Data Harvest; Fourier and LogIT. All are streets ahead in terms of price, ease of use and genuinely useful features.

Cons: Innovation impacts greatly on easy of use. Difficulties, difficulties and ultimately give up.

Pros: It won't get stolen

Future proof rating: Philip Harris has had rather too many cracks at producing a good system. The sensor range has changed around five times and several times too many.

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	If you've already invested heavily in Philip Harris equipment build on it with Sciencescope
	If you've already a cupboard of Philip Harris equipment, you can give it a new lease of life by looking at Sciencescope's interfaces. These interfaces have a lot of PH compatibility and are sensibly priced.

	Philip Harris - hardware ranges
	e-log (current) Card logger CL50 / CL200 DL+ data logger / Universal Interface Timing System SensorMeters First Sense Catch and Keep ‘Handheld’ sensors Blue Box (1988) e-log (2005) Had a good hands-on session with the Philip Harris e-log system. It brought many so thoughts to mind so that a detailed review is going to have to wait. The e-log is rich in features. It has the best colour screen you can find on a comparable device - and the screen is as big as some mobile phones. It comes in monochrome, colour or touch-screen varieties. The logger interface is either key operated or touch operated. It's also partly menu driven and partly 'wizard' driven. At times the device wants input and I was stuck as to what to do. Reminding of Palms and Pocket PCs this logger seems not to be able to make up it's mind whether it is key operated or touch operated. When people do this the result is good at neither. The touch screen doesn't help speed its use or spare you having learn things. Often you find icons on screen when they're not active. The touch screen seems unnecessary. Using adaptors it can work with old Philip Harris sensors but for some reason the e-log comes with a brand new range of sensors. The reason for this change is unclear. e-logs uniqueness is the ability to log data to a server on the web. I don't believe that this is wanted or even useful as a day-to-day need. When using sensors in the lab has caused so many to stumble I imagine that people are looking for a means to collect data that is close to a no-brainer. By that I mean plug and play, easy to start collecting, low maintenance, easy uploading, and easy printing. When we have this we can then look to features like faster logging, data analysis and so on. e-log looks nice. It has a feature list that makes it look very nice on paper, but there are at least six other firms in the market with capable and mature innovative technology. From an hours play with e-LOG II , in February 2005, I'm impressed by the quality of the colour screen. So far I've concluded that logging data must become troublesome to access peculiar benefits like being able to save our settings or choose them with a touch screen. This feels like a mark one product that has some evolving to do to catch up with what the competition are doing.
	Catch and Keep - logging and control – Philip Harris A logger intended for primary schools which has two built-in sensors and sockets for two optional sensors from the Philip Harris range. Worth comparing with ‘LogBook Primary’ from supplier ScienceScope.

Contact - www.philipharris.co.uk

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