Vernier Go! Link
- Verdict: Though relatively new (2003) to the UK, Vernier is an innovative and established data logger manufacturer. Their equipment merits consideration with anything else you have seen.
- Pros: Good value equipment and competent software. Superb temperature sensor.
- Cons: Apart from a temperature sensor, and a few recent sensors, Vernier sensors have a clunky appearance that makes you wonder if it could actually be any good. In practice we find little but praise for Vernier's engineering.
- Future proofing: a USB adaptor (2004) can turn older Vernier sensors into plug and play units. Since you can in theory still make use of many old Vernier sensors today, they deserve their very good 'future proof' rating.
- Software:
Vernier software (Logger Lite, Logger Pro) is the cream of data logging software. Using it you'll find plenty ‘can you really do that features’. Logger Lite is bundled with the Go! Link adaptor that turns existing Vernier sensors into plug-and-play sensors. A toolbar, sensibly labelled with text, takes you to the main software functions. There is a predict button that lets pupils draw where they think the graph is going next. Logger Lite shows a table, a graph and a meter as it records and these displays can be scaled moved as desired. It’s quite easy to customise the screen – though if you mess it up, how you get it back isn’t so obvious. You can add text to the screen, not just to label graphs but to add instructions or write a lab report. You rescale the graph axes by dragging the appropriate part of the graph. You can analyse the data in several ways – and there is a clever intuitive way to bracket the section of graph that you need to examine. Logger Lite could use its screen space better. It could make numbers on screen larger but it is very likeable. There is no import or export of data as the standard format called SID. This makes it a bit tricky to exchange data between different systems.
- Logger Pro
Logger Pro extends the capability of Logger Lite to a fully featured program. It works with a Vernier interface or the USB Go! System. You can put your graphs, text, photos and tables onto separate pages to build up a workbook report. Overall the software has the feel of a very advanced package, and maybe too advanced for school use. For example, there are lots of analysis features (statistics I could imagine no use for) but there is also a great curve fitting feature. There is also a very clever way to import a movie clip or your experiment (dropping a ball say) and then synchronise it with the time axis of your graph. Also here is a spreadsheet, although isn’t done too well.
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