I am having trouble making any connection with my dataTaker. It was purchased with a router and mobile communicator that are connected through the Ethernet port.

I assume that there are existing settings on the device, such as an IP address, these i do not know. Is there any way to find out what this information is so that i can ping the dataTaker? Or... how do i set the data taker to communicate through the RS232 port as default?

When I try to connect it says that it cannot find the correct baud rate. I am running the latest software on an old Dell 7000 OS windows 2000PRO.

My only other idea is to reset the dataTaker manually and start again, something that I do not want to do as I am having worries about setting up the mobile communication device again.

Any help would be appreciated.

Good afternoon TristanH,

The DT800 must first be configured with a static IP address, gateway etc before it can be used on a network. You must contact your network administrator and ask them to allocate a static IP address for you.

You the need to establish an RS232 connection to the DT800 and add the IP address network mask and gateway to the DT800 configuration file. One these are loaded you will need to reset the dataTaker for the changes to take effect.

Do you have access to another computer you can use to set up the DT800?
There are several common reasons for not finding the correct baud rate.

1. The DT800 is in sleep mode. In your connection definition please make sure "Wake up required" is ticked.

2. Not using the correct cable. Please make sure you are using the cable supplied or a null modem cross over cable.

3. The COM port on the computer is not working correctly. Please check the com port setting in the control panel.

4. The DT800 has been set for non default communications, i.e. Hardware flow control or different parity etc. Triple push reset the DT800 to set factory default communications.

Cheers,
Roger

Thanks Roger,

I now have a connection with the DataTaker working through the TCP/IP port with a new laptop. I found out what the IP address of the tracker was using an address scanner.

I have connected a type k thermocouple to the DataTaker but I am not getting correct readings real temp is 20C and recorded temp is 28C. Is there a scaling factor that I need to apply to get correct readings? Also, when the thermocouple is removed I still get the same readings, no change.

Thanks for your help.
Tristan

Good afternoon TristanH,

Glad you got the comms going, It easier to program the logger when you can talk to it

Thermocouple some things to check...

It sounds like your not getting a signal.. You need to check things like you are clamping on the wire and not the insulation. You are addressing the correct channel. You could also check the continuity of the thermocouple in case one of the wires has broken. You can use a two wire resistance measurement for this.

Cheers,
Roger