A few notes about 'personal-computing' to re-acquaint those interested in "OmniTemp"

with the cold-harsh-facts and realities of this 'seemingly' understandable realm.


A LOT of this 'system' (assuming you can call it that) of the thermocouples, the collection of temperature data, the manipulation of that data, and the output in hard-copy or computer-screen format REQUIRES some sort of 'computing horsepower' to achieve...


lets look at that 'computing resource' you might (or I might) dedicate to this 'mission'...  I've thought about all these things - I've spent the last 7 months of my life living with these issues.   I want to point-them-out to the person considering OmniTemp. It's a sort of 'making you aware of some things' before you get your 'feet wet' so to speak, in the OmniTemp arena.


Four areas might be of interest:

1.) 99% of all personal computers (especially laptops) have a limited-powered-up lifespan - even very new (spring 2016) computers last, maybe, 4-8 hours on batteries, many significantly less than that...  Now that's just fine if you are going to do pictures for your Aunt, or a report for your boss and that'll take you about 1-2 hours, but if you're firing a kiln for 3 days (72 hours) or five days (120 hours) you can see that POWER to the computer (from batteries or AC power) is going to limit you... If you have a solution to this issue / problem, that's fine, but my guess is that the solution won't be incorporated until after the first few data-sets have been lost...

2. 99% of all personal computers (ESPECIALLY laptops), today, have a 'wireless capability'. - Again for your pictures or your report for your boss, that's fine, and if it 'fails' (in this 30 second interval, who cares) but if you're trying to capture, display, store, and share data over a network, what happens (to the data-stream) when the network goes down (for even 100 or 300 seconds?)   Now you may THINK your wireless connection at the kiln is 'robust' but when I say it MUST be "UP" for - what - say - 72 / 120 hours, - are you really (REALLY) sure that it can do that? - FURTHER "interference" is the biggest single risk to most wireless networks, and that interference can be permanent / fixed (like the metal ceilings / buildings many kilns have around them) or it can be 'transient' like the Power Company's BIG (DAMNED) truck (with LOTS of radios in / on it) going by your kiln-location...    What I'm saying here is that ETHERNET is LESS LIKELY to be 'down' than wireless, but getting a reliable ethernet (cabled) connection at a kiln is virtually impossible.

AND think about this - HOW MANY of your friends and relations who are going to be in and around your kiln-area, how many of them have personal 'cell-phones' - that they may NEVER make a telephone call with at 02:00 a.m. but their smart-phone STILL transmits and receives on the same frequency that  may interfere with your wireless connection(s)...


3.) 99% of all personal computers (ESPECIALLY laptops) 'theoretically' can exist in an 'ambient' temperature of about 150-180 degrees F.... - BUT what the manufacturers fail to tell you - is that they can NOT work RELIABLY at that temperature... - if the CPU is at 200 F and the fan draws in air that is 170 F, then there's not much 'cooling' going on, is there?  - the solution to this problem is to separate the CPU from the DISPLAY, and that can only happen if a whole bunch of other things are going on and/or if there is a  'safe' place to have the computer 'at the kiln' but not 'TOO CLOSE' from a temperature viewpoint...


4.) 99% of all 'spreadsheet software programs' (for any platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.)) are not (really (really)) designed for data-files with over - say 25,000 records (lines / rows)...    Most software CAN HANDLE these files,  but if you want - say - data every second, and  you're running a kiln for 72 hours, then that data file has over 250,000 data points in it - can your computer (hardware) and your spreadsheet software REALLY HANDLE this data file?  

I doubt it if, my 11 computers / micro-controllers / network, and five different spreadsheets are any example? 

Remember, also, what the manufacturer / retailer says in their marketing literature, and what is REALLY POSSIBLE, may differ by 'orders of magnitude'... - such as - if the advertising says, this spreadsheet software can handle 100,000 rows - that may be true - if each row only has 3 pieces of data in it - but if each row needs to have 30 pieces of data - maybe it can only handle 3,000 rows - something to think about... - if you want a data-file with 500,000 rows in it - let me know - I'll send you  a USB-disk with one and you see if your spreadsheet program can handle this?

On the other hand - if you take data every 30 seconds and fire the kiln 72 hours - then your data-file is less than 10,000 points.  All spreadsheet programs I've used can handle 10,000 data points / rows...

A LOT of people I've spoken with about OmniTemp want data every second - I wonder if they have thought about the LONG TERM issues that will rear their ugly heads with a LARGE data-point-file that data every second will generate...

A number of people want me to e-mail them a big data file - well - even in raw-text-format the BIG data files (over 50,000 data-points) is too large for an e-mail, it must be FTPd or USB-disced or something other than e-mail... Though MANY people frequently e-mail 10 megabyte files; the formal e-mail specification does not 'guarantee' the passage of 'attachments' more than about 2.2 megabytes.  SO - it MIGHT WORK, but technically, it's not GUARANTEED to work for an attachment over about 2 megabytes.

This 'conflict' between how many data-points some people want, and the length of firing their kiln is pointed-out in 'real terms' (it's just arithmetic, it's NOT "Rocket Science") but you can see the 'trade-offs' - in this spreadsheet, presented as a '...pdf' file.   click_here .

Further, lets assume you (and / or those you might share a data-file with) use "Microsoft Excel" - a fairly common spreadsheet software program on both Windows PCs as well as Macintosh computers... - One thing you may or may not be aware of is - that the 'older' version of Excel (through, I think, 2007 ( with filename extension of ...xls)) had a limit of 64,000 (plus or minus) rows (data-points) and 256 columns (to column label "IV")... - What does that mean to you, as the 'data-owner'? That means that if you go BEYOND 64,000 rows and 256 Columns - your data-file simply truncates (throws away) all data beyond those limits...

Even 'Microsoft Excel 'Starter' ' (which is the "FREE" version of 'Excel' you get if you buy a new computer) will truncate these columns.  In order to manipulate these 'BIG' data-files  you'll need a 'real' copy of the more 'modern' Excel which saves files with an ...xlsx filename extension...


last updated this (Future) page:   13:53  p.m. on Tuesday, 24 June, 2017;  by: Bill Schell on Mac OS "X" 10.14.5