From: MKow1234_at_aol.com
Date: Thu Apr 14 2005 - 05:45:58 PDT
Just a quick progress report for y'all:
I spent a couple of hours yesterday, laying around with the eProbe Scientific
Probe Test Kit and my Newton eMate. After reading through the documentation,
I was able to figure out how to conduct some sample testing with the
temperature probe (No jokes, please; I merely tested the room temperature and then had
my girlfriend breathe on the test probe, to spike the readout a bit on the
graph). I'm now confident that I can quickly demonstrate the basic features of
the eProbe kit.
One cool aspect of the Probe software is that the settings can be calibrated
and adjusted to either take samples from the probes manually or automatically
in various time intervals. Pretty kule... [That's supposed to be a cool way of
saying, "cool"]
I see in the documentation that a number of (I'm assuming they're quite hard
to find, except by blind luck) additional test probes for the eProbe. One of
these was an accelerometer, which supposedly could be used to measure a car's
engine RPM. The interface hardware accepts two testing probes simultaneously,
and the documentation says that additional probes could be connected in
parallel. Seems to me one could rig up their own test probes and get the thing to
monitor, for example, automobile engine functions (DJ? Are you reading this?)
A number of other probes were available for the following: heart rate
monitoring, atmospheric pressure, soil/water pH, electrical conductivity, and many
others! After the hectic activities of this week, I will scan all available
documentation. I will also make a stab in the dark at contacting the original
hardware developers. Who knows what I may find?
In other news, I am going to attempt to get the TPS 400 bar code scanner wand
up and running today. I have the original booklet of documentation and a
mac-compatible disk. Hopefully, I can get my old PowerMac to speak nicely to one
of my Newtons. One additional matter of concern is the photo on the booklet,
which shows the bar code scanner wand plugged into an older (120 or 130?)
Newton. Hopefully, it will be able to play nicely with one of my MP 2X00s. We'll
see. If worst comes to worse, I'll just have it sitting there for folks to look
at. However, I'll fight the good fight and will try to get everything
functioning by Sunday.
I am considering the future POSSIBILITY of making a number of my 'rare'
hardware accessories available to TRUSTED associates living outside a reasonable
distance of Detroit (say, beyond 500 miles), for their own regional gatherings
(Sonny? DJ?). However if you live anywhere between Chicago and Detroit,
Indianapolis and Detroit, Marquette and Detroit, Cincinnati and Detroit, Toronto and
Detroit, etc., you're screwed. Go gas up your car.
Matt the K.
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