You will need an Arduino microcontroller board to use the data logger. Arduinos are available from the Arduino website. We recommend the Uno model, though older models such as the Duemilanove and Diecimila are supported, as well as other designs such as the Leonardo and Mega.
The Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is needed to load the software onto the Arduino board. You can check if the IDE has already been installed by searching your computer for an application named Arduino
. If you do not have it installed, downloads are available free from the Arduino IDE page. Choose the appropriate version for your operating system.
On the Windows operating system, drivers for several of the Arduino boards need to be installed manually. If using an Uno or later model, follow the instructions on the Arduino website (for the Leonardo, but same process for the Uno).
The Python programming language is used to run code on the desktop or laptop computer that provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for controlling the data logger and communicates with the Arduino. It is quite likely to already be installed on your computer. To check, open a Terminal (or cmd.exe on Windows) and type python --version. If you get an error message that the command python was not found, or if the version number shown is less than 2.7, you need install Python. Instructions for doing so are at the Python website, under Download. Either Python 2 or Python 3 is acceptable.
The Python data logger uses Tkinter to create the GUI. If you are installing Python, make sure to include Tkinter (Tcl/Tk) in the installation, if prompted. Even if you have a supported version of Python, enter python -c "import _tkinter" at the Terminal. If you get a message ImportError: No module named _tkinter, you need to reinstall Python with support for Tkinter.
The PySerial package for Python is used to support communication via USB with the Arduino. You can check if it is already installed by entering python -c "import serial" in the Terminal. If it says ImportError: No module named serial, you need to install it. Instructions for installation are at the PySerial website.
The code of the data logger is available as a ZIP archive or for perusal on Bitbucket. Download the archive and unzip it in a convenient location. This documentation is included with the download and is also hosted on Kevin Karplus’s website.