Amprobe TR100-A Digital Display Temperature Data Logger

The Amprobe TR100-A Temperature Data Logger with Digital Display was given to me by a colleague who didn?t know what it was or what it could be used for. What caught my eye was the term ?Data Logger?. I knew exactly where and why I would use it.I?ve always be interested in monitoring temperatures over time but some of those points or places of interest are located inconveniently.The TR100-A is a very nicely designed instrument that logs temperature data in remote places and the application software that talks to the TR100-A reduces the data and graphs it very nicely. By logging trend in temperature over time, one can select how much time, it?s helpful in understanding how a process is working. More on this later.Features of TR100-A that I liked for my garden application are simplicity, compact size, easy to program, external temperature probe, and it?s water proof which is very important. I can hang the unit almost anywhere and leave it do its thing for a month or more. I get lots of data that tells me what?s going on, temperature wise, in the garden or wherever. So far, I?ve logged about 3 mo. worth. It would be great in a green house.One application I haven?t put to the test yet is monitoring my heating system at home. I have radiant heat and the TR100-A would be perfect to measure over time how the floors are heating just because sometimes you want to know these things. Just put it on the floor in some spot and forget it.If I was asked where I think there are opportunities to improve the TR100-A I would have to say: Include the external probe with the unit. I would have liked to monitor soil temperature as well as air temperature; while the unit is in the logging mode, allow it to read/display temperature. As it is, the moment it?s programmed, the display shuts down and one can?t use it to read outside temperature.I?ve rated this produce as a 4 star produce. It does what I want it to do and there are no problems getting it programmed to log data. It would be more useful if it red continues temperature while taking data and if the external probe was part of the package. That way, I wouldn?t have to go looking for it on the net to purches it. Also, I would like to be able to export the data file to Exel.