Randolph, NJ — Tidal Engineering, has released its Synergy Gateway, a feature-rich Ethernet gateway and data logger developed specifically for monitoring temperature controllers. 

The Synergy Gateway connects the industry's most popular environmental chamber temperature controllers to a LAN or the Internet via its standard on-board 10BASE-T Ethernet interface, or optionally via an internal 36kbps modem, or external GSM cellular modem to facilitate wireless communication. 

Each module packs a 16-channel thermocouple monitoring system which, when joined in a 16-unit master/slave RS-485 daisy-chain arrangement, enables the monitoring and data logging of 256 sensors on a single Web server. The Synergy Gateway is suitable for use in environmental test applications when attached to temperature, power and process programmer/controllers in a wide range of commercial, industrial, consumer and military product testing and manufacturing applications. 

The instrument can be used in batch process, electroplating, foodservice equipment, furnaces/ovens, medical and dental equipment. The gateway is supported by the vendor's PC-based multi-chamber environmental lab monitoring software, Synergy Manager. 

The instrument is configurable to automatically transmit reports, data and alarm conditions via e-mail. The new device also creates and serves HTML reports, and functions as an ISP when answering dial-up networking calls and providing seamless connections to standard Web browsers. 

According to the manufacturer, the instrument's 16-channel thermocouple monitoring system supports T-, C-, J-, K-, E-, and R-type thermocouples, provides 0.1°C resolution, and 4-20mA (DC) or 0-5V (DC) inputs. This has features built-in cold-junction compensation and provides two digital-to-analog output channels to transmit two analog voltages for control and charting. A Form C alarm relay is programmable to energize an audible or visual annunciator. 

Operating temperature range is 32 to 140°F, and its external power requirement is 5W at 9 to 28VDC. Measuring 7 x 5 x 1.625-in., the device boasts a backlit LCD, and may be obtained with up to 8MB nonvolatile flash memory.