Dear Hannah,
The installation of OneWireViewer is not as straight-forward as it might be,
but once you get it running it is very user-friendly. I've attached a
protocol that I wrote for installing the software, I haven't tested it in a
few months but it may help somewhat. You will need a reader before you can
finish the install. Once you have that up and running, the data can be
easily downloaded in .csv format for further processing in < 1 min even in
the field.
As for their performance in the field, I have had very mixed success
although I know that others have had better luck than me. The problem is
weather-proofing the iButtons - some will fail when they remain wet for long
periods of time, so I have lost a lot of data that way. Some years I had a
~30% fail rate. I think I am unusual in that respect (may have gotten a
couple of bad batches), since most of my colleagues have used them with much
better success. I have tried sealing them in plastic bags, enclosing them in
silicone, and sheltering them with pie plates. Problem is, all of these
methods interfere with the temperatures recorded in some way. Likewise,
unshaded iButtons left in full sun will give very hot readings which don't
very well estimate the operative temperature of any kind of organism (that
isn't made of metal).
All that being said, they will still be my data logger of choice due to
small size, low cost, good capacity, and easy downloads. I would just advise
you to ask around about weather-proofing methods (I know someone who found
wax worked very well although I haven't tried it), and ground-truth the
resulting data before you set them out in the field. Feel free to email me
if you want any other information ([email protected]).
Best wishes,
Caroline
