Vernier Basics:

If you are a student in this class, you have permissions to download and install Vernier LoggerPro for your computer. You can use your own computer in lab to run experiments. It may also be useful for analysis of data (although we will typically use Excel for that), and is used for video analyis. Download information is at the Moodle site for the lab, or email Dr. Sheldon for the links

In the online class, we will typically not use LoggerPro for the following, but in face to face labs, we will.

When you start up the LoggerPro program and you are planning on using lab probes with an interface, if an error box comes up saying the interface cannot be found, you need to make sure the interface is securely plugged in and turned on (unplug and replug USB cables). Re-start LoggerPro.

You now need to tell it how you want to take data.  Choose Experiment-Data Collection from the menu bar.  Choose appropriate settings for the length of the experiment and the frequency of data points.

Graphs and Column manipulation is pretty intuitive.  If you want to change something, try just clicking on that thing (e.g., to change the scaling of an axis, click on the axis; to change what is displayed on a graph, click on the axis label.)

The general use will require plugging a sensor into either the digital or analog inputs on either side of the interface box, and typically the computer will will automatically detect the sensor.

Once you are ready to take data, you can click the Collect button. Remember to click the stop button when you are finished taking data. If the Collect button is not green, then the computer is not recognizing either the interface or a sensor, and you will need to trouble-shoot.

Once you take data in a table, you may want to copy it to the Excel spreadsheet in order to do some analysis. Do not forget to save your file in LoggerPro so you can access it later in case you copy the wrong data! Highlight the data you want in the data table, and copy the data and paste to Excel.