VIDEO: Data Collection in 4 Steps with Mitutoyo U-WAVE Wireless System

Hi, I'm Drew Kleber with Mitutoyo America Corporation. Today I'd like to show you a demonstration of our U-WAVE wireless communication system. Let's start with the hardware. There are three main components to the U-WAVE system—the receiver, the transmitter, and a small connection cable.

The receiver acts like the antenna for the system and will pull data into the computer via a supplied USB cable. The receiver also comes with the U-WAVE Pak software. There are two transmitter types available, an IP67 rated and a buzzer type. This is the IP67 model. It's completely sealed so it will keep dust and coolant out. The buzzer model has three small openings on the front and will give an audible alert to let you know if the data was received or not.

Both transmitter types have an LED indicator which will give you a green or a red indicator light to let you know if the data was received. Certain tools have data output buttons on the front of the tool. The tools that do not will allow you to output data via the supplied cable that comes with the U-WAVE system.

There's no proprietary battery technology with the system. We use an off-the-shelf CR2032 battery. Different tools may have different digimatic connections. For example, the QuantumMike may have a different connection than a standard micrometer which may have a different connection from a caliper. An optional installation bracket is available which allows you to position the transmitter so that it's not in the way of your measurements.

The bracket also has an opening to allow you to easily replace the battery and connect a connection cable. Let's plug in a receiver and see the unit in action. So I'm going to plug in the supplied USB cable. As I do that you'll notice we have a power indicator LED light, no flashing red LEDs for the error. We're ready to go. To start we're gonna launch the U-WAVE Pak software that comes with the receiver. The system can be used in two modes, as a virtual comport or as a USB keyboard.

I'm going to use this as a USB keyboard so I will leave this box unchecked. This brings us to the U-WAVE Pak welcome screen. To begin collecting data all I have to do at this point is press the "Data I Have" Start button and U-WAVE Pak will minimize itself. From here I can bring up any application that I want to use to collect data. In this example I'm going to use Excel. You'll notice my cursor is currently waiting to collect data in column B, row 3. Once I have my measurement taken, I press the data button on the tool and, again, any application that I can use to type data into the U-WAVE will automatically populate that.

Once my first measurement is taken, now it is waiting for the second measurement to be taken and it's stacking my measurements in an individual column. Certain programs require you to hit enter after the measurement is taken to proceed to the next column, some programs may require you to use the tab key. With U-WAVE it's easy to switch between either one.

To change the suffix key that is sent after the measurement is transferred, I can bring the U-WAVE Pak software back up and I want to say stop transmitting data for a moment. There's an environment button which has a control key that is sent after the measurement is taken. Currently it's set for inner. I can also use the up, down, left, or right arrows or even the tab key. Once the selection is made, I hit OK to confirm and then I can press "Start Data I Have" to resume data collection.

Now, once a measurement is taken, the data will tab from one field to the next automatically. When the U-WAVE system is used like a USB keyboard, the data can be sent to any application that is currently open and in focus in Windows. Even though I'm using Excel here, let's bring up Notepad just as an additional example of how the data is transferred.