If you are preparing a list of typicalequipment for a laboratory, a cellular phone will normally not appear on it: The mobile is still more widely used to order a pizza for the lunch break or calling a colleague if something goes wrong. But this might change in the future: With wireless technologies like Zigbee and the increasing capabilities of PDAs and Windows-CE-powered cellular phones they can be useful for monitoring and controlling machines and sensors in the lab. With the widespread adoption of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones in the last few years, it is only natural that scientists and engineers would find ways to incorporate these devices into their measurement and control applications. One area where these devices have been successfully integrated is remote monitoring of machines. You can use portable, handheld devices combined with one of the numerous commercially available wireless technologies to easily transmit alarming conditions, closely monitor rotating or hard-to-reach machines, and selectively "check-in" on the status of machines on the manufacturing line. This article examines how wireless technology affects machine monitoring applications along with the more recent combination of wireless technology with handheld devices. It also covers how to choose the wireless technology and handheld device for your particular application, and most importantly, the software package to quickly and easily tie it all together.
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