No matter what your profession, or the industry you work within, we encounter problems that are designed to test our ability to think outside the box. Yet, sometimes there are solutions that are both simple and elegant. I recently came across such an instance that I would like to share with you.

The issue is taking data from Norbar’s measuring instruments via RS-232 and getting the data in to the customer’s own software. Norbar already offers software to manage data, coming from our instruments but, for a variety of reasons, this is not always suitable. Some customers are very wary about installing any third-party software for fear of introducing viruses for example, while others might have their own tried and tested templates and don’t want to switch to Norbar’s software. Frequently, these customers have to rely on manually entering data which is time consuming and prone to error.

The MicroRidge Wedgelink cable offers an ideal solution, and with Norbar’s measuring devices, it is quite literally plug and play! It doesn’t need any software to be downloaded onto customers systems but allows the user to direct the data anywhere it needs to go - usually a calibration template created in Microsoft Excel.

This really comes in to its own when transmitting data over a long period of time because you can run the data transfer process until the computer’s hard drive is full, without any errors.

As a Technical Sales Engineer at Norbar the discovery of this neat device allowed me to solve a couple of long standing data transfer issues within a week and, now I always recommend it in situations where one of Norbar’s software solutions is not suitable. Although we don’t sell the Wedgelink cable, there are a number of online outlets that stock it (part number WLNK-SP-9600_N-8-1). If you have any questions about this or just want to talk the torque, you can contact me and my colleagues at technical@norbar.com