How to read a Thermo Button with Thermotrack PC

Contents

Press the « Download button » and place a button on the reader. You get: :

Tabs : Status, Alarms, Temperatures, Graph and Note Pad.
Action buttons : « Sterilization/Pasteurization », « Stop mission », « Archive », « Export », « Print » and « Close ».

Status :

Thermotrack displays the following elements :

Button serial number.
Button type.
Resolution chosen for this mission.
Mission status: In progress, stopped, waiting for alarms.
Date and time of mission start.
Start of mission if alarm occurs. This box will stay checked when the button will have started logging to remember that you had specified a “start if alarm”.
Roll over (Enabled or not, occurred or not).
Real time clock of the PC and of the button.
Samples since mission started.
Samples since the button was first started. This value shows the life span of the battery.
Start delay (remaining time).
Sample rate.
High and low thresholds with temporizations.
Information about the mission (stored in the free memory of the button).

Alarms :

This window indicates if the alarm and temporization thresholds you have entered have been exceeded.

Each alarm has a start and a end which constitute a period. A Button can store 12 high and low alarm periods.

For each period, you will see the total time and the average temperature of the period. Thermotrack also calculates the total time for all alarms.

The Red or Blue alarms correspond to the values that exceed the alarm AND the temporization thresholds.

The Orange alarms correspond to the values that exceed the temperature thresholds but NOT the temporization thresholds.

If you have enabled roll-over (see chapter “Mission”), some periods might show the average temperature as N/A (Not available), because the values corresponding to these periods have been progressively erased. In fact, when the rollover occurs, the Button keep the alarms flags but loses the values associated to this period.

Temperatures :

This tab gives you the temperatures log (2048 to 8192 last values in case of roll over) :

Blue lines correspond to temperatures below the low threshold.
Red lines correspond to temperature above the high threshold.

Clicking the column headers will sort values accordingly.

Clicking the lens opens a search box where you can type a date or a value. Thermo Track will display the first date/time corresponding.

The right button will sort the list chronologically.

On the right side of this window, you will find the numbers of data displayed, the average, the minimum and the maximum temperature.

Graph

The graph is automatically drawn when entering this tab.

Zoom on the graph :

You can select a part of the graph and zoom on a period using the mouse. Just select a start point in the high and left corner, press mouse and go to the right and down corner. The graph and the scales are then adjusted to this period.

Display options :

You can add labels on the graph showing the value, the date or both.

Send a graph per Email :

You can send an image of the graph directly as it appears on the screen by clicking on the email button.

Choose the format of the image to be attached to your email (JPEG and GIF formats are recommended); the BMP format is larger and will take longer to send. An email is prepared directly, with the image attached, whose name is composed of the serial number of the Button, the date and time of the reading.

Display data points :

You can choose to display or not the data points on clicking this button.

Information table :

This table summarizes the mission and the zoom window, giving the start and the end date, the average, the high and the low value.

Note Pad :

The note pad is a convenient tool to create and attach a report to the mission. You can enter here text, tables and images.

You can paste the alarm table (copy it with the right click first) or a copy of the graph (using the insert button). You can resize the graph if needed and print your report.

Practical : If you archive data, your report will be automatically saved with them. You will be able to amend or to correct your report when you reopen it.

Export :

You can export the temperature log into Excel by clicking this button.

Print :

You can print :

The alarm listing.
The temperatures list.
The graph.
The note pad.

When you have chosen the report to print, a preview is displayed. Now you can:

Export the report into Word.
Send it by email (send an image).
Send by email (using a PDF).
Create a PDF document.

For the personalization of the reports (your logo, your address can appear on each report that you print), see paragraph 3.3 Personalized footers.

Sterilization / Pasteurization

Thermo Track can calculate these values for you. Just click the « Ster. / Past » button.

Now select the process to test :

Pasteurization : the default values are 70 for T and 10 for z.
Sterilization : the default values are 121 for T and 12 for z.
Manual : this option allows you to enter T and z.

You also can choose selection criteria (temperature above X or between X and Y).

According these parameters, different periods are displayed, showing the start and end date, the duration and the calculated value.

There is another mean to check if the sterilization or pasteurization process has been reached is to use the “Ster. / Past” in the main menu.

First mission a button using the Sterilization or Pasteurization mission profile where you have entered the sample rate, the temporization and the high alarm threshold (Mission/Sterilization/Pasteurization configuration).
By checking your button after the sterilization or pasteurization process, use the « Ster. / Past.” Icon and a window will appear, indicating if the process has succeeded of failed. Close the window or press the button to operate a complete download on the button.

Updated on 29/08/2023

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