Many thanks for your suggestions. The UNI-T UT372 looks like it might do the trick although it’s hard to get concise information as to what they mean with their description of logging. At 1:39 at this video, it looks like it might have some useful features but hard to tell since the spec data is so sparse when it comes to talking about the logging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWI2stg6w80 I see there is also a UT373 but it doesn’t look like it does any logging and doesn’t even have a USB port like the UT372.
One thing I noticed on Amazon is that a reviewer claimed that it can only work on a ‘rotating face’, and doesn’t work on a curved surface like the side of a shaft. That’s a bit of a deficiency for many applications. I’m not sure about that… at this link, a guy reviewed the UT373 and it didn’t look like it had any problems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZhTI8sjr_U
As for the Arduino, I’ll give that to one of the kids in my office to work on for me!
Thanks again… It may take a while but I’ll let you know how I make out!
Found the software manual for the UT372.
Will not run on Linux!!! Since the grandson dropped my wife’s MS Surface nothing in this house is MS Windows, only a small chip in the corner of the screen.
I worked hard to resurrect her Windows...but it would run Linux.
They note that 50,000 records are the upper limit so it depends on the sampling rate, once a second; maybe ~6 hours.
Depends on how close you are watching.
YMMV
Maximum Number of Records Setting
After testing, below list out a normal maximum number of records that a computer can be saved for user’s reference. The computer will
slow down if it exceeds the maximum. 80486 computer: 1000 to 5000 records 80586 computer: 5000 to 50000 records Pentium 2 or up:
50000 records up To set the maximum number of records from the “Record”of the menu bar.