VOTEM

The VOTEM was a hardware/software package that could measure, display and record real world analog signals via the cassette input. Any physical phenomenon (pressure, light temperature, etc.) that could be represented by a DC voltage could be measured.

The name of the product came from the fact that it could measure VOltage and TEMperature. The design incorporated a DIP switch to allow connection between terminals for voltage, external temperature probe, and an internal temperature sensor.

A built-in tape signal conditioner circuit allowed for loading tapes at lower volume, resulting in less noise. It came with temperature probe and 35 page manual.

Ray Mills and Alger Salt developed the VOTEM in the early 1980s. It used the Analog Devices AD537 voltage-to-frequency converter to measure voltages presented to the input of the VOTEM.

They sold a few hundred, including many outside the States.

One was sold to a college engineering group that used it in a project that went on one of the space shuttles. The VOTEM was used in an experiment to manufacture hollow spheres in zero gravity. The experiment failed but the VOTEM measured the temperature inside the space shuttle cargo bay.

Medi Products of Salt Lake City, a medical instrument company, designed a system to “reclean and resterilize artificial kidneys” around the Timex Sinclair 1000, VOTEM and other hardware.

Other applications included interfacing to laboratory instruments such as pH meters and spectrometers, weather monitors, etc.

Fred Nachbaur wrote a data acquisition tool called VDAQ1-HR (“VOTEM Data Acquisition – Hi Res”). His version allowed for multi-screen acquisition, variable scale and timebase. Could measure frequency without the VOTEM.