Anyone us a LightingPassport spectrometer?

T

ThePlantInc

Member
Has anyone had experience with a LightingPassport:

http://www.lightingpassport.com/

It looks to be a fairly decent meter providing a lot of useful information and has an app focused on lighting for agriculture. Measures the standard things plus PPFD, YPFD and DLI.

That does bring up an interesting point as well; you guys should be looking to measure your lights real time with meters in the operating environments rather than only on spreadsheets. There are a number of environmental factors that can impact performance plus you could also validate the performance of your DIY creations.

To that end, would you guys 'standardize' on some form of useful measurement taken at certain characteristics so that it could be used for comparisons. PPFD is nice, but I think YPFD tells a better story, and DLI takes it a step further to something meaningful to a normal person.

These units are pricey at ~$1500 but they are quite competitively priced for the market. If you are doing a lot of building it is probably worthwhile to get. Before I order one I would like to know if any one has some feedback, recommendations or advice that can help me with spectrometers.

Thanks in advance.
 
loftygoals

loftygoals

Well-Known Member
Very suspicious post.

"you guys should be looking to measure..."
"would you guys 'standardize' on some form..."
"units are pricey at ~$1500 but they are quite competitively priced for the market"
"If you are doing a lot of building it is probably worthwhile to get"

Are all the sort of thing a manufacturer would say to sell their product. Not the sort of thing a consumer asking for advice would typically say. I may be wrong... but if you look on Asesnsetek's website you'll see they're currently marketing heavily at trade shows. So I'm willing to bet this is an over enthusiastic marketing guy.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Just so it's clear, the spreadsheets from SupraSPL were created empirically, using actual measurements to validate the performance of our DIY creations.

Also, our good friend @Malocan has a thread here demonstrating the Gigahertz-Optik MSC15 spectroradiometer https://www.rollitup.org/t/spectral-lightmeter-gigahertz-optik-msc15.913239/

In addition, multiple members have PAR meters at various price levels that have been used to take measurements for years for everything from PPFD footprints to reflector performance to cob comparisons.

So, ad or not, none of this is new, as even a cursory interest in this subforum would show.
 
BM9AGS

BM9AGS

Well-Known Member
Haha you quoted hybridways post on how we all learned about Inv sq law.... Thanks for reminding me.

Anyone. In Colorado Springs wanna come do some measurements with their par meter? If you show up with an iPhone app I'll stab you.....

Is this off topic? I'm new here....
 
T

ThePlantInc

Member
loftygoals said:
Very suspicious post.

"you guys should be looking to measure..."
"would you guys 'standardize' on some form..."
"units are pricey at ~$1500 but they are quite competitively priced for the market"
"If you are doing a lot of building it is probably worthwhile to get"

Are all the sort of thing a manufacturer would say to sell their product. Not the sort of thing a consumer asking for advice would typically say. I may be wrong... but if you look on Asesnsetek's website you'll see they're currently marketing heavily at trade shows. So I'm willing to bet this is an over enthusiastic marketing guy.
Click to expand...
Quite funny the responses - especially the automatic jump to me being some sort of vendor or association with one.

No, I actually just wanted some feedback and advice on something that properly measures light for plant use. Thought that someone here, especially the members who have commercial offerings, would have used a variety of measuring devices to test and validate their products. For a researcher it would be very handy to have something for use out in the field as lugging around a 3m sphere is unpractical and would appear quite strange....

I went searching around and found the lightingpassport along with a few other devices (Minolta, MK350, Sekonic) that measured PPFD and other characteristics. DLI I have seen referenced in some research presentations and YPFD may prove to be a more effective measure than PPFD. If I recall correctly, I have seen another member mention YPFD in a post either on this or another forum so I believed that I was just continuing the conversation on.

Regarding the spreadsheets comment, sorry but the numbers do not represent real world performance. Potential, sure, but just like anything else there has to be something to measure and validate performance in operation. There are a number of factors that can impact performance of the end product - manufacturing methods, quality control, material used, etc. If a vendor is promoting a product to perform at a certain level then they should be able to demonstrate that performance using a standardized measurement by an independent third party.

Plus it is a really good idea that your quality control process has the ability to measure the intended functionality of your product. Just relying on the component manufacturers binning specs won't catch all errors in their manufacturing process.

Anyhow I just thought I would post the thread before I picked one up. Nothing to sell, nothing to promote, I just use this forum as an information resource.
 
BM9AGS

BM9AGS

Well-Known Member
ThePlantInc said:
Quite funny the responses - especially the automatic jump to me being some sort of vendor or association with one.

No, I actually just wanted some feedback and advice on something that properly measures light for plant use. Thought that someone here, especially the members who have commercial offerings, would have used a variety of measuring devices to test and validate their products. For a researcher it would be very handy to have something for use out in the field as lugging around a 3m sphere is unpractical and would appear quite strange....

I went searching around and found the lightingpassport along with a few other devices (Minolta, MK350, Sekonic) that measured PPFD and other characteristics. DLI I have seen referenced in some research presentations and YPFD may prove to be a more effective measure than PPFD. If I recall correctly, I have seen another member mention YPFD in a post either on this or another forum so I believed that I was just continuing the conversation on.

Regarding the spreadsheets comment, sorry but the numbers do not represent real world performance. Potential, sure, but just like anything else there has to be something to measure and validate performance in operation. There are a number of factors that can impact performance of the end product - manufacturing methods, quality control, material used, etc. If a vendor is promoting a product to perform at a certain level then they should be able to demonstrate that performance using a standardized measurement by an independent third party.

Plus it is a really good idea that your quality control process has the ability to measure the intended functionality of your product. Just relying on the component manufacturers binning specs won't catch all errors in their manufacturing process.

Anyhow I just thought I would post the thread before I picked one up. Nothing to sell, nothing to promote, I just use this forum as an information resource.
Click to expand...
Well then Update your website.

You don't have a graph showing how sensitive it is on the spectral response curve.... Just saying it works from this nm to that mm doesn't tell me shit. I wouldn't buy it for led

You say nothing on what the optic is or what is used to gather light.

The reputable companies talk about these things. You just got a lot of fancy words but no accurate info on how it's done.....could just be a bang-wiz Lux meter with some good idea calculations.
 
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JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
ThePlantInc said:
If a vendor is promoting a product to perform at a certain level then they should be able to demonstrate that performance using a standardized measurement by an independent third party.
Click to expand...
Not a single seller here has tested even one fixture, let alone all, by an independent third party. It's the elephant in the room, lots of talk about sphere testing, no actual results. Meanwhile everybody keeps happily selling 3590 lights claiming this PPF or that PPFD, without ever having sent a fixture off to be tested.

Does it matter? My money is on the 3590 kicking ass, and 1825, and Vero 29, but optics and power supplies affect PPF and efficiency, and all these lights are being built and sold with no sphere data showing real efficiency in a completed fixture.

Anyway, none of this is solved by a $1500 instrument. More like $150,000 and $500 rental.
 
T

ThePlantInc

Member
So no actual useful information? I was kind of hoping for something from someone intelligent, not just the trolling parrots that improperly use big words like 'empirically' to try and appear intelligent.

As I had stated, the spectrometers are needed for use out in the field, not in a lab. By real researchers with real education and real degrees running real studies backed by real money. Research funding is hard to come by and you want to get the best value possible while still maintaining the required standards. These units at ~$1500 are cheaper than the aforementioned models that are ~$2,000-5000 per. When looking at 30 units, that can result in savings of more than $15,000. That makes it prudent to do your research before buying.

I did get useful information from the Cinematic industry which has much higher standards for precise light measurement than the horticultural industry. They were quite helpful folks and there wasn't any of the ignorant comments like those posted in this thread.

Guess I shouldn't have expected much from a bunch of pot heads. Many of which have a difficult time growing a versatile and prolific plant species that can grow anywhere. It is referred to as a weed for a reason.

Nonetheless there was some tidbits of helpful information that I got from this thread. It is good to know that none of the vendors here even test their products so that easily excludes them from consideration for any serious commercial operation or research usage. At least you can get Asian manufacturers' products and manufacturing processes to be certified by third parties which is a requirement in the scientific community.

With the quick advancements in LED technology, and with Cree releasing their horticulture reference design, most of the CoB based products will be gone in relative short order. There is a good reason that the reference design uses discrete emitters rather than CoBs which is fairly obvious to those with formal education in the relevant areas.

Let's see how long it takes before you 'experts' figure it out.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
So I'm the only one not calling you a shill, agreeing with some of your points, and you still go into full insult troll mode. Interesting. Very interesting.

I'm sure I misuse words all the time, but where I come from, "empirical" isn't a word used to sound intelligent, or one that would even be noticed in casual conversation. You must have dumb friends.
 
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MrTwist1

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
ThePlantInc said:
So no actual useful information? I was kind of hoping for something from someone intelligent, not just the trolling parrots that improperly use big words like 'empirically' to try and appear intelligent.

As I had stated, the spectrometers are needed for use out in the field, not in a lab. By real researchers with real education and real degrees running real studies backed by real money. Research funding is hard to come by and you want to get the best value possible while still maintaining the required standards. These units at ~$1500 are cheaper than the aforementioned models that are ~$2,000-5000 per. When looking at 30 units, that can result in savings of more than $15,000. That makes it prudent to do your research before buying.

I did get useful information from the Cinematic industry which has much higher standards for precise light measurement than the horticultural industry. They were quite helpful folks and there wasn't any of the ignorant comments like those posted in this thread.

Guess I shouldn't have expected much from a bunch of pot heads. Many of which have a difficult time growing a versatile and prolific plant species that can grow anywhere. It is referred to as a weed for a reason.

Nonetheless there was some tidbits of helpful information that I got from this thread. It is good to know that none of the vendors here even test their products so that easily excludes them from consideration for any serious commercial operation or research usage. At least you can get Asian manufacturers' products and manufacturing processes to be certified by third parties which is a requirement in the scientific community.

With the quick advancements in LED technology, and with Cree releasing their horticulture reference design, most of the CoB based products will be gone in relative short order. There is a good reason that the reference design uses discrete emitters rather than CoBs which is fairly obvious to those with formal education in the relevant areas.

Let's see how long it takes before you 'experts' figure it out.
Click to expand...
Don't let the door hit you on the way out ;)
 
T

ThePlantInc

Member
Still no responses from someone that has used the device?

12 responses from people who haven't used the device (most likely any spectrometer at all) yet they seem to have some very strong opinions on the subject.
 
T

ThePlantInc

Member
Incorrect. I care. Apparently the CoB vendors care. They don't want you to validate the performance of their products. After all, how would you know if they aren't using lower quality components? The only way to know is to test.
 
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