Recommended light meter for LEDs under $150

Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
the par meter without question...

par meters and lux meters do the same thing .....measure light but achieve it differently....
At the very least the par meter has a filter to help cutoff stray light below 400nm and above 700nm and then an algorithim that weights across the spectrum measuring its intensity at that moment.....lux meter falls into a similar reading with no filters as visual light mostly falls into the par range...the problem with lux is to get consistent readings....have to unbias 565nm and then weight equally across the spectrum.....
 
DudebeDoobie

DudebeDoobie

Well-Known Member
My par meter that's brand-new has a short in it and works intermittently so I may get one of these iPhone apps and compare the two
 
S

Shugglet

Well-Known Member
Any lux meter will work.

Take your lux reading and divide it by your par reading, there is your conversion factor.
 
DudebeDoobie

DudebeDoobie

Well-Known Member
MeGaKiLlErMaN said:
Free two day shipping of you have prime

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055F59LA/ref=asc_df_B0055F59LA4863719/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B0055F59LA&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167118301188&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17389784458619543777&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016904&hvtargid=pla-273829578650
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Yes, I bought this one on Amazon prime. I'm sending it back because it's defective. Do you have one and does it work correctly?
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
DudebeDoobie said:
Yes, I bought this one on Amazon prime. I'm sending it back because it's defective. Do you have one and does it work correctly?
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I have the same meter and i love it.now my first one came and it worked fine but would lose its battery charge after sitting for 2 days or so.i sent it back and they got me a brand new unit in about 3 days and it holds a charge for a long time unless i use it alot like several hours use.but if i charge it fully it will be good to go 3 weeks later when needed. This meter is adjusted for led lighting as well.good shit :)
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
Shugglet said:
Any lux meter will work.

Take your lux reading and divide it by your par reading, there is your conversion factor.
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I dont agree with this .lux meters all light where par meters are tuned much more to the specific range of light plants use for photosynthesis. Aka par photosyntheticly active range.
 
DudebeDoobie

DudebeDoobie

Well-Known Member
I'm returning the defective one and getting a replacement. Does anybody have a quick link to an article that explains clearly what I should be looking for? I think I'm on the right path but could always use some good reading. I'm in veg & shooting for around 200-250 mol at the moment.
 
DudebeDoobie

DudebeDoobie

Well-Known Member
sixstring2112 said:
I dont agree with this .lux meters all light where par meters are tuned much more to the specific range of light plants use for photosynthesis. Aka par photosyntheticly active range.
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I downloaded one and played with it. I do like the fact that it tells color temperature.
 
S

Shugglet

Well-Known Member
sixstring2112 said:
I dont agree with this .lux meters all light where par meters are tuned much more to the specific range of light plants use for photosynthesis. Aka par photosyntheticly active range.
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Using a lux meter and making a conversion is plenty accurate for any personal purposes. He's not selling lights, he's growing plants. Also the conversion factor accounts for most of the light outside the par range, and even if it didn't it wouldn't matter.

How does a par meter help you more than a lux meter plus conversion would? Serious question.
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
Shugglet said:
Using a lux meter and making a conversion is plenty accurate for any personal purposes. He's not selling lights, he's growing plants. Also the conversion factor accounts for most of the light outside the par range, and even if it didn't it wouldn't matter.

How does a par meter help you more than a lux meter plus conversion would? Serious question.
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please show the math.....there are too many assumptions here....apar meter measures 400-700nm and the lux meter doesnt

gettingclose is fine i agree but with a baseline.....because maybe wavelenghts 600-700 might be skewed by the lux meter and then howwould you know? guess......?
 
S

Shugglet

Well-Known Member
Abiqua said:
please show the math.....there are too many assumptions here....apar meter measures 400-700nm and the lux meter doesnt

gettingclose is fine i agree but with a baseline.....because maybe wavelenghts 600-700 might be skewed by the lux meter and then howwould you know? guess......?
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Let me ask you guys this, how does a par meter help you more than me and my lux meter?

I plan on making a thread on this topic sometime today most likely.

Let me also ask this do you actually use your meter to figure out the plants optimal ppfd or do you use a chart online to figure out an arbitrary ppfd. Using the latter method why do you need a precise measurement when you're only looking to achieve a ballpark figure?

The kicker is you can achieve the former goal of actually optimizing the plants ppfd with either a lux or parmeter.
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
sixstring2112 said:
I dont agree with this .lux meters all light where par meters are tuned much more to the specific range of light plants use for photosynthesis. Aka par photosyntheticly active range.
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Those cheap PAR meters are pretty much just lux meters with a conversion table and/or a bit of extra filter. They can easily be 20% off.

If all you are using that light meter for is testing uniformity then you can just as well use a lux meter.
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
Abiqua said:
please show the math.....there are too many assumptions here....apar meter measures 400-700nm and the lux meter doesnt

gettingclose is fine i agree but with a baseline.....because maybe wavelenghts 600-700 might be skewed by the lux meter and then howwould you know? guess......?
Click to expand...
It doesn't have to measure the whole range. You can calculate a conversion factor for the spectrum you are using and based on that you can concert the lumen value to a PAR value. That's actually pretty accurate. I'd be very surprised if a cheap PAR meter would be more accurate than simply dividing the lux measurement by say 69 (depending on spectrum).

Those cheap PAR meters are very inaccurate in anything but sunlight. So you will only get some baseline figure from those.
 
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