Help improve my setup/growing practices

[Stilg7]

Wow thanks for the info on the app guys. Is it worth it to buy the extras to fit your light type?

 

[LabRat]

Wow thanks for the info on the app guys. Is it worth it to buy the extras to fit your light type?

What extras? My FOMO is stirred up now.

 

[LabRat]

This is exactly what I thought too. Try to hold the phone flat and keep the front sensor of the phone in the middle of the diffuser cap (not sure if you can use elastic bands, etc to keep it in place. I see 3 sensors on the front of your phone, so make sure your diffuser is placed on the correct sensor. On my iPhone 12, the readings seem pretty accurate.

I need to order some stuff from amazon so might just get a $40 light meter of some type so I can compare it to the apps and dial one or both in.

 

[Delps8]

Wow thanks for the info on the app guys. Is it worth it to buy the extras to fit your light type?

Without it, it's a lux meter. The "extras" are the adjustments that allow the phone sensor to give a light reading about the PAR values coming from the light source you've selected.

A white light LED has a different spectrum than a blurple than a CMS than a T5. The sensor in the iPhone is, essentially, a lux meter that reads a very wide spectrum of light. That's because it's designed to take pictures. Only some of that light is "PAR", photosynthetically active radiation = what's used by plants to carry out photosynthesis.

When you purchase a light "type" in Photone, that set of settings is used by the software so that it analyses only those parts of what the sensor is reading that are in the light type that you've selected. If you're using a T5, that's going to be generating a lot of blue and, perhaps, UV. But the sensor is reading the entire spectrum of human visible light. Since the T5 isn't putting out much of anything except blue, a lux meter will read that as "dim". But, wait one! Plants use blue light. By purchasing the fluorescent//T5 set of adjustments, the software will throw out the data it got for the green, red, and IR that the sensor picked up and will give you a more accurate reading about the T5.

One analogy that came to mind is "Separate that wheat from the chaff". That's what the different settings will do. Without them, Photone can't do much. That's not a knock on the app, it's just that's how the software has to work to give an accurate reading.

 

[Delps8]

I need to order some stuff from amazon so might just get a $40 light meter of some type so I can compare it to the apps and dial one or both in.

A lux meter will give you information about a much broader spectrum of light than what plants use. Unless you can filter out the photons that are outside what plants use, the only value of a lux meter is if you're taking pictures.

If you don't want to spring for a PAR meter, go for Photone. It'll get you close.

 

[Delps8]

This is exactly what I thought too. Try to hold the phone flat and keep the front sensor of the phone in the middle of the diffuser cap (not sure if you can use elastic bands, etc to keep it in place. I see 3 sensors on the front of your phone, so make sure your diffuser is placed on the correct sensor. On my iPhone 12, the readings seem pretty accurate.

I have an iPhone XS Max (dunno the model number). The closest I got to good readings was to cut the corner off of an envelope and just drop it down over the front of the iPhone. I also made "bands" out of 20# and 22# paper but those readings were pretty flakey.

 

[Cookiemonster69]

I have a question

What light cycle so you run?

 

[Stilg7]

I have a question

What light cycle so you run?

If you're asking me, I run 20/4

 

[Cookiemonster69]

If you're asking me, I run 20/4

Okay that's good lol I just didn't want to comment saying 'try increasing your light schedule'. When you're already at the upper bracket lol

I'm using 22/2 it's going very well.

 

[LabRat]

A lux meter will give you information about a much broader spectrum of light than what plants use. Unless you can filter out the photons that are outside what plants use, the only value of a lux meter is if you're taking pictures.

If you don't want to spring for a PAR meter, go for Photone. It'll get you close.

From another experiment I ran yesterday I have no faith in these apps on my phone. I took it out in the sun and set the phone on the ground so it was always at the same angle etc. Set the light source for sunlight and the numbers were low so tried covering the sensor then exposing again and got totally different numbers every time. Same thing with the PPFD Meter app. I'm thinking my older Android 7.0 LG phone's sensor is not so good. I tried looking up which model of sensor it has but could not get any tech info which is what PPFD Meter wants to calibrate to my phone.

Just the fact the numbers bounce around so much it makes both apps useless to me. Pisses me off as I like free stuff.

I didn't bother ordering a light meter on amazon. Just got my milligram scale and some syringe filters.