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Your cart is empty.Daniel C
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2024
Here I review the Vabira VBR-300-UVAFAR meter. I also offer a similar review elsewhere of the sister product, the VBR-300 Quantum PAR meter.If you want exact light measurements, then you should pay $3,000 for a Li-Cor unit or at least $1,500 for a competitor.Likely you are reading this review because, like me, there is no chance that you will invest $3,000 in a light meter, and a less accurate model that provides decent ballpark numbers is good enough. If this is you, then read on, because you may like this meter.The light reception unit is small and easily connects to your phone via Bluetooth. Then the action occurs through the Vsensor app, which must be downloaded for free. This app does not require memberships or weird permissions.Through the app you can measure UVA and far red light. There are two useful elements to this. First, ordinary PAR meters and apps like Photone do not measure UVA or far red light. This leaves growers who use these bands guessing. This meter is not perfect but it does eliminate some of the guessing.A second useful function involves light mapping. You can have the app set up a grid of the size of your choosing and then use the meter to detect light at each grid section. In the end, you are left with independent light maps of UV and far red that show hot spots, cool spots, and average light intensity.The downside is that I know the numbers given by the meter cannot be exactly right, as I have shared. Nonetheless, until someone gifts me a Li-Cor unit, I will find this meter to be helpful.
gary
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2024
UV and IR are a must for successful replication of habitat. This is a useful tool for such a process.
pgraNTX
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2024
I got this photo flux meter to keep track of how damaging the sun's rays actually were day by day in the UVA region; the information about 730 nm in the far infrared was less interesting to me. I appreciate that it has a replaceable battery, which can of course be rechargeable if you choose, because if it had a built-in non-replaceable battery then when that goes bad after several years you have to toss the whole device, losing the value of your investment, unless you want to take the device apart and solder in place a new battery pack; a lot of easily avoidable work. Also with a built-in rechargeable battery when it needs to be recharged, wherever you are using it, you have to stop using it and wait till it recharges a-couple hours; you did bring a recharger with you didn't you?. If you use rechargeable loose batteries you can carry extras with you and just pop one in when the previous one gets low.The Vsensor app you need to download and use on your smart phone to connect to the device is very friendly and doesn't ask for any strange or invasive permissions. The fact that you need to use Bluetooth for connection and if you plan to use this to monitor light for several hours, you'll need to be sure your phone is fully charged before hand and also be sure to recharge it afterwards. My experience is that Bluetooth usage drains my battery more quickly.In conclusion highly recommend if you need information about these regions in the electromagnetic spectrum.
letmepicyou
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2023
I was pretty excited to test this out. I have a plethora of grow lights, and being able to physically quantify outputs versus believing what's on some sheet from somebody is really beneficial. I found the app on the play store (it's like, 36 mb or something like that) and it installed with no issues. Turned on Bluetooth, ran the app, scanned for the device, which it promptly found. I was then able to use it to monitor real-time light levels in the indicated spectrums. The lights I'm using right now don't put out UVA, but I do have a UV flashlight which I was able to use to test the UVA detection capabilities. And, suffice to say, both far red and UVA are detected quite accurately and reliably by this device. In short, I was impressed by nearly every part of this detector.Nearly. I do have one gripe. And it's a small one, and it shouldn't scare you away from this at all. But, as a pet peeve of mine, I have a gripe against anything that requires AA or AAA batteries (this takes 1 AAA) when it could easily be made rechargeable. As a consumer, I'd pay a few more bucks for this if I didn't have to feed it AAA batteries for the rest of my life. No, seriously. I hate putting batteries in ANYTHING.To most of you, this won't make a bit of difference. Because, in all honesty, this is a fantastic tool for $50. There are light meters that do what this does and they START around 10x the price of this. So in terms of the value you get here, it's tremendous. It lets you take real-time real-data measurements of your lights. You can use this for so many things, such as comparison tests, or monitoring LED degradation. All for pocket change, comparatively speaking. In fact, the only reason I took a star off is because of the AAA battery requirement. I'd LOVE to see them make a rechargeable version. But at the end of the day, I can't say anything negative about the value here. It does what it says, the app actually works, it actually connects with ease, and gives decent measurements in real time. And it doesn't ask me for permission for my contacts and photos. Somebody told these guys "DON'T WRECK THE APP!" And they listened.If it was rechargeable it would be perfect. I still recommend it as a valuable test tool that will save you a TON of money compared to "pro-level" products that do the same thing costing 10x more.
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