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Photone App

No3odiesShad0w

No3odiesShad0w

New member
So I've been on a bit of an education kick. Just trying to learn about light science and LEDs and the different colors and sizes. One of the light testing channels on YouTube MIGRO channel, recommended this app called Photone. It's basically an app that uses your front facing camera to calculate your PAR, your DLI based on 12,18 or 24 hours, it does lux readings and temperature of the lights in Kelvin. I wanted to know if anyone else has tried this app. I know it works very well with the apple iphone camera. I have the Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra. It's got a beast of a good camera and same sensors as the iphone.

I measured the PAR and I'm getting an average of about 900ish and when I checked the DLI I got about 60 for 18hrs. Different numbers than I got using a lux meter and conversations to get the DLI number. Seems a bit high since I'm not using CO2 but the plants seem to be handling it well enough. I'll take some pictures of readings tonight to show y'all some examples.

My thoughts are, if this app is accurate, this could be a huge game changer for a lot of ppl to get everything dialed into that sweet spot.
 
Game changer indeed. Between the Photone app and the vpd.com chart and a lot of reading, my plants have never been happier. Being able to keep my plants in the sweet spot as far as PAR and VPD is going to result in better quality, yields and it's a piece of cake once you understand how the numbers relate to each other during the plants life cycle.
 
Did you calibrate it?

I like using Photone instead of "height" charts because running lights at 80 to 85% helps keep heat down and helps lights last longer. Anyway, I usually search before I ask "Does anyone..." type questions. You'll find some people use it but not many. The best part I like using vpd is that I can trade heat for humidity and don't have to run one temperature and one humidity.
 
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I use 2 mobile apps on 2 phones adjusted to reflect the known light output of my lights at a defined height. This was taken from independent reviews using decent light meters. I have 2 lights so this makes it a bit more work to get it right.

The sensor on your phone is quite rudimentary and doesn't make calculations correctly like a proper meter would so there will always be an error, even more so when you have side lighting, but you should be able to achieve an accuracy of better than 10% which is good enough if you are not pushing limits
 
No I didn't calibrate it. According to the developer, it was calibrated using the same sensors my phone uses. I could play around with the calibration but I think on a higher end phone it should be compatible. I think calibration issues may come up with budget phones.
 
A 10% discrepancy I can live with. I try to have an even canopy but some sites will be higher than others, thus getting higher amounts of light or lower amounts for the lower bud sites. So it's been going to be exact, I just want to prevent light burn and light stress so I don't get Hermies.
 
Dimming the LEDs is precisely why I started messing with light meters. I found height charts didn't match my environment because I don't grow in a highly reflective tent. So the amount of light bouncing around and back into the sensor is less than it would be in a tent. Using the lux meter and now the Photone app is really helping me dial everything in.
 
Just downloaded the app and have been playing with it for the last hour. LOVE IT. Need to do a lot more reading on exactly what the numbers mean and how they relate but I think this is really going to help my growing
 
With the app no reason why you cannot avoid light burn.
The first clue is of course light stress and if you can identify what your genetics do behaviour wise under intense light then you can best tune it that way.
It can be a difficult balance when you are in late flower balancing the light the lower buds get relative to the tops of the highest buds.
My last grow I put up with some minor regrowth on the top 4 or so buds in an effort to get sufficient light to the lower buds.
 
I use the photone app with my Iphone. It seems to work well enough although I have no way to test it
I think Shane at Migro that said the iPhones are appeared to be “more” accurate as they use a limited number of different cameras, as compared to the many manufactures who make phones for the android OS
 
Shane reviews it on Android too and any of them, once calibrated, are within a few point of the Apogee sensor except for infrared. Calibration is super easy. Probably takes 30 seconds the second time you do it. First time maybe a few minutes to figure out which of the two methods you're going to do.
 
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Only time I had light burn is when I did it intentionally.... Out of curiosity. They burned but also shot out bananas everywhere. It was interesting. The exciting this about this app is the law of minimum. If you get everything dialed in, you can get those lights really close without adverse effects.
 
I raised the lights a bit and adjusted the dimmers. I feel a bit better about where I'm at.... Though in curious about CO2 levels since I do grow mushrooms in this room too. I could be getting a CO2 boost and I don't even realize it. Probably why they've been handling the extra light without much issue..... Minus the soil acidity. 😅
 
Gizmo - I use a little space heater on a PID to control the RH..after watching the hydrometer reading with respect to the temp I can set the pid target...There is a little oscillation with it but it can be controlled to acceptable numbers or at least for me....Adjustments are required from time to time with drastic outside weather swing...Central heat and air help alot and my crawl has a return and duct s.
 
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