Seneye device

[yellowbellied]

has anyone had a chance to use the Seneye devices?

[Silas]

I ordered one a few weeks ago, there was a deal on the net. Item shipped fast across the pond. Soak the slide for 48 hours and put the unit in the tank. Here is what I found.

pH reading.. about 0.55 higher when compare to pin-point, a $4000 lab grade Thermo Fisher Scientific ORION 4 Star with lab grade probe and the simple pH test kit from Seachem that were just calibrated with 7.0 / 10.0 buffer solution and tested with 8.0 buffer solution.

Temp reading.. about 1 degree lower than a calibrated Fluke temp meter.

I did not test the NH4.

I do not have a colour temp meter to compare with the Seneye. But common sense say it is way off...

I have 48 3w CREE 7000K LED and 96 3w CREE 460nm blue LED in the system.
The seneye light meter report par value of 6.2, 228 LUX and 2500K kevin of colour temp. Sometime, it doesn't shows any kevin reading at all. The Seneye module was hand held, light sensor facing under the lights at all depth. I also tested the unit with all the white LED off, leaving just the blue. It went up to about 3000K. I also turned all the blue off, leaving just the 7000K white on, no difference in reading result.

The float option is not very useful. It doesn't stay level with three MP40ES doing it's thing. Thus, creating different reading.

The seneye s/w hangs the system if you leave it running. Most of the time the collection stop after a few hours. For sure, at day end, the s/w will die. Tried it with XP SP3 and WIN7, no difference in stability.

The web base reporting is very slow.

Connected their tech support last Tuesday about my issues, received a reply the following day from John Wright explaining how their pH device work but offer no solution to my issues. Since then, after repeated request, I have not heard back.

As with most reef system, after a few days, purple starts to appear on the unit. There is no direction on what to clean it with. Hate to damage the sensor if using the wrong solution.

Be interesting to hear if others in this forum had tried this unit and what their experiance are. I could have a bad unit, those thing does happen.

Hope this help. Will post more once I have additional info.

[andyrm66]

I bought it for $139 for a par meter, thats all I wanted out of it. Dont trust the pH yet on it. Soon it will do alk and nitrate with the digistip. Just for the par meter, Im happy.

[Silas]

I need to locate an accurate par meter to compare the Seneye's PAR reading. But somehow just by common sense, I don't think 48 3w CREE 7000K LED and 96 3w CREE 460nm blue LED gives out only 6.2 Pars. or 228 lux.;)

Have you compare your reading with another device? or you belives what you see is correct?

[andyrm66]

My 400 watt xm 10k says 8 par, when I have the seneye on the suction cup on the side of the tank. When I put it on the sand bed, I get correct readings of 300 to 1500-1800 at the surface.

If in fact you are measuring the light, as the manual says to, with the unit flat and the sensor pointing up, I would say your unit is broken.
Here is a old 20k bulb.
<a href="http://s369.photobucket.com/albums/oo140/andyrm66/Sale/?action=view&amp;current=20k400SE.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo140/andyrm66/Sale/20k400SE.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Silas]

yes, I have the sensor facing up when I took these reading. Did your Seneye report 10K with your 10K MH? 20K with the 20K bulb?

Are you using other PAR meter to confirm the reading?

How does your pH compare?

[andyrm66]

My ph seems off from my pinpoint monitor, but it hasnt been calibrated in over 18 months. I could care less about color tempture. I cant remember what it reported. But with the new 10k, it did say 8-9k, which considering the bulb was brand new, works for me. The one sole reason I bought it was the par meter. I take it with me when I go to a friends to get corals, if I know his coral on my meter was getting 400 par, I can then find a spot in my tank that has 400 par on my meter. I havent compared with a quantum meter, though those are known to underestimate par, in the blue range by 20%. Everyone that has seen the numbers on the par think they are very close to what they should be. With 20k I dont remember what it said, but also remember, those numbers, are what bulb makers, thinks it looks like. They are not a real tested number. Im not sure on the ph. I am curious to see how the alkalinity and nitrates and nitrites work out when they come out with that. Regardless, for $139, Im happy with the PAR meter part of it. Especilly if I ever go to LEDS.

[dimitrge]

Whats the service run a month with it?

[andyrm66]

$10 if you want it, for ph and nh4, PAR/temp doesnt need serrvice

[Silas]

cheaper if you buy the bulk pack. If I can't resolve this issue, I will have plenty to unload. The pH monitoring alert, temp alert was the reason I purchase this. With pH reporting so far off, my cell phone been busy telling me my tank is about to crush due to high pH. Lucky that their s/w is unstable and die after a few hours and the alert stop.:eek1: