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PAR Measurement

jaypeecee

jaypeecee

Member
Joined
21 Jan 2015
Messages
2,921
Location
Bracknell
Hi Folks,

Although I have a spectrometer, which enables me to check freshwater aquarium lighting spectra, I do not have a PAR sensor/meter. And I don't like guesswork. So, I'd like to hire/borrow/purchase a decent PAR sensor/meter. The Apogee range looks interesting. I am drawn to the Apogee SQ-520, which can operate as a standalone PAR sensor/datalogger. It can be plugged into a computer USB port for analysis of results. It's not cheap at just under £300.

Has anyone else looked into PAR measurement and found some gems that may have escaped my attention?

JPC
 
foxfish said:
Unfortunately I don’t have any up to date input to give you but at one time, maybe five years back, this forum was very keen on discussing PAR.
£300 sounds a lot cheaper than the meters were at that time.
Click to expand...

Hi foxfish,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

I wonder why discussion about PAR has fallen from favour compared with five years ago. But, now that you have mentioned it, I'll do some more searching on here to see what I can unearth. I'm also interested in your comment about the price seemingly having dropped over that time frame.

JPC
 
I guess it's the very few data ( almost no manufacturer gives solid data) and the investment in expensive meters that killed the discussion. Far easier to qoute the oldfashioned and outdated Lux or lumen:banghead: which every deales seems to provide.
Using PAR would be best imo.
 
Looked into this quite a bit a while back the SQ-520 was out then but the MQ-210 still worked out great for the job from my reading around and handy as handheld, even looked into using the output form the sensor to my PLC which would of worked but the PLC didnt measure the output sensitive enough for it to be of valve IMO so the hand held MQ-210 was probably the best way forward, I googled and couldnt get a price in the UK and couldnt get anyone to import one to the UK either from the states.

Did get a quote for the SQ-520 from Campbellsci and it was £352 plus postage and VAT back in June 2017

So gave up 🙄
 
Zeus. said:
Looked into this quite a bit a while back the SQ-520 was out then but the MQ-210 still worked out great for the job from my reading around and handy as handheld, even looked into using the output form the sensor to my PLC which would of worked but the PLC didnt measure the output sensitive enough for it to be of valve IMO so the hand held MQ-210 was probably the best way forward, I googled and couldnt get a price in the UK and couldnt get anyone to import one to the UK either from the states.

Did get a quote for the SQ-520 from Campbellsci and it was £352 plus postage and VAT back in June 2017

So gave up 🙄
Click to expand...

Hi @Zeus.,

The MQ-210 stops short at 655nm so that's why I ruled it out. I haven't got a quote yet from Campbell Scientific but I do know that Amazon (US) have reduced the price of the SQ-520 by $54 from the original price. Amazon (US) can deliver the SQ-520 to the UK. But, it might be good publicity for Campbell if they could say that they supplied UKAPS with Apogee products. If enough people were interested, we could perhaps ask for a discount. Just a thought.

JPC
 
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