Interested to know if anyone has a Seneye (http://www.seneye.com/), what they think of it. Among other things, it is a PAR meter, which seems good for costing less than $200. I think I'm going to order one.
So I've had my Seneye running for about a month. It's OK, not great.
The Good:
The Bad:
- Cheap PAR meter (seems accurate)
Accuracy:
These two issues combine to throw all the other calculations into question, since pH and temperature affect all sorts of other parameters.
- The pH is always off vs a calibrated probe (by about 2/10ths)
- The temperature was also off by about 2 degrees
Alerting:
- I had a power outage last Friday, which caused my heat to drop below threshold, and then my vinegar pump came on and stayed on dosing the pH below threshold. Neither caused an alert email to be sent, even though the Seneye is directly connected to a computer all the time.
Hey jason my seneye has the same exact inaccuracies with temp and PH. The only reason why i trust the seneye PAR meter is because i tested it side by side with an apogee meter.
Their site/service leaves a lot to be desired right now (fixable though):
View attachment 3261 So, 2 weeks of data there, where the temperature is incredibly stable (2 degree difference between highest and lowest), but the site is saying 'Caution in 11 hours'... It ALWAYS says caution in x hours. Always. For both temperature and pH. Useless.
- As mentioned, alerts don't seem to be firing correctly
- 'Trending' logic is totally flawed. Here's an example:
I'm still hoping they'll fix the issues, it's got a lot of promise. The PAR meter seems accurate, and because of that I still recommend folks get one, if that's what they're looking for. Right now, the other functions are just broken... I mean, wrong temperature, wrong pH, that means that it can't give you correct NH4 readings. It fails there, except that I do believe that it correctly tells me pH is rising or falling or higher than usual. Except that right now alerts don't work. Argh.
Yeah, I don't think the temperature warning is due to being close to the threshold, pH does the same thing:
View attachment 3266
The sensor is in my DT, back wall. It gets decent flow there, heaters and all that sort of fun are far away. Their algorithms are just wrong. You can tell their whole site was developed off-shore, they're not a tech company per se. So they're telling some software shop in Ukraine or India or China "make it show graphs" and they make it show graphs, but the devs are not fish keepers, so the exact product reasons for certain things are getting lost in translation. Other examples are the graphs don't give the units they're measuring in... ppm? Maybe. Give them enough time, they'll fix it.
Their bigger problem is a lack of transparency. They don't have any forums or 'real' FAQs available. Their FAQ is a marketing FAQ. And maybe that's fine, many other companies in the industry kind of sneak by that way, like those snake-oil companies that sell magnetic 'water conditioners' (that do absolutely nothing). But it'd be bad if Seneye went that route, they really should be soliciting input to fix their product, and giving some insight into their process... Like when the new sensors will be available. Will the slides I have now still be useful then, or will I need to discard my current slides and use the new ones? That sort of simple thing, they just don't communicate.
I think it's basically a decent device, the PAR meter is worth it, the other sensors are substandard, but if it shows your pH dropping, your pH *IS* dropping, just don't trust the actual numeric reading, same for temperature, same for NH4, and probably same for the other parameters they say it will eventually support. It's not absolutely accurate, but relative, it's good.
I need to make a correction on this. Jason, you are in fact correct about the PH being off. My Pinpoint was reading "low battery", which inherently in the past has provided me with incorrect readings when that happens.
I changed the battery, and the Pinpoint is reading about 7.97 - 7.98, and the Seneye is reading 8.23. I have an email out to Matt at Seneye to see if he can shed some light on this for us.
I will keep you posted as to what his response is.