Opple light master III review: measuring the quality of home light

Incandescent lamps are ending their life, they have been replaced by LED and other energy-saving light sources. But do they all provide comfortable light for the eyes? Now you do not need an expensive and rare device to determine important parameters: the level of ripples and incorrect color reproduction. Enough Opple light master III, it measures four parameters of the light source and shows in an accessible form in a mobile application on your smartphone.

Specifications

• Device type: light source parameter meter

• Measured parameters: illumination, color rendering, color temperature, ripple level

• Illumination measurement limit: 0…50000 lx

• Color temperature measurement range: 2000…25000 K

• Accuracy: 5%

• Smartphone connection: Bluetooth

• Mobile software: Light Master Pro for Android/iOS

• Battery capacity: 80mAh

• Charging connector: micro usb

• Operating temperature: -10…+40°C

• Dimensions: 60x38x20 mm

• Weight: 43 g.

Packing and completeness

The device was bought on Aliexpress, delivery by Russian Post in a couple of weeks. The light master III comes in a small cardboard box. The measured values ​​are indicated there and a QR code for the mobile application is immediately given.

The device is made in China. Opple is from the same place, founded in 1996. There is no information about the warranty.

The delivery set is minimalistic, look for a micro-usb cable for charging yourself. But the storage case is available, the fabric is soft, there are laces.

Appearance

The device is made in a miniature aluminum case of oval section. Ends made of plastic. Made by light master III with high quality, it’s nice to hold in your hands. Bottom charging port and LED indicator.

To transfer to the position for measurements, we put forward the working part by pressing on the case from below. She walks along the guide on the side. The part with sensors (3 cm) leaves and is fixed with a click. There are: a large white circle — a diffuser for the light sensor (photocell), next to it is a pulsation sensor and a flashing white LED (indicator).

In fact, everything, the device is ready to work, it remains to connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth. The smartphone screen will show the measured values.

Well, you still need to charge before use. 1.5 h with very low current:

Mobile app

The software is quite simple, even a beginner will understand. Minimum settings. Communication with a smartphone in a couple of seconds.

We turn to the tabs that directly relate to measurements (there are two of them, each with 2 sections). Let’s measure at the same time the natural light from the window (north side). Sunlight on a fine day is interpreted correctly from the measurements (see below).

The first page — here the illumination from the light source (in lux), color temperature (CCT in Kelvin) and color rendering index (Ra or CRI) are measured. Next, the color coordinates of the source in the diagram (CIE 1931).

The second page is responsible for the pulsations of the light source, here the frequency, modulation depth and its reduced pulsation coefficient are available. For the layman, there is a color visual graph according to the principle “dangerous — not dangerous”. Next, the ripple graph (almost like in an oscilloscope).

Exploitation

With such a device, as with the purchase of a dosimeter, you begin to measure EVERYTHING.

For clarity of work, we will inspect the home lamps that I constantly use.

Let’s start with the Xiaomi Mijia MJTD03YL stand-alone table lamp (5 W, 3 modes).

To compare the illumination readings, there is a MASTECH MS6612S light meter. Here is what the Opple light master III shows in the same place. But at the minimum “night light” (dimming) mode, the ripples increase sharply.

Next, check out the excellent Yeelight YLTD003 backlit monitor lamp. There is a full review here.

Opple light master III and a light meter are on the table, the lamp is on the monitor. Ripple measured at brightness 1% and 100%. The light gives a quality, proven.

Let’s move on to the Yeelight YLDP005 lamp (E27, 8 W, RGB available) that hangs in my kitchen. When I measured the light parameters, I found a source of high pulsations, it turned out to be an additional LED light bulb in the kitchen (it needs to be replaced). Separately, the YLDP005 lamp does not have this.

And finally, “ancient” technologies. We screw in a warm 95 W incandescent lamp instead of a smart LED. 100Hz flicker is expected. You can compare brightness and color temperature at the same measurement location.

I measured all the light sources in the apartment, the light master III device even notices pulsations that are not visible on the camera. The accuracy of measurements for the household level is quite enough, no obvious errors with light sources with known parameters were noticed.

Conclusion

Opple light master III is not new, tested by thousands of people. There is a large discussion thread on it on the fonarevka.ru forum. The general conclusion is that the device is quite successful, inexpensive and accurate, suitable for a comprehensive check and comparison of light sources. Determining source ripples (which affect health) is now pretty easy.

Bought the device here. Shares periodically slip, the price drops below 1500 rubles.

Collections on the topic of good light:

Table lamps for reading

Interesting interior lamps

Monitor lamps

Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the shopping!