I am unaware if there are any quality meters that won't break the bank. The following meters are nice but way over my budget. Any ideas where I can find something more simplified?

ILT710 Flicker Meter

Gossen MAVOSPEC BASE

MK350N Premium Spectrometer

I don't require color screens and many bells and whistles. I'm just hoping to find a graph over time of flicker (PWM) and intensity.

bkdo Thanks for the reply! Would this be useful for displays as well? I've seen a few devices that were designed for bulbs but their reading times were as high as 2 times a second.

  • bkdo replied to this.

      If you haven't done so, also look at the DIY methods we have discussed in the oscilloscope thread.

        I have this one. Works, but dont expect miracles for this price. Mosrt useful is cri values, color temp. The flicker measure is not always best, but it shows even graph, which is really useful if you want to see the amplitude.

        https://www.ledclusive.de/en/light-master-g3-748

          Clokwork

          Yeah, it works perfectly with displays. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but these are the kinds of readings that the Radex can provide:

              Pardon my ignorance, but this is most useful for detecting PWM on laptops/smartphones, right? Or light bulbs?

              It cannot detect dithering, LCD inversion, or other unknown cause of strain?

                ryans Strictly speaking, PWM flicker ratio, not PWM frequency. And nothing else from your list.
                Inversion should be visible on test images

                  Clokwork honestly I would better find a rental with Radex and try it for a couple of days instead of risking with cheaper devices.
                  Or rental with any other devices you want to try.

                      Mrak0020 If I can find somewhere around here that rents them, that may be a good first step.

                        ryans Yes, measuring dithering and rendering issues will require something that noone here so far had made properly (microscope, slowmo camera, capture card). But its good to check, I used it to measure LED bulbs flicker and also to check CRI on lights, as I suspect low cri can also contribute to eyestrain. Id like to get a proper tool, but those are 2000 dollars and more.

                            A few people including myself have made them, it is fairly easy to do. solder a light sensor to a headphone jack and use microphone oscilloscope software. There is a big thread on it somewhere on the forum.

                              Seagull Am I right assuming the frequency of the readings is based on the oscilloscope you use? If I try this path, I want to ensure the readings are taken many, many times a second.

                                martin I am planning on going down this route. I have already determine which stereo microscope I want and think I have nailed down the camera (the component that will hurt my wallet the most).

                                  dev