Admesy Asteria – compact industrial light meter for luminance, illuminance and flicker measurements

30 Jun 2021

Admesy’s Asteria is a high-speed measurement device suited for luminance, illuminance and flicker measurements. Based on the popular Admesy platform the Asteria is designed for in-line use with integrated calculating power for easy implementation and high speed measurement results in production settings. The Asteria is available in multiple configurations: the lens based system is capable of measuring luminance [cd/m²] and flicker, its cosine corrector configuration allows illuminance [lux], luminous intensity [cd] and flicker measurements. Fiber versions are also available to connect to remote cosine correctors, lens systems or connect to integrating spheres.

Asteria highlights:

• Absolute luminance or illuminance & luminous intensity measurement according to the human eye: CIE1931 luminosity function
• All flicker measurement standards supported for display: Contrast, JEITA, VESA
• Lighting flicker methods: flicker percentage, index and IEEE 1789 recommendation
• Measure high and low frequencies at the same time through a high sample rate [186.567 samples/second] and large memory size
• USB, RS-232, Ethernet connections and trigger in & out for ideal system and OEM integration
• Windows, Linux, OSX and embedded systems compatible
• SCPI command interface for easy integration in other applications
• Supported in all major programming languages Labview / Labwindows / Visual Studio [C++, C#, VB]/ etc.
• USBTMC standard compliant
• Integrating- and sampling mode available
• 3 gain stages for every mode
• Auto-range function
• User calibration function and pre-programmed calibration values

Application example:

Flicker measurements at the U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for advancing energy security and economics. As a consequence the Department of Energy is also very active in research for lighting applications -- especially Solid-State-Lighting (SSL).

In 2016 the Department of Energy  compared several purchasable flicker measurement solutions to their laboratory test solution. The Admesy Asteria was positively evaluated and is since then used in a permanent installation at the PNNL’s Lighting Metrology Laboratory as the reference device for flicker measurements for the Department of Energy.

In November 2018 the U.S. Department of Energy published a new report on Characterizing Photometric Flicker with Handheld meters, where the Asteria was used as a reference for the handheld meters under comparison.

Both the article from 2016 and 2018  are certainly worth reading for those interested in light measurements and flicker characterization. The articles are freely available:

2016 article: U.S. DOE  - Characterizing Photometric Flicker [please link to] https://www.admesy.com/download/press/US-Dep-of-Energy-Characterizing-Photometric-Flicker_Feb2016.pdf

2018 article: U.S. DOE  - Characterizing Photometric Flicker, handheld meters [please link to] https://www.admesy.com/download/press/US-Dep-of-Energy-Characterizing-Photometric-Flicker_handheld-meters_Nov2018.pdf

At DOE the Asteria is used in a permanent setup, but the Asteria is very small and compact and can also easily serve for “on the go” handheld measurements… all you need is a laptop or tablet.