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KENOMETER PRO REVIEW
5/10/2010
I finally received my long waited Kenometer Pro the other day, after several delays.
I want to make a few things VERY clear here, I was asked by Kenom to do a review of the Pro, I did NOT volunteer. ALL things considered, I should probably NOT do a review, but here we go. I should also mention I am a very detail type of person who has taken over two years to build his RGB projector. While how good a product looks does NOT affect its performance, I value BOTH form and function. That IS me, so take this into consideration.
I understand that there will be comebacks both pro and con to this review. A review is mainly a compilation of facts with some opinion thrown in. But please try to remember, I’m an average guy that spent $400.00 on a Laser Power Meter and this is my story as accurately as I could write it.
The Kenometer arrived in a well padded box. On opening the box I removed all the parts he sent. Wow, the Kenometer PRO looked just great.
Kenometer PRO
Thermopile Sensor
External Battery box
Sensor Cable
I didn’t find any written instructions of any kind nor a software CD. I remembered that all the documentation is on-line. While this approach offers good flexibility to update information, my personal preference is that some minimal documentation should be included with my purchase, even a sheet of paper that sez ” Go to this site: www.whatever. I’m not that electronic literate so I called one of my good friends that has a job as an electronic technician.
While he was on his way I looked at the parts a little closer and found scratches on the rear of the plastic enclosure (not too bad it was on the back). Then I found the hole for the DC plug not cut very square and the plug for the sensor cable was deforming the box’s plastic. Not critical to the functioning of the LPM, but for $400.00 plus shipping I would expect a brand new product. If I buy a new car, it better not have a scratch on it until I put some on.
Around the joint of the 2 halves of the enclosure there were marks like someone had tried to pry the two halves apart with a screwdriver. There was also a large 1.1” X .75” Warranty Void if Removed" label in plain view on my new LPM.
My buddy John showed up and we plugged the sensor cable into the PRO and proceeded to plug the other end of the cable into the sensor head when he noticed the green wire was lose and disconnected from the plug and there seemed to be no heat shrink or tape of any kind for protecting these 4 wires
My friend proceeded to repair the broken green wire. As he was repairing it the brown wire also came disconnected and he proceeded to redo the complete 4 connections. We now had a working cable that I plugged into the sensor.
I plugged the external battery pack into the PRO and the screen came to life.
There was some dust on the Graphic screen so I grabbed a tissue and wiped it off, but the dust was still there. I unplugged the battery pack to turn off the PRO (there is no on-off switch on the PRO) to look at it a bit closer and found that the dust was between the overlay and the Graphic screen.
I decided to test the PRO with the dust there. I plugged the Battery pack into the PRO again and now nothing. The screen seemed to want to come on but is really dark.
John said it looked like the LCD backlight was defective or not getting any voltage.
At this point I was stating to get annoyed by all the defects of this Brand New Kenometer PRO.
I asked John if he thought he could fix it and said, if it was just a connection...he probably could. I told him to ignore the warning label and try to fix it. I was impatient !!! At the same time we could clean the dust off the inside. ( As I stated…I am a detail freak ) He removed 4 screws and carefully opened the case. WOW, Holy Crap.
John said he had never seen such a badly built professional anything. The wires were all over the place. Getting the part number off the graphic display and doing a Google search he was able to find the pinouts for the backlight, and just as he predicted a very small gauge wire was disconnected from the right most pin of the LCD which was the one of the connections to the display backlight. John resoldered the broken wire and we now had the backlight working again. GREAT !!
Now to just clean the dust off the display and we will be up and running. Fat chance.
There was no way to safely remove or replace the graphics display because it had been
fixed in place with HOT GLUE HOT GLUE ??? mmm ??? good for scrap booking my wife used to do….NOT for holding components in a sensitive electronic testing device.
Every part on the inside of my PRO is held in place with hot glue !!!
When I asked Kenom about the dust under the screen he admitted knowing about the dust being there before shipping and said that he would have ruined a good display replacing it. ?????
We decided to press on. John closed the cover being careful not to snag one of the many
unsecured wires in that nest we found in the PRO. I plugged the sensor and fixed cable back into the PRO and then the batteries. The screen came to life again and the display bounced around quickly between 0 and 6mW.
We tested the buttons. There must be one that zeroes the display. Found it, it is the button marked Select/Reset. Good we are getting somewhere, the display now jumps around quickly between 0 and 1mW with 2mW peak.
Shining a 100mW laser on the sensor shows about 100mW, but not steady, still jumping around near 100mW. OK, Acceptable. On the graphics display, not much of a change of level. It was set to 0-1000mW when we turned it on.
Playing with the buttons we hit the Config/Down button and were able to increase or decrease the Max Display. We decided to see what 5000mW would look like on the display. We hit the Zero/Up button and the screen and we ended up back at the main screen. Did it again but this time using the Config/Down button and the count went down.
It appears there is something else that is wrong with the PRO, the Select/Reset and the Zero/Up buttons are interchanged or not labeled correctly or wired wrong..
Now that we know the 2 buttons have reverse functions we went into Config and tried to set the Max graphing to 5000mW from 1000mW. Once we had it set to what we wanted it we did some more tests after needing to zero the meter every time. We unplugged the batteries to save them since we didn’t get a charger for them to have lunch.
When we got back from lunch and plugged the batteries in again all our adjustments we made before removing the batteries were gone and the default values were showing.
I would expect that my previous setting would be saved, so I don’t need to go though that setup again every time I power down.
John suggested we do one last test and that was current drain from the batteries. The Kenometer Pro draws 325mA and with the 900mA batteries supplies… John sez they should last about 2 to 3 hours.
For all the hype about a Professional Built Kenometer PRO, I am disappointed with my $400.00 outlay and all the problems we had to solve before we got it to work right. It does work as advertised, but I would hope my experience was NOT typical. Please examine the twelve (12) pics attached.
Pic Index
ProParts- Pro parts as received
Proconn1- Connector prior repair
Proconn2-Connector after repair
ProScratch- Small scratch on case back
ProDing-Ding at side of case seam
ProDust1-Trapped dust under readout
ProDust2-Trapped dust under readout from another angle
ProHoles- Thru wall connector hole
ProInside1-Pro Internal construction general
ProInside2-Pro Internal construction zoom2
ProInside3-Pro Internal construction zoom3
ProInside4-Pro Internal construction zoom4
PROS
Nice Blue LCD
Nice graph screen
Nice shape enclosure and small overall size
Data logging features
Good range for higher power mW lasers
Good OPHIR sensor head( From what I have read about it )
Unit works as advertised
CONS
Non-removable dust under overlay
Scratches and dings on outside of plastic enclosure
No user instructions ( Yes, they are online )
Key functions and/or identification reversed
No setup data stored on power down
No Software or drivers on CD supplied
No internal batteries ( Yes, I was aware of this before purchase )
No on-off switch
Front Over lay too reflective ( a matt finish would be better in my opinion )
Graphic screen too small for my taste ( Yes, I was aware of the size before purchase and larger may be way more expensive )
No replaceable components (all hot glued in place)
High current consumption for battery use
Badly assembled sensor cable
Unorthodox / Poor build quality
Final comments: I am happy that the meter does perform as advertised for sure. And I am sure the electrons that travel along the internal wiring within the LPM box enclosure perform their design function no matter how convoluted a path they take, but I would not choose such a construction method. I would also not choose a permanently dusty viewport. Perhaps I am way too uptight ??? But remember…this review was requested by Kenom, and I am uptight with everything.
Later,
CDBEAM
5/10/2010
I finally received my long waited Kenometer Pro the other day, after several delays.
I want to make a few things VERY clear here, I was asked by Kenom to do a review of the Pro, I did NOT volunteer. ALL things considered, I should probably NOT do a review, but here we go. I should also mention I am a very detail type of person who has taken over two years to build his RGB projector. While how good a product looks does NOT affect its performance, I value BOTH form and function. That IS me, so take this into consideration.
I understand that there will be comebacks both pro and con to this review. A review is mainly a compilation of facts with some opinion thrown in. But please try to remember, I’m an average guy that spent $400.00 on a Laser Power Meter and this is my story as accurately as I could write it.
The Kenometer arrived in a well padded box. On opening the box I removed all the parts he sent. Wow, the Kenometer PRO looked just great.
Kenometer PRO
Thermopile Sensor
External Battery box
Sensor Cable
I didn’t find any written instructions of any kind nor a software CD. I remembered that all the documentation is on-line. While this approach offers good flexibility to update information, my personal preference is that some minimal documentation should be included with my purchase, even a sheet of paper that sez ” Go to this site: www.whatever. I’m not that electronic literate so I called one of my good friends that has a job as an electronic technician.
While he was on his way I looked at the parts a little closer and found scratches on the rear of the plastic enclosure (not too bad it was on the back). Then I found the hole for the DC plug not cut very square and the plug for the sensor cable was deforming the box’s plastic. Not critical to the functioning of the LPM, but for $400.00 plus shipping I would expect a brand new product. If I buy a new car, it better not have a scratch on it until I put some on.
Around the joint of the 2 halves of the enclosure there were marks like someone had tried to pry the two halves apart with a screwdriver. There was also a large 1.1” X .75” Warranty Void if Removed" label in plain view on my new LPM.
My buddy John showed up and we plugged the sensor cable into the PRO and proceeded to plug the other end of the cable into the sensor head when he noticed the green wire was lose and disconnected from the plug and there seemed to be no heat shrink or tape of any kind for protecting these 4 wires
My friend proceeded to repair the broken green wire. As he was repairing it the brown wire also came disconnected and he proceeded to redo the complete 4 connections. We now had a working cable that I plugged into the sensor.
I plugged the external battery pack into the PRO and the screen came to life.
There was some dust on the Graphic screen so I grabbed a tissue and wiped it off, but the dust was still there. I unplugged the battery pack to turn off the PRO (there is no on-off switch on the PRO) to look at it a bit closer and found that the dust was between the overlay and the Graphic screen.
I decided to test the PRO with the dust there. I plugged the Battery pack into the PRO again and now nothing. The screen seemed to want to come on but is really dark.
John said it looked like the LCD backlight was defective or not getting any voltage.
At this point I was stating to get annoyed by all the defects of this Brand New Kenometer PRO.
I asked John if he thought he could fix it and said, if it was just a connection...he probably could. I told him to ignore the warning label and try to fix it. I was impatient !!! At the same time we could clean the dust off the inside. ( As I stated…I am a detail freak ) He removed 4 screws and carefully opened the case. WOW, Holy Crap.
John said he had never seen such a badly built professional anything. The wires were all over the place. Getting the part number off the graphic display and doing a Google search he was able to find the pinouts for the backlight, and just as he predicted a very small gauge wire was disconnected from the right most pin of the LCD which was the one of the connections to the display backlight. John resoldered the broken wire and we now had the backlight working again. GREAT !!
Now to just clean the dust off the display and we will be up and running. Fat chance.
There was no way to safely remove or replace the graphics display because it had been
fixed in place with HOT GLUE HOT GLUE ??? mmm ??? good for scrap booking my wife used to do….NOT for holding components in a sensitive electronic testing device.
Every part on the inside of my PRO is held in place with hot glue !!!
When I asked Kenom about the dust under the screen he admitted knowing about the dust being there before shipping and said that he would have ruined a good display replacing it. ?????
We decided to press on. John closed the cover being careful not to snag one of the many
unsecured wires in that nest we found in the PRO. I plugged the sensor and fixed cable back into the PRO and then the batteries. The screen came to life again and the display bounced around quickly between 0 and 6mW.
We tested the buttons. There must be one that zeroes the display. Found it, it is the button marked Select/Reset. Good we are getting somewhere, the display now jumps around quickly between 0 and 1mW with 2mW peak.
Shining a 100mW laser on the sensor shows about 100mW, but not steady, still jumping around near 100mW. OK, Acceptable. On the graphics display, not much of a change of level. It was set to 0-1000mW when we turned it on.
Playing with the buttons we hit the Config/Down button and were able to increase or decrease the Max Display. We decided to see what 5000mW would look like on the display. We hit the Zero/Up button and the screen and we ended up back at the main screen. Did it again but this time using the Config/Down button and the count went down.
It appears there is something else that is wrong with the PRO, the Select/Reset and the Zero/Up buttons are interchanged or not labeled correctly or wired wrong..
Now that we know the 2 buttons have reverse functions we went into Config and tried to set the Max graphing to 5000mW from 1000mW. Once we had it set to what we wanted it we did some more tests after needing to zero the meter every time. We unplugged the batteries to save them since we didn’t get a charger for them to have lunch.
When we got back from lunch and plugged the batteries in again all our adjustments we made before removing the batteries were gone and the default values were showing.
I would expect that my previous setting would be saved, so I don’t need to go though that setup again every time I power down.
John suggested we do one last test and that was current drain from the batteries. The Kenometer Pro draws 325mA and with the 900mA batteries supplies… John sez they should last about 2 to 3 hours.
For all the hype about a Professional Built Kenometer PRO, I am disappointed with my $400.00 outlay and all the problems we had to solve before we got it to work right. It does work as advertised, but I would hope my experience was NOT typical. Please examine the twelve (12) pics attached.
Pic Index
ProParts- Pro parts as received
Proconn1- Connector prior repair
Proconn2-Connector after repair
ProScratch- Small scratch on case back
ProDing-Ding at side of case seam
ProDust1-Trapped dust under readout
ProDust2-Trapped dust under readout from another angle
ProHoles- Thru wall connector hole
ProInside1-Pro Internal construction general
ProInside2-Pro Internal construction zoom2
ProInside3-Pro Internal construction zoom3
ProInside4-Pro Internal construction zoom4
PROS
Nice Blue LCD
Nice graph screen
Nice shape enclosure and small overall size
Data logging features
Good range for higher power mW lasers
Good OPHIR sensor head( From what I have read about it )
Unit works as advertised
CONS
Non-removable dust under overlay
Scratches and dings on outside of plastic enclosure
No user instructions ( Yes, they are online )
Key functions and/or identification reversed
No setup data stored on power down
No Software or drivers on CD supplied
No internal batteries ( Yes, I was aware of this before purchase )
No on-off switch
Front Over lay too reflective ( a matt finish would be better in my opinion )
Graphic screen too small for my taste ( Yes, I was aware of the size before purchase and larger may be way more expensive )
No replaceable components (all hot glued in place)
High current consumption for battery use
Badly assembled sensor cable
Unorthodox / Poor build quality
Final comments: I am happy that the meter does perform as advertised for sure. And I am sure the electrons that travel along the internal wiring within the LPM box enclosure perform their design function no matter how convoluted a path they take, but I would not choose such a construction method. I would also not choose a permanently dusty viewport. Perhaps I am way too uptight ??? But remember…this review was requested by Kenom, and I am uptight with everything.
Later,
CDBEAM
