Hanna Halo Bluetooth PH Meter...observations from use.
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 19:47
I will add to this thread as I get more comfortable using the Hanna Halo bluetooth PH meter.
Here are my initial observations:
1) Probe will give you a warning if you try to read the PH of anything with a temp under 32F. My meat mix after casing was 25F and I stuck my meter in it and it said "exceeded probe working range". It still gave a reading of 5.77 @ 25F, but it had the warning pop up and stay up until 32F was reached. Once the meat mix hit 32.1F, the warning goes away. Reading at 32F was 5.82 At 44F reading is 5.83 PH.
2) Battery was 100% when I put the meter in the meat mix. 30 mins later battery was down to 95%. One hour later battery is down to 74% Since this meter is capable of data logging in real time, I thought it might be nice to see the graph of the PH over, say 48 hours of fermenting. But I don't think this meter will run for 48 hours on the two coin cells that power it. I would guess that if I get 12-18 hours out of it, that will be doing well. So this is an issue.
Hanna should have made this bluetooth meter with a mini USB charging port on it, so you could recharge the unit. This would have meant using Lion batteries or battery pack, not replaceable primary cells. A bit more cost for them, but much less hassle for the consumer.
I see the battery life of 12-18 hours a big negative, especially with the costly coin cells needed when replacing batteries.
The data will be interuppted when you change batteries, as you will lose your bluetooth connection. I see this as a design flaw. With a charger, you could have plugged the meter in while it was running and taken the 48 hours of data that you want to see over the fermenting time.
This meter is probably only good for taking readings at intervals, not running all the time.
Disappointing, but still better than PH strips.
3) When you remove the meter from its storage solution vial, there is no cap to put in the vial, in place of the meter. It would have been nice for them to include a cap for the storage vial, so when you were using the meter you wouldn't have to find a way to stand the storage vial up so the storage fluid won't spill out (bottom of the vial is not flat, that would have been too easy) A simple rubber stopper or plastic cap would be handy to seal the storage solution while the meter is in use.
4) On a positive note, the app seems to work very well, and the meter connects to BTLE without much of an issue. It is a very handy size to work with, nice and small.
That's all I have so far, will add to this as I use the meter more!
A couple of screen shots:
Here are my initial observations:
1) Probe will give you a warning if you try to read the PH of anything with a temp under 32F. My meat mix after casing was 25F and I stuck my meter in it and it said "exceeded probe working range". It still gave a reading of 5.77 @ 25F, but it had the warning pop up and stay up until 32F was reached. Once the meat mix hit 32.1F, the warning goes away. Reading at 32F was 5.82 At 44F reading is 5.83 PH.
2) Battery was 100% when I put the meter in the meat mix. 30 mins later battery was down to 95%. One hour later battery is down to 74% Since this meter is capable of data logging in real time, I thought it might be nice to see the graph of the PH over, say 48 hours of fermenting. But I don't think this meter will run for 48 hours on the two coin cells that power it. I would guess that if I get 12-18 hours out of it, that will be doing well. So this is an issue.
Hanna should have made this bluetooth meter with a mini USB charging port on it, so you could recharge the unit. This would have meant using Lion batteries or battery pack, not replaceable primary cells. A bit more cost for them, but much less hassle for the consumer.
I see the battery life of 12-18 hours a big negative, especially with the costly coin cells needed when replacing batteries.
The data will be interuppted when you change batteries, as you will lose your bluetooth connection. I see this as a design flaw. With a charger, you could have plugged the meter in while it was running and taken the 48 hours of data that you want to see over the fermenting time.
This meter is probably only good for taking readings at intervals, not running all the time.
Disappointing, but still better than PH strips.
3) When you remove the meter from its storage solution vial, there is no cap to put in the vial, in place of the meter. It would have been nice for them to include a cap for the storage vial, so when you were using the meter you wouldn't have to find a way to stand the storage vial up so the storage fluid won't spill out (bottom of the vial is not flat, that would have been too easy) A simple rubber stopper or plastic cap would be handy to seal the storage solution while the meter is in use.
4) On a positive note, the app seems to work very well, and the meter connects to BTLE without much of an issue. It is a very handy size to work with, nice and small.
That's all I have so far, will add to this as I use the meter more!
A couple of screen shots: