[Short review] Snakol SK-8202 - cheap luxmeter with measurement of Ra and CCT

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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Hello there,

I made a new thread for this device so it can be easily found on Google. Here are some measurements with the Snakol SK-8202, for those who are interested.

The device itself is made of cheap plastic, but this is also fairly cheap (40-60 € depending on sales etc). The buttons are extremely loud. It runs on 2*AAA batteries, which from my feeling lasts forever. I still use the first set of batteries.
It uses the well known AS7341 sensor, which is also used in the Opple Lightmaster devices.

It seems to be relatively accurate, at least as long as light is falling vertically onto the sensor from above. If this is not the case, there could be huge deviations in the measurement. If in doubt, this has to be checked with slightly moving the device and checking for changing values (CRI ± 5 or more). In addition, warm light sources (in some cases even those with a specified 2700 K) cannot be properly measured, as the device can only measure down to 2500 K, and up to 8000 K, which can be exceeded by standard cool white LEDs very easily.

Furthermore, you should not move the device and - more importantly - wait a few seconds (at least 5 seconds) until the values have stabilized, as there seems to be some kind of measurement averaging function built in.

Sunlight is measured very well.

Especially cool white low CRI light sources are also measured well. The CRI rating is precise (± 2).

Colored LEDs are not measured well (understandable).

The Optisolis mix was measured CRI 98 with spectrometer.

Even LEDs with KSF:Mn4+ phosphor are measured somewhat correctly:

If this device were sold by a reputable and, above all, customer-oriented retailer, it would be highly recommended. However, I cannot really recommend it, as the customer support is really unacceptable (described here), especially since they advertise “great support.”

So I will not recommend this device due to very bad customer support. I don’t want to support these companies with this behavior. Who doesn’t care about this, could be happy with this device since it is able to give a first rough estimate for the light quality of white light.

Thanks for reading!

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Great test/review! It’s very good to see how this device performs with a wide variety of emitters.

Clarifying question: when I see captions indicating

  • 3000K 80CRI generic
  • XHP70.3 HI 5000K 80CRI
  • XM-L cw 70CRI, etc.,

are these stated CRI numbers manufacturer ratings, or values measured by your more accurate device?

To me they seem like factory ratings, due to how round the numbers are, which are less useful than readings from your device since sample CRI can deviate greatly (on the order of 5%) from the specified value, which could be typical or minimum.

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Stated ratings from manufacturer or seller.

The measurements are quite precise against my own (±3 CRI, sometimes even better)

Maybe, but keep in mind this device is cheap compared to an even low-end spectrometer. And for this price the Snakol seems to be really decent. ± 500 K CCT and ± 3 CRI is precise enough for giving a first quick impression of light quality.

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Agreed, the device seems remarkably accurate–shame that the customer service is so poor. I just wanted to point out that measurements from your high-end device should be trusted more than the manufacturer rating–for example, an emitter rated 70CRI minimum might achieve 75, and large deviations can happen from a rating for typical CRI.

It is a shame that this device cannot produce a spectrogram or show us how it samples different parts of the visible spectrum–that would be a good “sanity check” against a datasheet spectrum and get a sense of the accuracy.

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Manufacturer and sellers always give rough estimates anyway, like “typ 90 CRI” or “min 70 CRI”, or even “80 CRI” for standard LED bulbs. So to check these claims, this device is more than enough.

I think the algorithm on this device is remarkably good. Better as the one from the LM4 (mobile app).

One really big advantage of this device is, that is has a screen. It sounds trivial, but it’s a real plus. You don’t need any additional devices—just switch it on, measure the light source, and you’re done. No BT connection, no app to open, no waiting times. For me, this is another reason why I still don’t like smartphone app-based devices.

2 Thanks