QUESTION (from Ashley):

1. I noticed there is a way to download data from projects. My question is would I be able to download data from other people's projects and then be able to put it on a graph comparing it to my sugar beet data to see if sugar beets values are similar or not via the PhotosynQ sofware. Or because I can download it in a text form I would have to use a different program and compare the data that way.

2. If I measure data in one protocol (Like the One Protocol) will I be able to view the data using a different protocol in the Dashborad of the PhotosynQ software?

3. Do you know who I have to talk to/where I have to look to see what literature the PhotosynQ measurements are based on? For instance the R,B and G measurement I find bit confusing as I'm not sure exactly what the device is relaying to me.

4. Also does each protocol have it's own chip or are all the protocols are run off one chip? I am asking as I would like to know the hardware limitations of the device so I know how accurate or useful the reads I'm getting are.

ANSWERS (from Sebastian and Greg)

1. Yes you can download data from your own projects and from projects owned by others. Right now there is no way to compare your project against another unless you download the data and do the comparison manually in a different program. We're working on ways to compare data across similar projects, hopefully we can have this in the next 6 months.

2. I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly. The protocol is linked to a project. It is just telling the device what to measure. Changes after a measurement won't affect previous measurements. If you open the Dashboard in PhotosynQ, you're data gets processed according to the macro connected to the protocol. Changing the macro, would allow you to change the calculations.

3. What kind of measurements are you interested in? R,G,B are the Red, Green and Blue channels of the PAR sensor, providing you an analog read of the corresponding light. The absolute values of the RGB are coming directly from the sensor and are uncalibrated - so they are interesting only relate to each other (like 2x as much red as blue, for example). For information about some of the other measurements, check out this blog post.

4. Protocols and the processor (chip) are two separate things. The protocol is a collection of instruction sent to the device and being executed there. The limitation is currently the number of pulses, which should be around 10,000. Greg, please correct me if I'm wrong. The accuracy is based on the detector sensitivity and the signal strength. But I can promise that the results are pretty accurate. The timing is in the us range. I don't know if the measurements you are making have higher demands. You can have protocols running several days... (Greg's answer)... I see what your saying, you want to know what's the error so you know if you're seeing something significant or just noise (right?). Well, typical noise is about 100 counts out of 64000 (1/640) which isn't bad but isn't fantastic. Certainly good enough for photosynthetic efficiency phi2, barely good enough for proton motive force DIRK. I think I'd need to see the specific application to provide more info.