There is no way around this, this few second delay is the time it takes for the board to fully energize and the optic sensor to come on line and be able to "see". In general, if left to run as intended, the osmolator should dose so little at any one time that there would be a minimal change in pH so the Neptune connection is unnecessary and does defeat the final 10 minute time out safety as this is reset every time the Neptune switches it off.