hey all,

i'm basically trying to move my MH ballasts further away.

i have 3 250W vertex ballast hooked up to a fixture. but the quick connect cords on them are pretty short, so the ballasts are sitting on a fold out sidetable right beside the tank.

to me, its a hazard, and a wiring mess. so i wanted to make these quick connect extension cords to go inbetween the fixture and ballasts so i can place them further away from the tank, and in a neat fashion.

they currently work fine connected to the GFCI with only the original cords.

What type of cable are you using to extend the wiring, you have to be careful because standard nmd90 (loomex) is only rated for 300 volts and with hid lighting te strike voltage can run upwards of 400 Volts. The cable you use has the be 600volt rated sow cable (aka cabtire) would be a appropriate choice also the connectors that you use need the same voltage rating, note this is only for the secondary side of the transformer. The primary side would be ok

So in a nutshell if your not using the appropriate rated cable and connectors the conductor insulation could be leaking and causing the GFCI to sense the loss in current and trip

just to clarify...
is the primary side from the wall to the ballast? secondary being from ballast to fixture?

so this is the cable i used...http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...g/IMG_1625.jpg
300V only... so this is my problem, and the connectors might be suspect too.

oh well, learn something new everyday. there goes $50! lol.

Yes.. Primary is wall to ballast , secondary is ballast output to the fixture.
Primary = First ( input )... Secondary = second , (output )

correct