hooking up ballast
 

Hey all,

Just got my 400w ballasts from venkiw and I didn't realize they weren't going to have plugs and sockets for the cords, so I was just wondering if someone could tell me how to hook this up. I am assuming I can hook a plug straight up to the input cords, although I don't know which one is positive and which ones is neg (blue or brown?). As well would HD have the sockets that the PFO quick disconnect cords hook up to? or will I have to try and hook them up directly - if so how would i do this? below is a pic thanks a bunch

Sean

http://www.missolutions.ca/~sean/ballast.jpg

It's not really positive and negative leads because we're talking AC -- one is hot and one is neutral. I think blue is the neutral. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong -- I think blue/brown/green is the European colour code for power leads.) Neutral goes to the wider terminal on the wall outlet plug.

For the leads to the socket, it won't matter which end is which (at least I've found it not to matter). You have a 50/50 chance if it does matter -- if the bulb does not light, try switching them.

I don't think you're going to find the quick-disconnects at HD. Worthwhile looking into, but you'll probably have to go to a specialized electronics store -- would be my guess. What you can do is get the butt end connectors from HD, stick a wire into each end, and crimp. Probably $10 for a crimping tool if you don't have one.

Doesn't look like the ballast is grounded, and I don't like the looks of that ... You should ground your fixture plus your reflector. That screw in the centre looks like a ground terminal, which should be wired to the ground terminal in the wall outlet.

Hope this helps

there is a ground...that little metal knob, but I am not sure what to do with it...maybe I should just take the whole setup to HD and let them figure it out!

I'll try and help you out, I have the 250's :biggrin:

Now what i did was I had several computer power cord lying around so i cut off the part that connect to the computer and stripped the wires. The color of the wires in the cord were brown blue green


For Wiring i ballast the wire colors were blue, brown and green , So on the imput (wall) I just matched the colors and ran the green wire too the grounding the metal knob

Now for the socket, I have the PFO socket/reflector so I attached the White and brown wires together and blue and black wire together on the output line (lamp). Green is ground So i ran that too the metal knob

I should mention on my pfo socket cord i cut off the quick disconnect end and stripped the wires inside

I have no quick disconnects, no big deal on my PFO ballast i really didn't need them

if you go toa lighting place (wholesale) you should be able to get a couple sockets for 5.00ish each. now if you look at the diagram thatis on the front of your ballast in your picture that tells you how to hook them up (little to small for me to see exactly, Maybe you can take a close up of the diagram) also if you go to home depot but a couple plugends with coards (about 8.00 each for Heavy Duity ones) and I have to see the diagram for sure but is each one of thoes ballast for 1 bulb or are there plugs on the back side? if each is for 1 bulb I am assuming that one coard is to plug into the wall and the other goes to the bulb. if this is the configuration you could ground both the wall plug and the lighting bracket to that ground lug.

Steve

Seriously? My experience with HD has been "uh, dunno man, I just work here". :neutral:

Your HD has people that talk to you?? Wow!!

the plumbing department at mine knows me by name now.. takes me 15 min extra to get out of there sometimes....

Steve

I recently noticed the plumbing department at Rona has less and less fittings while my garage has more and more. 2 more years of this and I am having the grand opening.

:mrgreen:

Thanks Stretch,

On the input side. The red is line/hot, blue is nuetral and the ground should be made into a loop and anchored in the know marked (GND), you should get your 3 pronged power supply chord suitable for 500 Watts rating.

Clip the end of the PFO quick disconnect chord and connect as stretch had indicated. Ground your reflector and connect it to the know marked GND.

Hope this helps.

ok, hooked up the ballast and i am only getting a faint light (see pic) I left it on for ~10mins to see if it would fire up. Should i assume that i have a connect thats not great? or could it be something else?
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/sho...sort=1&cat=500

Thanks again.

Double check your connections maybe see if the wires aren't connected properly. Have your tryed the other bulb/ballast? Make sure the bulb is properly seated in the socket. When i got these ballast one socket wouldn't work properly so i had pull the metal tab in the socket out a bit then the thing went smooth.

spikehs,

Is this the bulb that was damaged in the shipment?, if not recheck the wiring.

Venki Worathur

nope this was the bulbs that looked to be fine, I am going to double check the wiring (probably tomorrow)

Sean

Hi Spikeh,

Since you figured out how to wire them, kindly enlighten us on what mistake you were making for benefit of other forum members.

Thanks

Venki

ahh, i think it was just a bit of shoddy wiring, i went back and stripped it a bit more, and twisted it tighter....works like a charm tho.

arg more probs
 

well, came home today from school and found the light wasn't on :sad: I double checked all the wiring and everything is perfect, I wired the cords EXACTLY like Strech has his. All i get now is one tiny flicker every 5 mins or so.... does anyone have any suggestions? dud bulb? I am at a loss here....

Sean

(This may be a dumb question,) but have you tried unplugging your ballast and plugging it back in?

What guage wiring did you use, what kind of connectors? The socket has good snug fit on the bulb, and so forth?

Have you tried swapping the two wires that go to the socket?

Thanks for the suggestions, I have plugged it back in a few times now, rechecked ALL the wiring, made sure everything was very tight, etc. I haven't swapped the wires yet because i wired it exactly like stretch, and it was working for 3 days prior (and no one has touched it)....

Is there any kind of wiring scheme that would allow a bulb to light for 3 days, then blow it? IE some sort of way of overdriving it? I know i didn't do that, but am really puzzled here...

Try leaving it unpluged for awhile. Other thought is maybe the ballast/bulb blew you never know. See if anyone can test your bulb and ballast for you.

With all the stories lately of bulb/ballast problems from the same supplier, this might point to quality control issues. These are from a new facility, supposedly? Maybe still working out the kinks in the manufacturing process.

I've gotta go test my bulb now... :eek: At least it came in one piece.

Hey AJ_77,

That is not fair, this is the only story so far. And I am working with the buyer. So please try to be reasonalbe with your comments.

As with any supplier one cannot assume responsibility for improper wiring. We know for a fact that ballast and bulb were not wired properly to begin with, so please do not blame a prodcut when the mistakes lie elsewhere.

Venki

Hey Venki,

I'm not trying to cause trouble, but I think it is reasonable to expect at least some problems with new products. We can see this with many items where there are issues with production lines and new machinery. I suspect this is where the first batch of "flawed" bulbs came from? These glitches take time (and tweaking) to work out of the manufacturing process.

While there is good support (me included) for your products and the aggressive pricing, there has been more than one story with bulbs having problems, whether with shipping or firing. I admit this is the first ballast story I've seen.

So while I encourage you and will try your products (hopefully long-term), I will keep my eyes open and try to be objective. If I seem unfair, please don't take it personally. I appreciate what you're doing to bring in affordable stuff.

Cheers,

well to be fair, i don't know if its a bulb or ballast problem yet, I am going to be checking the bulb on Jon's system on the weekend hopefully, so we'll see then...

the bulbs firing
 

just a point for every one:
a bulb is more fragile before it is fired ,maybe if you can Venki. you can fire them to try them out to confirmthat the bulbs are in working order.

the reason why is the filiment in the bulb is weak and after yuo fire them up it allows the material to be heated up and formed then that way its going to depend on the peoples wiring or ballasts and we can save all this before somone takes against it ..
and a full blow feast starts up :mrgreen: :idea: :idea: :idea:

HTH
Mike.

AJ_77,

I am not aware of any problems, even though it is a new product it is coming from manufacturers of Xenon Lights for German Cars. So I would not bash a prodcut with out knowing the facts. The few bulb breakage by carriers should not be blamed on us.

You seem to be drawing some conclusions out of thin air.

We know the standards enforced in our production line, but not all buyers are the same, we seem to be having a streak of bad luck with one buyer.

We have stopped responding to enquiries and we are not shipping products anymore to members of this forum temporarily till this problem is resolved.

Venki Worathur

Spikeh,

I think you may have done enough damage to the bulbs and ballast. Please do not perform anymore "tests" on the product.

A loose connection causes the amps flowing through the circuit to increase, all gadgets can handle a certain increase in amps, but when you overlead the device it will fail. We advised you to get an eletrician with the wiring.

No one will assume responsibilty for abuse of the product. Please make your trials with your own time and money.


Venki

lmao!!!

Venkiw, this is twice I have seen you say this now. once on AP when there was a open complaint about one of your bulbs and now here.

Having owned a couple businesses myself I was actualy quite shocked by your responce to this as the only way you are selling is by e-bay and the exposure you are getting on these boards and here you are ailianating every member of the board over 1 or 2 comments.

Up untill this morning when I read this I was going to order 4 of your bulbs (two of the 10K and two of the 14K) but after seeing your responce to the slightest negativity I think I will buy AB's while I am in Sandeigo next week as I am now scared that if I had some unforseen problem with shipping you would not respond.

Steve

Not that I'm counting, but a similar thread ended with this same thing on aquariumpros.ca. That makes 3 Steve.

I think you're mistaken Steve. I previewed all 13 messages from venki at RC and none was negative. I think the bulbs that are having problems are the XM's.

nope if you read them again on RC it was because some one complained to him via PM as he stated as the reason.

Steve

Hi Steve, this is the 3rd time I've done the search and I still don't see what you are talking about on RC:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/search...archid=2069951

Sam, I'm with you. I don't see anything on RC like this. So back down to twice :razz:

I just read it and he does explain


http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/sh...5964#post15964

yup my mistake it was Aquarium pro not RC. sorry for the confusion

Steve

Care quote what he said on here for those of us without access?




I don't see why venkiw in such a huff for....... I mean when i worked at futureshop It wasn't uncommon for things not to work out of the box or fail within a few day. We just exchanged them and made the customer happy. Why he denies the possiblitly of the ballast failing is beyond me and he seems to be placing the blame on spikehs. Even the best of companies cannot guarentee a 100% of their product will work out of the box. Perhaps if venkiw would post a proper troubleshooting guide/ wiring guide on his website this may have been avoided