Attention Ice Cap VHO owners/electrical wonders
 

Ok, I've done everything but stand on my head to get this damned thing working.

Some background: I bought an icecap 660 used and it came wired to a solar 1000 dimmer. Pretty neat, however I can't get it to work. It worked before I got it (several people saw it in action). And the very first time I plugged it in there was about 2 seconds of wimpy light (not even the full 40W) emanating from the bulbs before the whole thing went kaput.

Its blown the original fuse plus 5 others so far while trying various wiring combinations. I have attempted to use the original wiring in my lighting hood as I previously had normal output fluorescent bulbs (40W) with the waterproof endcaps. I have followed the Icecap wiring diagram to the letter. Checked and rechecked and I still can't figure it out. I mean I knew I was a bit electrically challenged but this is getting ridiculous. The bulbs were working fine, I just swapped out the ballasts, suddenly nothing. The fuse blows immediately upon plugging the ballast in.

So now I'm wondering if its my wiring that I had previously? Do you have to use special wiring on this thing?? Right now I am using the wiring harness connected to my original wiring which is many little thin wires put together to make one big wire. Stranded wire??. Sheesh I sound stupid. Its non-solid core wire.

Thats about all I can think of. I've checked all the wire connections and they're all good.

Any suggestions at this point would be appreciated :wink:

Christy :)

disconnect the ballast from you lights and make sure none of the wires are touching each other then plug in the ballast....If the fuse pops then You ballast is more then likly Blown :cry: sorry to have to say....But if the fuse doesn't pop then it's just happense to be how it is being wired!!!

Christy, e-mail Icecap and ask them for a wiring diagram.. explain this to them and they should be able to help as there ballasts have to be wired a specific way.

Steve

Ya I already have that. Its on their website and I have it wired exactly the way they say to. I did what funkyfish suggested. The ballast is dead I guess :cry:

I have an ICECAP 660 wired in conjunction with a SOLAR 1000 L-1 over my reef and it works like a dream. Is something different than how it was originally configured? Did you lengthen the wiring harness? Is your plug-in grounded?

The only thing that was different was that I already had waterproof endcaps wired into my system for NO actinics. I wanted to just use that wiring that was in place.

Even when I hooked up the wiring in its original configuration it was still blowing fuses. There was a blown resistor on the circuit board of the ballast and that was replaced but didn't do the trick.

Hey you tried asking the icecap forum at RC?

They seem to trouble shoot and respond quite quickly.

Cheers,
Vic[veng68]

Ya they wanted me to send it in, but by the time I pay shipping back and forth and get it fixed it really isn't worth it, IMO.

I returned a ballast to them once, and I only had to pay to ship one way. They paid the return shipping. :biggrin:

Thats only if its under warranty though isn't it?