For reefburnaby

[StirCrazy]

Hey I was thinking about how you are over driving the lights and I thought of a variation of what you are doing and I was wondering if it will work.

ok instead of using the leads off the same balast take two ballasts (we will asume a 1 bulb balast for ease of example) ok now run the out put form both ballasts to the same bulb.. have one balast turn on in the morning then in the afternoon have the other balast turn on to bump up the intensity. so I guess it would be like 2 ballasts driving one bulb..

do you think it would work?

Steve

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

In theory...yes, it should work.

BTW, these are electronic ballasts right ? If you want a dimming effect, you can get a dimmable electronic ballast from albright (or other similar suppliers).

- Victor.

[DJ88]

Sweet.. This is why these board are great.. Putting ideas and stuff you have found out and sharing them.. Kewl.. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[reefburnaby]

Hi,
http://ultballastspecs.tsqrd.com/bal...B340R120HP.pdf

is your ballast (hopefully the link shows up).

Looks fine...just take it easy on the overdriving (start with 1x, then 2x and etc) -- especially if you don't have a multimeter. Theses ballasts are not dimmable.

Are you planning to put a switch between the output of the ballast and the tube ?

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

yup thats the balast.

ok I think it is kinda hard to explain what I mean and like they say a picture is worth 1000 words hehe.. soooo
http://members.home.net/s.l.s/lightidea.jpg

oh and yes I have a multi meter what am I looking for when I do this?

Steve

[ 04 December 2001: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Hmmm...don't know....maybe it will work. Just thinking how this would actually work...on an electrical basis...hmm hmm hmm...should work.

Try it out on some cheap tubes first....and in a normal configuration first (so that you can debug the "normal" electrical errors). The multimeter is basically used to read how much power the ballasts are consuming. Since the ballasts are electronic, they tend to have 95 to 99% efficiency. So, most of the power drawn from the power line is consumed by the lamps...hence you can calculation how much power you are overdriving by. Just setup the multimeter to measure AC current through the ballast.

Hope that helps.

- Victor.

[Silverfish]

Lemme know how it works Steve!
BTW, how much are those ballasts?
-Bruce

[StirCrazy]

they are 59.00 at albrite but I am sure you can get it cheeper hehe

Steve

[reefburnaby]

$59 each ?

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

ya I get no deals at albrite.

hehe