ALL 8 of my electronic/digital ballasts went out on me

[Frozenguy]

so i have (8) 600watt ballasts.. digital ballasts.. called ultralight from sunmaster.. they are 120volt.. the lamp side of the ballast came with hardwired light fixture. I have my own aircooled hoods. but i have 16 of them.. i hooked them into a flip flop box i had made by a reputable source. but it had 8 household type male plugs on the ballast side and 16 female household type plugs on the lamp side. the ballasts get plugged directly into the house power.. so i had to cut the hood cord and put on a male household type plug and on the ballast (lamp side) i had to cut off the fixture and put on a female household type plug.. anyways they worked fine switching between rooms flawlessly.. well now i want to use them again (month later) and they wont work.. only 1 fired up out of all 8.. they are all brand spankin new bulbs.. good batch too guarenteed. all the hoods connections are good.. i'm only trying to use 3 hoods and i cant even find a ballast to work..

can anyone help me with this?? my warrenty is voided even though i just bought them a couple months ago.. the ballasts do make noise when trying to ffire up a light.. they used to make the bulb glow ever so slightly but not anymore.... (glow ever so slightly meaning when you heard the ballast incresing power, a little glow would grow and decrease with the ballast..

 

[stonewall]

not much you can do other than disconnecting the power for a few minutes and trying again. some e ballasts have a feature that turns off the ballast output in problem scenerios. If this by chance is what happened, than remove it from the power source for five minutes and try it agian. If they still do not work the only other thing you as a layman can check is the wireing between the ballast and the lamp holder itself.


Do Not attemp any testing of the ballast with power applied.

 

[Guest]

Hey, i had a simmilar problem, Make sure all your wires are connected securely and that inside the wire to wire contact is AS MUCH as possible!

Hope this helps!

 

[ebbnflow]

are the old school ballasts better than digital?

 

[ebbnflow]

Check to make shure the bulb's screwed in tight and the contacts are all clean..

 

[Frozenguy]

yeah, i've rewired and rechecked everything. with the wires from the hood to the ballast i seperated each wire into two spirals of copper each.. then twisted each opposing pair and then the mixed pair together then wire nut.. still no work.. i've cleaned the connections i've inspected/adjusted the hoods fixture.. i've inspected the wiring inside the ballasts, no blown pieces or anything.. its a complete mystery and its very very aggrivating.. i have 8 romulans ready to go into flowering and i have no light.. except for some puny MH's..grr

 

[somoz]

ebay: haha i kid.............that's a real bummer dood...i've only dabled a little bit in playing with my ballasts and everything i would have done you already have......i would advise you to try and find those "void if seal is broken" stickers online and re applying them.....then take your ass down to your dro store and be like WTF....these pieces of shit don't work........that's about all i can muster.......good luck frozen

somoz

 

[Frozenguy]

yeah.. only problem is my hydro store knows me.. very very well.. i've already talked to them.. they are waiting for boss to get back to see what we can do.. maybe rewire in some nice fixtures so it looks good to send back for warrenty?? i dunno.. i just hope thye may be repairable?? it just doesn't make any sense.. all of them?? grr.. so aggrivating..

 

[Haps]

Does the flip flop have a reset? Or a breaker? I would apply a mild portion of percussive maintenance to the unit with a wood rod perhaps, at least I would feel better.
H

 

[HellaFella]

Thats's funny, my hydro store knows me REALLY WELL and the ONE TIME I had problems with digi ballasts, I took it in there and they gave me two BRAND NEW ONE'S NO-QUESTIONS-ASKED, I even think it was *slightly* my-fault....but they still hoooked me up!

Why, if your trying to go so "big" do you not just pony-up the real $$ to get ALL the ballasts you need? I have never seen one of those "flip/flop" devices work properly continusouly.....so matter how "reliable" your electrician is...!

Edit: ALSO, for 8 lamps, why dont you have a dedicated circut? running those @ 120V is RETARDED?? Go big, and do it RIGHT [and SAFE], or go home!

LMAO @ HAPS.... Percussive maintnance! Hit that shit with a stick!

 

[Scientist]

yeah i agree...8 on a 120v even though they are flip flopping is too much. Perhaps you had a voltage sag or spike that fucked them over.

 

[Verite]

are the old school ballasts better than digital?

I have a 400w MH ballast that was a hand-me-down from my grow teacher thats over 30 years old and still fires up fine. If a digital ballast lasts that long I suppose we'll know around 2035.

 

[Frozenguy]

Thats's funny, my hydro store knows me REALLY WELL and the ONE TIME I had problems with digi ballasts, I took it in there and they gave me two BRAND NEW ONE'S NO-QUESTIONS-ASKED, I even think it was *slightly* my-fault....but they still hoooked me up!

Why, if your trying to go so "big" do you not just pony-up the real $$ to get ALL the ballasts you need? I have never seen one of those "flip/flop" devices work properly continusouly.....so matter how "reliable" your electrician is...!

Edit: ALSO, for 8 lamps, why dont you have a dedicated circut? running those @ 120V is RETARDED?? Go big, and do it RIGHT [and SAFE], or go home!

LMAO @ HAPS.... Percussive maintnance! Hit that shit with a stick!

i went with a flip flop box because i can use half the amps then a full grow and buy less ballastss.. plus they run continuesly.. no spiking or anything.. 4800 watts is not that much to run on 120 lol.. and my warrenty is voided.. maybe if you would read my post you would know.. also the boss is getting back soon.. he isn't even there so i'm not even sure what my store will end up doing.. they ahve always helped me out..

 

[ebbnflow]

thanks verite, very good points..

 

[stonewall]

have you tried them with out the flip flop?

 

[irie-i]

this is a long shot maybe, but sometimes 600s wont fire bulbs if the cord from the ballast to the lamp is too long. i had some no-fire and slow-to-fire issues and shortened my cords.. it worked. that regular ballasts though

 

[HellaFella]

Well mate that only HALF makes sense....

You would be using the same amount of Amps, because only 8 are on at a time, never would they all be on at the same time, so your not using "half" as many amps....

Also, if you put them on 240v like they should be, you would then be using HALF as many amps, and THEN you COULD have all 16 on at once!

Either way thats a decent bank roll to put together a room like that, you already bought or HAD the extra 8 hoods and bulbs, according to my calculations, and what I pay for 600w digi's 8x is only ~$1750 more?? C'mon.....do it "right" hombre! Remember were growing gold, don't skimp! [If you haddn't you wouldn't be in this situation right now!]

Betchya wish you never voided that warranty now!!!

[I'm not trying to knock you, just constructive critisism...]

I haven't ever ran an Ohm meter while they fired up, but isn't part of the point of the digi's is their lack of such a spike during firing because there is no capicitor like in "analogue" one's....

Irie-i - really?? I have a few friends that have those 25ft lamp cords for remote mounting of their ballasts and all theirs have always worked with them super long $75 bitches!

 

[HellaFella]

I was checkin' out your gallery.... nice work! I like the construstion, very non-amature!

 

[cyburnt]

I just fired up my first 2 600 digitals

I just fired up my first 2 600 digitals

I thought there was something wrong with the ballast and it turned out to be just an idiosyncrasy of digital VS old style ballasts. I have all my lighting stuff wired to regular houshold 3 prong plugs and adapters so I can interchange different light fixtures to different ballasts. I plugged in the ballast 600w digital ballast with the light unattached, and when I plugged it in, I thought it was a dead ballast because nothing happened. Then I remembered something about digital ballasts needing to check the bulb electronically before firing (some kind of safety feature) I unplugged the ballast, hooked the light up and re-plugged it in. Presto!!! It worked flawlesly. I hope this is helpful to someone.

 

[Guest]

hellafella: regardless @120 or 240v you are still using the same wattage whether you're pulling you're amperage from 1 hot leg or 2. same amount of power, same efficiency.240v only becomes more worthwhile when you have heavier draws on one device that are not practical to run 120(due to heavier guage wire and price i.e. ovens, water heaters,welders) (common misconception) as far as your ballast problem, w/ digital ballasts you HAVE to make sure you have a solid grounding system and NEVER EVER lose your neutral while the circuit is still live. it sounds to me like you violated the bad neutral rule. which means you will have to open them up (since they voided warranty already) and look for a fuse or some sort of reset button. if you can't find one then i'd hate to say but you're f*cked!!!