Connecting two capacitors to a 400w HPS circuit

[Fumes]

Greetings,

Years ago I had a full 600w HPS setup: a ballast, a capacitor, an igniter, a reflector a socket and a bulb, and a set of wires to connect them all and in my growroom bind them.... I also had created a secret chart that showed how exactly all that shit had to be connected, just in case. Lucky little me....

When moving I managed to drop part of my equipment down a flight of stairs, shattering the capacitor, the igniter and the lamp socket, bending my reflector out of shape.... the lamp and the ballast were unharmed, though. Now I have a smaller closet (2.3x4.0 ft, 6 ft high). I got me a new 400w lamp, two capacitors (the guy at the store insisted I needed two) an igniter and a socket, and I'm fixing to connect my new 400w lamp to my old 600w ballast and rewire everything. I have the diagram, so there should be no problem, only that in my diagram (as it had been in my old setup) there is only one capacitor.

My question: How do I connect the second capacitor? Should it just be plugged in parralel to the first one, or.... how?

Thanks,

F.

 

[cork144]

wait what? you only need one, he probably insisted you need a 2nd incase the first dies.

 

[Jedi]

and I'm fixing to connect my new 400w lamp to my old 600w ballast and rewire everything.

never mind the capasitors...........

but 400w bulb on a 600w Ballast....????.....
I can put my balls on a brick , but thats too many Watts for the bulb......


Oh....I wire up my own ballast , starter , capasitor , bulb aswell......

 

[Jedi]

Here one way of doing it......



http://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/10099150_hps_with_capacitor_final.JPG

 

[Fumes]

Jedi - sorry, mate, I get nothing from that diagram. There are many different types of igniters, many different ballasts, and a decent diagram has to at least name the exists into which I plug the wires. The abovelinked diagram shows one capacitor, BTW. I have a much better diagram that I made when I got my lighting system (came preconnected; modafuckas are refusing to give me a diagram), and basically I can rewire it all with one capacitor.

So why did they insist on selling me two?

: )

I did read somewhere years ago that there is an advantage to sticking two capacitors into an HPS circuit, but I'm confident one will still do.

400w bulb on a 600w Ballast....????.....

It can work. Shortens the lifespan of the bulb, but I canne afford a new ballast now.

F.

 

[magiccannabus]

Because by selling you two, he was able to make two sales instead of one.

 

[Shackleford Rus]

the shop might not have had the exact capacitor that he needed. like if you needed a .5 farad capacitor but the shop didnt have it, they may have sold you (2) .25 farad caps instead. I don't know what size cap you need, but here is a link that describes how to decipher the capacitance of your cap:

http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Capacitor_Codes

good luck.

 

[Fumes]

Wouldn't a 0.5 Farad capacitor (500,000 micro Farads) be the size of a building?
Mine are 30 micro each.
Anyways, it used to work with one, also 30 micro. If you had 2 of 15 micro, I think you could just connect them parallelly to emulate a single 30 micro capacitor.
As for codes - very interesting page, but mine just has all the info printed clearly on the case.

Because by selling you two, he was able to make two sales instead of one

Well, that's what the smile meant : ) Still think it would have been short sighted, since the price of the extra capacitor was 5% of the total cost of my order. I think not providing me with a diagram was much worse. In my country, various bureaucratic idiocies and butt-covering strategies makes life really hard for the handy home gardener. Not to mention the boys in blue. But I digress. (I mean, the rest of the civilized world is re-thinking it's drug policies, sort-of, here they are upping the level of intolerance. And, of course, the most vile and dangerous drug of all is Cannabis. Grrrrrr.....).

So I'll just use one, no reason for it not to work.

Thanks guys,
F.

 

[Jedi]

Ja sorry...Had a look at my ballast...only has two wires...
gave you the wrong diagram...

will scetch one up soon..

If u happy with the 400/600 thing....no worry's

Jedi - sorry, mate, I get nothing from that diagram. There are many different types of igniters, many different ballasts, and a decent diagram has to at least name the exists into which I plug the wires. The abovelinked diagram shows one capacitor, BTW. I have a much better diagram that I made when I got my lighting system (came preconnected; modafuckas are refusing to give me a diagram), and basically I can rewire it all with one capacitor.

 

[Fumes]

Wired it all, and it works.
I was a little too anal about this, to be honest.

Just out of curiosity - in your countries (I assume mostly Europe and North America), if you buy electronic equipment, does it come with a diagram? Or, can you request one? 'Cause in my sorry excuse for a country......

F.

 

[MTNMEN]

So i had two wires hooked up to my old capacitor 64uf hps 600 mag ballast, now the newer capacitor has 4 tabs on the top instead of three like the older one............how do i hook the old wires up to the new capacitor? Which wires go where?