Whats the inside of a digital ballast look like?

[Snagglepuss]

Im still waiting on a bulb to try out the new ballast i bought,i believe its a Digital Greenhouse from htg.Ya sure ,looks nice ,the case looks shiny.But whats inside?Well i had open it...Things i kept thinking

What about moisture?
Do digital ballasts with fans have a higher failure rate?







Welp looks just like a mini motherboard with capacitors resistors relays and such.And a coat of liquid rubber.I guess thats how they do it

 

[Old Yeller]

With digitals being what they are - i wouldn't take the chance on voiding the warrenty by opening them up. It looks like they covered all the components with tar...

 

[Harry Gypsna]

that looks right.... electronic ballast-lo an behold it looks like electronics lol

 

[HeadyPete]

If the fan gets gummed up with dust and crap and fails, so does your ballast. Clean the fan regularly by hitting it with compressed air. Good idea to blow the entire ballast out to help with heat transfer.

 

[NorCalFor20]

whats the deal with the tar/resin what is its point?

 

[PeteWeedSeed]

the resin is to stop moisture from burning out the circuits.

Since you opened it and voided the warranty, I'd modify it and add a fan on top

 

[THCV]

i used to work for an electronics company, and they would bury the most proprietary sections of the circuit board in a similar black epoxy so that competitors couldn't reverse engineer the circuit design. I suppose that could be part of it, although waterproofing makes sense too.

 

[PeteWeedSeed]

that's true too, companies like to hide their secret ways of building things.
But ballasts can only be made so many ways, they put it on because they are assuming you'll be using it a grow room with high humidity.

 

[THCV]

true, pete. but there is definitely some magic to getting these digi ballast right, considering how many have had problems in the past. especially the 1000 watters.

that layer of wax/epoxy looks pretty uneven, like a sloppy chinese job. If it is meant to protect the circuit board from humidity, it will do a mediocre job. I have seen circuits designed for underwater use and they are fully encased, not partially like these. then again, no one is expecting you to drop the ballast into a res.

 

[PeteWeedSeed]

I know what you mean, you can use power conditioners, filters and all kinds of electric goodies to make the bulbs run better. better technology equals bigger price tag.

but direct contact with a metal surface will create condensation, you dont need to perfectly cover everything, just enough to stop water from forming. and its much cheaper to just slap the crap on there and call it water resistant.

 

[Snagglepuss]

the resin is to stop moisture from burning out the circuits.

Since you opened it and voided the warranty, I'd modify it and add a fan on top

No warranty here.i bought it used ,a gamble u would say.I like to find that rubber crap and finsh the job.It looks like a really quick rush job on the coating,some stuff only partially covered

 

[PeteWeedSeed]

there is some stuff called "liquid electric tape", it works awesome on sealing electronics. there are others but I always trust electric tape.

 

[THCV]

most wave soldered PCBs have a layer of orange-colored flux covering all of the contact points, etched circuits and first few milimeters of each component on the board. i think they make most PCBs pretty resistant to high humidity (after all, PCs in Florida aren't burning out all the time.) But then again, this is a power supply, and usually i don't bust open power supplies. They might all be covered in black goop.

snaggle, what's the wattage on this puppy?

 

[THCV]

looked it up. the black stuff is called Encapsulation Epoxy and it keeps moisture out and also conducts heat, in this case to allow the heat of the circuit to radiate out to the aluminum casing (and then to the air) so it stays cool. You could probably buy some more and pour it on, but i doubt it'll get you much.