Wiring TG11 Socket Remote CFL lamps

[Hydro-Soil]

In response to your question, the lights light up "sort of" when you touch them, also if I touch the reflector with one of the red power wires, half of the tube lights up completely (which just confuses me even more)

Do you think I have a faulty ballast?...Or maybe there's something totally obvious I'm missing......

Like: II(red)II(yellow)


I've pretty much run out of ideas to get these lights running...

Ok.... I'm a bit unsure myself here buuuut....

The confusion has something to do with the EM field being generated. I don't know the details but your lamps are acting like they're jumpered or something. Not sure.

Test one lamp at a time.
Cap 4 of the 6 leads and twist the two bare leads together.
Connect the twisted leads to a red wire.
Connect two short pieces of red wire togther and connect that to the red wire.
Insert the two red ends so they touch two different pins on one side of the lamp.

Connect two yellow wires to the two pins on the other side of the lamp and twist em together.
Twist a yellow wire onto those wires.
Connect the yellow wire from the ballast to the yellow wire from your connections.


Test it. If it doesn't work, try all the other lamps.
If none of the lamps work then try the next 2 red leads from the ballast until you've tried them all.

If that doesn't work.... wow.... You're hooking up a 120V model to 120V a/c, right?

 

[fatigues]

Noob Electrical Question:

When looking for 2G11 bases, I see reference in the parts manuals to a shunted version of some 2G11 sockets (as well as non-shunted versions).

What's the difference, which do I order and why do I care?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Noob Electrical Question:

When looking for 2G11 bases, I see reference in the parts manuals to a shunted version of some 2G11 sockets (as well as non-shunted versions).

What's the difference, which do I order and why do I care?

A shunt is as simple as a wire connecting two electrical connections. Until you know for sure, I would get the non-shunted versions.

 

[Jellyfish]

Where does one find these 2G11 bases? The bulbs are easy, they're in retail stores, how about the sockets, bases, whatever?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Thedoormouse: You know that as a last resort you can wire those lamps without a socket, yes? Not pretty but can be useful until you get the right sockets. I'm pretty sure you got 'shunted' sockets as your lamps act the same way mine do if I jumper(shunt) them.

A search for "2G11 socket" brings up a few links. I was getting them from 1000bulbs.com but I believe they're out? (Have to check)

 

[grow1620]

coollights.biz has the good bases with the locking base with release button..they also have the support clips.

 

[sixheads]

Hi guys

I am not new to the site but new to micro grows. As you can see by my previous posts i was a gureilla grower but because i keep getting it stolen i must now go microw.

I would like to do a small single rubber maid container grow with t5 and carbon scrubber , i only need maybe an oz every couple months (if it is good). i was reading this post and have some questions.

1. are the pl-l lights ideal for me?
2. how many in a rubber maid 2 or 4?
3, are they to hot?
4. do i have to change the bulbs for veg and flower?


I am not lazy i will keep reaing and learning but right now this is all a little bit to much T% or cfl, or t5 pl-l.

Thanks for any advice i would appreciate it.

Sixheads

 

[fatigues]

1. are the pl-l lights ideal for me?

If you only need an oz or two every other month, Pl-l grow should be fine.

2. how many in a rubber maid 2 or 4?

Well - lots of factors depend upon others here. If you are considering a hydroponic grow in a Rubbermaid Roughneck, 1-6 is doable. Pick your poison, so to speak.

I'm inclined to recommend just one plant for a first grow. DWC grow under PL-L lights arrayed in a High pod. Put the 330w or 440w High Pod on top of your 5 gallon bucket and off you go.

More information on the High Pod is available here. In my case, that's what I am about to do, too.

3. are they too hot?

They generate heat, yes. But not to the same degree that a HID generates heat. Heat produced by a PL-L array is far more manageable than the heat produced by a metal halide or hps bulb of the same wattage. That said, they do need active cooling in most set-ups.

4. do I have to change the bulbs for veg and flower?

Have to? No. Can you choose to do so? Sure. You might, but it's not absolutely necessary. Economically speaking, the cost of 3000k and 4100k PL-L bulbs is quite low. Regrettably, the cost of 5400k (or higher) PL-L bulbs is quite high at $18 or so per bulb -- and the cost gets even higher should you go off to Actinic bulbs used in the Aquarium scene. On a 6 or 8 PL-L array, the cost difference for high color temp bulbs aimed for "best results" during vegetative state adds up fast. Especially when you contrast a cost of $20+ a bulb against the cost of 10x4100k bulbs ($27 for 10!).

Otoh, to buy 10 3000k bulbs from 1000bulbs.com costs only $27-30. And seeing as 2/3rds to 3/4ths of your grow will be spent in flower, it's relatively easy to justify getting some "flower" spectrum bulbs to complement your 4100k bulbs.

Please apprecaite that the temperature codes used by these manufacturers tends to focus on just the spectrum spike of the particular bulb, not the whole spectrum produced by the bulb itself. And for the most part, the spectrum produced by a 4100k PL-L, when considered as a whole, is pretty darn good and more than satisfactory to complete your whole grow.

For an example, have a look at the High Pod grow linked above. The grower did one plant, grown in Coco Coir in a Rubbermaid trashcan lit by 330 watts of PL-L bulbs at 4100k throughout his entire grow. Total length of the grow was about 4 months and he pulled out 5.7 ounces, dried and cured out of there from one plant.

1.5 oz a month or so in terms of harvest volume would seem to (more than) meet your personal needs noted above, right?

I'm further inclined to think that if the grower had used a hydroponic deep water culture instead of Coir, he would have had a better yield and completed his harvest in a faster time in his High Pod, too.

I am not lazy I will keep reading and learning but right now this is all a little bit too much T5 or cfl, or t5 pl-l.

No problem. I would advise against CFLs without a remote ballast. They can't compete against PL-L for wattage and efficiency. It's not even remotely close.

As for T5/T5HO, those are older fluorescent technologies which have been superseded by PL-L. Essentially, a 48" T5HO bulb puts out the same wattage stretched over that 48" that a 22" PL-L bulb puts out in a much tighter space (and more efficiently, too). This allows for a much greater light intensity to be delivered to the plants with PL-L's, and with far more penetrating power. PL-L's are also cheaper than T5HOs.

Twice as intense at half the price. Hmmm. Wonder what the way to go would be?

Yes. It's that straightforward a choice, imo. If you are not going to go with a HID lamp, it's PL-L for the win.

 

[zanedog]

Not having any tg11 connectors, or a ballast specifically designed for my PL-L lamps, I improvised. I used a ballast from a four tube t8 light. I found that if I snipped a bit offa the sides of the tombstones, i could get them to work for the hooking up the lamps as well. Some day I'll run across the correct TG11 connectors and fix it up right. I flattened out the sheet metal from the original T8 fixture and snipped out three reflectors. The four tube T8 ballast drives three 40 watt PL-L's beatifully, it does not heat up AT ALL.
Initially, i was going to solder the leads directly to the lamps themselves, but I suck at soldering, and the pins were getting so hot they were melting the plastic at the base of the bulb and becoming wiggly.

The three PL-L's work great for vegging, better than a single 150 watt HPS.

Cheers.

 

[thedoormouse]

Thedoormouse: You know that as a last resort you can wire those lamps without a socket, yes? Not pretty but can be useful until you get the right sockets. I'm pretty sure you got 'shunted' sockets as your lamps act the same way mine do if I jumper(shunt) them.

A search for "2G11 socket" brings up a few links. I was getting them from 1000bulbs.com but I believe they're out? (Have to check)

Hey, sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been crazy busy lately.

Anyways, I bought some European Connnector things at radioshack and tried wiring up the lights with those, but still no luck.....
I thought the ballast was broken so I got it replaced with a workhorse 7, but now I'm even more confused because I can't find the right diagram for it. I have the wh7-120-h which is different from the long case.
It's more compact and it has two blue wires coming out of it...none of the fulham diagrams have any blue wires in them.

I emailed fulham, hopefully they'll contact me soon so I can get these babies up and running...

I'll try ordering some new sockets to see if that works, but I got the push-button ones from coollights.biz that have been mentioned before.

 

[Numboard]

I thank all of you for this thread
I am now going to use pll's instead of the screw in type.

 

[thedoormouse]

hello! so I finally got these lights running and my little babies are loving the bright light! for those of you who get the push button holder things from coollights.biz for the lamps, make sure you put two wires on the outer pins and two in the middle, this is how you wire them correctly.
If you're unsure, just pop the back off with a screw driver or something and check which hole/wire goes to which pin.
Thanks so much for your help you guys, I can't wait to see how everything turns out.

 

[Dr. Conjuror]

Hydro-Soil,
Just a great DIY thread. The pictures were very to the point and helpful. Thanks

And to all the others that have contributed to the thread, great collaboration and thanks for the time given.

No telling how long it would have taken me to find this thread without the ever-helpful guidance of Pontiac and his magic DIY thread.

Dr. Conjuror

 

[DankHank]

how would you lite this space up for vegging clones/seeds/moms?
2 x or 3 x 55w pl-l...?

Height (Inches): 31.5
Width (Inches): 24.125
Depth (Inches): 11.625

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Glad I could help.

Maybe someday the "Powers that Be" will change the TOU for this site and I'll start posting helpful stuff again.

 

[qbert]

Glad I could help.

Maybe someday the "Powers that Be" will change the TOU for this site and I'll start posting helpful stuff again.

Off-topic, I know, but would you be willing to say what about the TOU makes you decide not to "post helpful stuff"?

 

[supergeek]

I just ordered a couple of 2x55W Osram ballasts and some different bulbs.
I was just wondering if it's ok to run just 1 55W bulb in the 2x55w ballast?
Would be nice for seedlings and when they grow bigger you just plug in the second bulb.

 

[Vaikra]

Hi guys, i got a couple of PHILIPS HF-R 255 PLL ballasts for cheap, a bunch of tubes and wiring it up is driving me crazy... I'm not sure even if the ballasts are working.

They're dimming ballasts so i think i need 1-10v as a control voltage which i've been supplying with a 7v phone charger for testing - hopefully this is not a bad move? the other inputs are for live and neutral mains, which i've wired up, but there's no connection for a ground other than attaching to the ballasts case, is a ground connection required for ignition?

Other than that, i'm not sure on wiring the lights, i have 7 outputs from the ballast (its the 'euro' type) and i assume from the diagram on the ballast (i've no other documentation for them) that there's one cable per pin for each of the 2 lights, with 1 output shared over the 2 lights? I've experimented a little and i realise that it'll only work when its wired correctly, but i can't seem to make it work with either ballast or any combination of tubes. looking at some of the pics posted here, it looks like there's 2 leads going to 1 pin on either end of your lampholders which are a different design to mine... do you guys use the 2 inner pins for anything?

I'm a little scared to try this as i don't want to ruin anything it doesn't make much sense, and i'm probably wrong either way.

Hope someone can help,

thanks.

 

[bilgeweed]

Supergeek- I would like an answer this as well.

 

[mjconfid]

supergeek:
Usually an x lamp ballast will only run exactly x lamps. You can get ballasts for say 1 or 2 lamps, but they will state this on the ballast. Check Osram's website to see the specs for your ballasts.
Vaikra:
Take a look at this PDF .
http://salamanca.khbo.be:8080/doks/...recordId=SKHB8a8199820c14abaa010e1d4fdb9b00e3

From the pdf:
wire number on ballast : lamp pin (where pins 2 and 3 are the middle pins)
1 : lamp 1 pin 1
2 : lamp 1 pin 2
3 : lamp 1 pin 3
4 : lamp 1 pin 4 AND lamp 2 pin 1, so use a "euro connector" or similar to split one cable to two destinations.
5 : lamp 2 pin 2
6 : lamp 2 pin 3
7 : lamp 2 pin 4
Also, the PDF shows that ground is (only) needed as a connection to the ballast case.
My ballasts are non dimming, so I don't know about the control voltage question.

bilgeweed:
If you haven't already bought a ballast, I'd suggest checking out the rest of this thread with reference to the workhorse ballasts as they are the most flexible in this regard.