DIY: How to get a 175w MH ballast and Mogul socket for under $50!..pic heavy

[Corndork2]

This tutorial will show you how to harvest a M57 ballast and mogul socket from a very common and inexpensive outdoor lighting fixture. This particular fixture can be found at anyone’s local Home Depot or Lowes. It may also be available in other stores but those are the two that I know definitely carry it. The benefit of this project is that the materials are readily available and extremely more cost effective if you’re willing to do a little handy work.
The M57 ballast is a magnetic ballast that will support 175 watt Metal Halide bulbs. I am not sure of an entirely complete list of bulbs that it will support, but I know that this ballast is capable of powering XM, Iwasaki, Hamilton, Coralvue, Ushio, and Coralife lamps, as well as most other 175 watt lamps produced by major manufactures.

First off…the legal business:

DISCLAIMER: The components that one will come into contact with when attempting this project can be dangerous, harmful, or even deadly if the proper safety precautions are not taken. This article is provided strictly on an informational basis. I am not responsible for, nor do I assume any liability for, damages resulting from the use of any information contained in this article. Please, if you do not have some electronics experience, do not attempt this project for your own safety.

Materials:
1 â€"œ Regent 175w MV Security Lighting Fixture
1 â€"œ 8ft 16 Gauge power cord
1- Box of electrical caps. The orange ones are the perfect size for this gauge of wire

All this stuff can be bought for under $35

Tools Needed:
Phillips Screwdriver
Pliers or Socket Wrench with a variety of small sockets
Wire cutters
Wire stripper or scissors

Ok, now let’s get our hands dirty.

This is what the box will look like in the store. It’s a simple outdoor mercury vapor security lighting fixture. I got mine for 24.88.

This is everything you will get out of the box. The main steel fixture, a cheap reflector, a 175w MV bulb (it’s useless for our tanks but it’s nice to keep around to test your ballast) a CDS cell, and some mounting hardware.

You can toss everything but the main steel fixture. The ballast and socket we want are mounted in there. All that needs to be done is a little surgery, and a little rewiring.

First flip the fixture upside down and take a look inside.

Here’s the pay dirt. One M57 Ballast, and one Mogul socket

Now take a look at the bracket holding on the socket. Notice it is held on by two bolts. The first thing we need to do is remove those bolts.

Here’s what you should have thus far...

Now take a look at that beige circular socket that has the red, white, and black wires going into it.

Next cut the white wire, and the red wire as close to the white socket as you can.

 

[Corndork2]

Now look at the bracket holding the ballast onto the top of the fixture. It looks a lot like the bracket that is attached to the mogul socket, and it is attached in the same way. There are two bolts holding the ballast retaining bracket to the housing. Remove those two bolts.

After the mogul socket bracket unbolted, the ballast retaining bracket unbolted and the wires to the beige socket are cut, you can remove the entire ballast/socket assembly from the fixture housing.

Next we’re going to take a look at the mogul socket. The socket bracket is still attached to the socket, and we will have to remove it.

If you look down into the socket you’ll notice two silver screws. Remove these screws to remove the bracket. Not all screwdrivers will fit into the slot in the socket that leads to these mounting screws, so be sure to have a small to medium sized Phillips head driver around to help you out.

What you should have now:

Now separate the mogul socket from the ballast by cutting the black and white wires that connect them. Cut the wire at about half length point between the socket and ballast. You’ll need that inch or two of wire length on the ballast and socket to work with later on.

You’ll notice there is extra length of white wire attached to the socket that we don’t need. Cut the excess off.

Strip the ends of the black, red, and white wires coming from the ballast

Now you’ll need to use the 16 gauge power cord. Cut the cord in half, or in two different lengths. You will need the length with the power plug to power the ballast, and the other length of 16 gauge wire to run from the ballast to the socket.

 

[Corndork2]

There are three wires coming from the power cord; white, green, and black.

Strip the black and white wires from the length of power cord with the plug attached to it. We won’t strip the green on right now as we won’t be using it until we mount our ballast in its casing later on.

Now take the black wire from the power cord and connect it to the red wire of the ballast with a cap.

Next take a look at the length of 16 gauge cable that did not have the power cord on it.

Cut the green wire off of the cable. It’s not needed.

Then strip the black and white wires.

 

[Corndork2]

Now connect the black wire of that cord, to the black wire on the ballast with an electrical cap.

Then look at the white wires. There are three of them. One from the ballast, one from the power cord, and one from the other 16 gauge length of cord. Connect all three white wires together with an electrical cap.

Next, strip the wires connected to the mogul socket.

Take the length of cable coming from the ballast that doesn’t have the power plug on it and strip the ends so there are only the black and white wires. Then connect the white wire on the cord, to the white wire of the socket with an electrical cap.

Then connect the black wire on the cord to the black wire on the socket with an electrical cap.

All done with the socket!

Testing the wiring of the ballast and the socket:

This was tested with a 6500k GE 175w MH lamp. It’s a good idea to test the unit at this stage before it’s dropped into an enclosure.

The enclosure will be the next update to this thread. Don’t worry it will be here in a day or two, and it like the rest of this project can be purchased at the local Home Depot or Lowes.

I hope this was at least some what informative. As long as basic safety measures are taken (use common sense with high voltage) this project is very easy. If there are any questions, comments, suggestions, or problems don’t hesitate to ask.

Soon to come: Dropping this ballast into an all metal enclosure

 

[pcurry18]

Absolutely AWESOME....im watching this one..thanks for the info

 

[rustybucket145]

I have a couple of questions already..... may be dumb but I have to ask...

I went a slightly different route and purchase a ballast kit from the local elec supply store.

The kit came with a capacitor.... I see your ballast does not have one... Why? What is the capacitor for?

Number two,.... Is a mercury vapor and metal halide ballast the same? Any differences?

 

[Corndork2]

The capacitor that you have may actually be an igniter. Certain bulbs require an ingniter to fire up, however most MH bulbs have the igniter built into them, therefore we dont need one. Also all MV ballasts will not support MH bulbs. This MV ballast happens to be a M57. That perticular ballast can power 175w MV lamps, as well as 175w MH lamps.

 

[hebygb]

wow... this is great. This along with building my own reflector (I need to dig up that DIY now... and woot!! Nice work... BTW lets keep this a lil quiet til I can get the parts.

 

[hebygb]

Here is the link to the reflector I want to build:

http://www.reefdiversity.com/DIYPage/DIY_HTML/DIY_ReflectorIndex.htm

 

[Horace]

Dont waste your time/money trying to build a reflector. Just buy one. The reflector is by far the most imporant part of your lights. Chincing out and trying to DIY your are almost 100% gaurenteed to create a much lower quality reflector and thus your performance will be substandard. Do the rest of the DIY lighting to your hearts content!

 

[speedsport]

That reflector that he wants to make is the only one worth building. All the others will be a waste of time and money. I made 2 of these reflectors for around $40. They are amazing.

 

[pleaselaunchme]

Corndork-

I've been looking for fixtures to part out, this is great, thanks!

Any chance you could take a pic of the label on the ballast?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[GTR]

All my M57 ballasts have a capacitor.

SteveU

 

[apayne]

Do they make this in a 250w version?

Great Idea and thread!!!

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[jman77]

I remember this being done years ago.... but , here's the catch, it only fired a FEW select bulbs ... by few i mean 1 bulb that i can remember, it was a 6500k bulb as well. It would not fire all MH bulbs, and sorry to say , i do not believe MH bulbs come with caps built in, I have yet to see one that does.

MH ballasts usually come with the core, igniter and cap... M57's usually core and cap

A m57 will only run a handful of bulbs, and that is with a cap. Not sure what the non cap version can run. Either way it's a good find

 

[cannarella]

All MH ballasts, except the Fcan ballast where the CAP is integrated in the ballast, have a CAP. Post up a pic of the wiring diagram on the ballast. I don't see how it fired the lamp w/o a CAP.

 

[Amoore311]

great write up so far.!!

I'll be following this one for sure.

 

[Corndork2]

Ive used these ballasts for quite some time, and have used this exact ballast 4 times including this one. Every time it has fired whatever 175w MH bulb with an internal igniter. It may not be the best solution, but it works for a college guy on a budget like myself.

 

[Corndork2]

Also the wiring diagram on the bottom of the ballast doesnt show a capacitor. Ill post up a pic once I finish the enclosure and post the rest of the how to

 

[cannarella]

What brand and model ballast is it? It doesn't have a CAP on it. A FCan ballasts looks like a big fluorescent tube type ballast. Have you run any type of aquarium lamp on it yet? I get all my ballasts for free and they all come with a CAPs. I am intrigued. There has to be an explanation. The CAP is used to initially strike the arc in the tube. I guess I can call one of our engineers and ask.