Dual M59 wiring problems

[DrBDC]

I posted this in the diy forum but maybe the lighting guru's hang out in the lighting forum. Sounds reasonable anyway.

OK, I traded for a M2X400/dual ballast and I am so lost. I can wire the whole house but this thing has me worried. I'm not sure how to wire it. I would love for someone to double check I'm right.

1st the pics:

Wiring diagram:

Complete Ballast capacitors:

Wires leaving ballast:

Now the questions:

1-Ok, from what I can tell, by the diagram, the bulbs are in series?? Seems wierd.

2-The red wire out of the capacitor that are in series goes one bulb.

3-That bulb goes to the second bulb.

4-the second bulb connects it's remaining wire to one of the white wires. Which one? Are they actually the same connection?

5-That leaves me with white, tank, orange, and black wires. Which 2 go to the 120 power cord? From what I can tell I use the orange with the white for one, and the tan with the black for the other. Then no capping off of any extra wires?

6-The box I install this in gets grounded thus the ballast gets grounded by the mount. How do I ground/attach the capacitors to the box? By a simple stainless steel hose clamp or ??

I'm probably off the most on the #5 question I feel but I may be wrong from the beginning of my reasoning so HELP!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I have some Iwasaki's and some corals yelling feed me!

 

[mmotown]

I have 3 x 400 watt M59 ballast. Go on hellolights.com web site. I think they have the diagram for the wiring you can download. If not call them in the morning and ask for Adam. Tell him Warren sent you from RC. He'll take care of you.

 

[PaulErik]

The lamps are wired in series for that Venture dual M59 ballast.


Lamp hookup:

The Red wire from the capacitor goes to the Black wire from first lamp socket.

The White wire from the first lamp socket goes to the Black from the second lamp socket.

The White from the second lamp socket connects to one of the White (common) ballast wires.

It is important to hook up the lamp sockets this way because if you do not the electrical path will not be similar in both lamps. This can cause problematic starting over time.


Power hookup:

The Black and Tan wires from the ballast connect to the power/black line of the power cord.

The left over White (common) and Orange wire from the ballast connect to the white/common of the power cord.

The 2 white (common) wires from the ballast are connected to the same point within the ballast. It does not matter which goes where. No wires should be capped off because in this installation all wires should be connected.

The grounding part is fine but most use a bolt that goes through one of the 4 holes in the ballast core and attach the ground wire here.

The capacitor usually gets mounted with some type of metal clamp/strap. A hose clamp will work perfectly but make sure you do not over tighten it or you could easily damage the capacitor/s.

Hope that helps

 

[DrBDC]

Thank you!!!!!

 

[BeanAnimal]

Never had an M59... but I sure do not like the idea of series wired bubls. I would have prefered to have 2 seperate cores and caps.

Good thread... as usual thanks paul.

For those who have not looked... you may want to follow the link to PaulEriks website (click on his little house). It is one of the best MH information sites I have seen in a long time.

Paul... you need a domain name and a compiled PDF of the text and photos

 

[DrBDC]

So many ballasts are sold under different names. It's labeled as a Sylvania, does that make any difference?

 

[DrBDC]

I guess I should throw a fuse on the power line too just in case.

 

[PaulErik]

The brand is not important. That ballast is really manufactured by Ballastronix Inc in Nova Scotia Canada. I guessed it was a Venture brand ballast because all Venture ballasts are manufactured by Ballastronix. Ballastronix is one of the largest HID ballast manufacturers in North America and make ballasts for many other companies.

I personally prefer single lamp HID ballasts. With a series ballast it can be difficult to trouble shoot problems and the lamps should be identical as much as possible.

Once I get some free time I’ll be getting a new website up.

 

[DrBDC]

Thanks! :thumbsup:

I normally would have bought them as 2 individual ballasts, and probably would have bought electronic as well but I traded for a 4X65 pc setup that I was no longer using which was a heck of a deal. I'm going to run Iwasaki's on them with vho actinics.

I picked up an ammo box from a local army surplus store to mount them in with some holes and a fan. I searched all over for a cool ballast enclosure with cooling fans but no luck. This will work for now but I'll probably go with a more modern ballast sometime.

 

[DrBDC]

Here's the end result. If I go anywhere with this in my car and get pulled over they'll think it's a bomb or something. I better not go near any fedral buildings, power plants, or airports! :lol: