Electrical question

[haninja]

Thanks all for the help.
I made a diagram. Kinda crude but explains the general direction.

And the relay would actually be on the 10K…

 

[BurntOutReefer]

thats the way I would do it...(assuming Blue is negative)...
I personally would do it on the negative side....

 

[Young Frankenstein]

In a 2 lamp ballast if you eliminate or 1 of the 2 bulbs burns out, the other one will burnout also within a couple weeks due to higher current going to the other light bulb. That why when we change light bulbs we change all of them in a fixture. Try your experiment at least your actinic wont burn out thats more expensive.

 

[jdieck]

I will NOT recommend switching a bulb from the high voltage side of the ballast which can peak at 1000 Volts during bulb start up.
The low cost of a new ballast does not even grant the cost of high voltage switching relays (This is not your usual RadioShack hobby kit relay).

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

I wonder if you could do it in 3 steps:

1) turn off light
2) switch relay state
3) turn on light.

if that ballast has 2 separate light circuits (ie, one bulb will still run if other is burnt out/missing) one side will not burn out faster if the other side is off.

electronic ballasts are even easier on bulbs than tar ballasts