Odyssea 48" 2x150 4xT5 Wiring Questions

BubbleMonkeyIII

New member
Hi everyone,

I purchased an Odyssea 48" 354 Watt HQI/T5 Fixture a few months ago. (i know I know...the ballast are flaming dangerous!) However, I purchased it just for the FIXTURE and planned on powering the HQI in the ODY light with a UL listed BWVII ballast, rewiring the fixture (that was the original plan anyways) My plan, also called for me to IMMEDIATELY toss the ballast after just checking the lights worked after shipping. (which I ended up doing) Never intended on using that thing for more than a few mintues if that. Certainly not when i was out of the room...(fires)

When it arrived, one side of the 2xT5 bulbs had come loose in shipping they didnt break, but were loose, but still connected. I plugged in the light the ballasts and fired it up, to test it anyways, including the Halides, and everthing did fire up just fine, which was cool. But the T5 bulbs were loose so that was a problem. Because of this I had to take off the wiring end of the fixture to replace the bulbs in the holders. (this is the only way to get to the T5 bulbs)

I turned off the ballast disconnected everything power wise... Then Just before I replaced the end cap on the light fixture and after the bulbs were in place, I noticed ONE loose wire coming off the incoming side of the fixture that appeared to be stuffed in the housing in a screw hole, like it was grounded? I thought how weird this looked at first, especially since, I couldnt find another wire on initial inspection and couldnt figure this out. I figured the MFG was just too cheap to ground the thing or something like that.

Then after diggin around a bit, I found ANOTHER large WHITE wire that only "appeared" to be connected to something, but it was just hidden in the lump of cords with stripped end. The weirdest thing was when I inspected both wires there was no evidence of shrink wrapping, or wire nuts or any kind of splice evidence (twisting) just about 1/8" of copper smooth clean.

I followed the white wire and realized it was connected to the base of first closest HQI bulb. The other appeared to be a POWER supply line coming INTO the fixture.. To verify this I made SURE the two wires weren't touching anything or each other, and fired up the HQI and T5 ballasts. The T5s lit up fine, but Sure enough one HQI did not light up. Problem solved I needed to reconnect these two wires...and did so.

At the same this test was going on to determine which wires were loose, something very weird happened, the ballast started to arc me when I went over to it, I touched it to turn it off again in so I could re -wire the thing permanently. I checked the light fixture to see if the wires had touched something in the light, but There were no shorts inside the light fixture or anything like that from any other wires or the loose ones..it was just the ballast was kinda ARCING on me on the case, very minor but I could see a tiny BLUE spark on my finger when I touched it! :eek2: hehe

Knowing and hearing all the horror stories about these ballasts, I unplugged the thing right away and didnt turn it back on. It was trashed the same day.. DUMPED. I soldered and shrink wrapped the wires to each other and figured all was well.

Ok here are my main question(s)...

How can/do these HQI WIRES come apart so easily after just taking off the light's end, and without any evidence of any kind of shrink wrap or even nuts or tape? (junky? I know.. hehe)

Also, I want to ask anyone who has worked on this or similar ODY HQI lights a question..(main question)

How does the MFG connect the HQI wiring inside the fixtures to the power supply coming in? It appeared the others were all shrink wrapped with that black shrink stuff as I remember? Is that all they use to connect them to each other in "normal" situations? Or do they solder them too?

I Soldered and shrink wrapped the two loose ones I found to each other.

I know this is a strange question to ask you might say, "why not just check the light again yourself to see", but I dont own the light anymore, its sold to another reefer.... and worse I am having issues about this solder job with him, I want/need to know how the MFG connects these wires, as he is claiming me SOLDERING them and shrinking them together is "not good or enough" to be safe.

Im thinking jeez, the MFG connected wires can come apart by me just removing the end cap to re-attach the T5s that had shaken loose, and now ME soldering them shrinking them is not good enough?

Any feedback would be great about the MFGs wiring connections/methods and your experience with this regarding these particular lights, as I will need to show that I did a more than FAIR job of reconnecting the wires inside the fixture by soldering them and then shrink wrapping them, going above and beyond even what the MFG does if they only shrink wrap.

Here is another general wiring question for you DIYers out there. Is it normal for any wiring connections like this to be just Shrink wrapped with that shrinking stuff and no soldering or twisting of any kind? Or better yet, what is the BEST way to make connections like this in light fixtures??? How about those hard clamping type tube connectors which crush at each end?

In my experience many MFG use wire nuts vs the shrink stuff, but not sure about in lights like this that can come in contact with water if that is safe.

Thanks in ADVANCE for any information on this subject.

BTW: My overall experience with this HQI fixture is still positive...
The fixture housing is solid build well, and still impressed me even with the small wiring issues, the quality of the components seemed OK too. So even after all this I was still pleased with the fixture itself.. And In the end, either way I figured, I planned on rewiring the WHOLE thing If need be to connect the BWV7 and new HO T5 ballast.. But I sold it instead.
 
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