repairing a ballast

[WILDTHING]

I was trying to rehang my 150DE lights and I dropped them in my tank instead, luckily since they have glass on them they floated long enough for me to unplug them from the ballast. (bluewave by sunlight supply) I did not realize that you can't keep the ballast plugged in after you unplug the lights from them SO one side is blown or something (i smelled something sweet burning)anyway its not working. Anyone know where I could get them repaired? Its way to heavy to consider sending them someplace so it needs to be local.

colleen

 

[manderx]

if you smelled something, you should be able to open it up and see what component let out it's 'magic smoke'. take a pic of that part and we can go from there. if it's an electronic ballast you're pretty much screwed and have to replace the whole ballast, if it's magnetic (more likely since you say it's heavy) you might be able to replace just 1 cheap part. the instructions say explicitly not to disconnect while it's running, so you won't get far if you try to warranty it.

i would also take apart the reflectors and give them a good rinse in RO. any salt residue in there could cause problems.


don't feel too bad. i did the same thing recently. i was sliding my canopy back and the legs on one side slipped off the edge. 2 of the reflectors got a little wet but the bulbs stayed dry. or so i thought, 2 weeks later i was looking at the reflection of one of the bulbs while looking top-down and noticed it was cracked and barely holding together. if it had fallen apart, that whole corner of my tank would have died from the UV.

 

[WILDTHING]

I checked the original post from dooleyb who I bought it from. Its a magnetic ballast. The website says Ansi M 81
http://www.sunlightsupply.com/produ...3CC90E0815D55344DC044A99373FB&c=53&kys=&pgi=1
I then checked the MH Ballast and lamp stickey thread in the Lighting and filtration forum so I don't think its electronic.

Now I just need to find a square screw head screwdriver.

colleen

 

[WILDTHING]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9104417#post9104417 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by manderx
i was looking at the reflection of one of the bulbs while looking top-down and noticed it was cracked and barely holding together. if it had fallen apart, that whole corner of my tank would have died from the UV.

Something similar happened to me a while back when I was still using moguls. I heard a loud crack and my bulb exploded. The light stayed on but the outside glass shattered and fell in the tank. Funny thing tho is that no water that I know of splashed on it. Glad I was there when it happened or I might not have noticed for a while since the glass that fell in the tank was hard to see even tho I knew it was there. It did keep my hands out of the tank for a while.:rollface: something I have a big problem with.

 

[reefdadx2]

Matt, if you are an out of work model you could always try a career as a comedian. I think you would be great at it. You gave me a good laugh. Your non model friend. Hope to meet up with you tomorrow. Michael R

 

[manderx]

you think i'm joking?
we rent our office space from a photographer. he used me in a photo shoot once, paid me 50 bucks he did. it was *really* weird when i was clicking around the internet one day and saw me on some random web page. then one of my friends was in a microsoft training class and said they had a full-size poster of me up on the wall. i'm famous, and i'm just waiting for the right time to move down to south beach to be with my people .

 

[WILDTHING]

got it open, nothing looks burned or "bad" that I can distinguish

 

[WILDTHING]

if you need any other angles or close ups just let me know.

Boris was wondering if the caps look like old time guitar style oil filled ones?

 

[manderx]

dunno. www.hellolights.com has replacement parts but they are more expensive than i thought they would be. 20 for a cap, 45 for an ignitor, and 75 for everything (didn't see just the coil).

you're probably looking at a bunch of trial and error to figure the bad part.

 

[WILDTHING]

Ade suggested I try switching the caps around to see if thats the problem. If it isn't I'm not really sure what to do. A friend has seen individual ballasts on wamas for 30 ea. Guess I could go that route but I really like having everything in one box and the blue wave with the handle and on off switch is pretty nice.

Have you ever heard about pfo ballasts putting out more light than any other ballast? A friend had a store owner show him with a light meter that a pfo driven bulb was producing more light. I wonder if he was overdriving the se bulb with a de ballast? I went to pfo's website and I don't see them mentioning any magic special ballast that can do that.

colleen

 

[reefdadx2]

Matt, I'm sorry that I questioned your career. It sounds like we may be losing you to a modeling career after all. Don't forget about us little people when you make it big. :thumbsup: Michael R

 

[manderx]

A friend has seen individual ballasts on wamas for 30 ea.

just make sure it is m81.

Guess I could go that route but I really like having everything in one box and the blue wave with the handle and on off switch is pretty nice.

no reason why you couldn't transplant the working ballast into the sls box.

Have you ever heard about pfo ballasts putting out more light than any other ballast? A friend had a store owner show him with a light meter that a pfo driven bulb was producing more light. I wonder if he was overdriving the se bulb with a de ballast? I went to pfo's website and I don't see them mentioning any magic special ballast that can do that

no, as long as they were the same kind of ballast, the parts they use on the inside are all the same. there are 3 big companies that make almost all of the actual magnetic ballasts (advance, venture and magnetek) that are all interchangeable. actually, when PFO and SLS order the parts to put in their boxes, they get whatever is available. so one pfo might have a venture ballast in it while another might have an advance. sls does claim to use better 'high temperature' caps in theirs though. so i'd want to know more details on the test. if it was a fair test (not different reflectors/bulbs) then only thing i can think that might make a difference is i've heard shorter wiring harnesses can make a slight difference (but the case i heard was shortening from 40 feet to 15 feet). i forget which one has the longer harness. but i'll bet anything they were different bulbs/reflectors since i don't see him rewiring the ballasts between tests (since they all use different plugs).

 

[tsmitti99]

I alse have a sls ballast with one side blown. I contacted them and they sent me a shipping label from fedex to have it repaired free of charge.

Although now that yours is opened i doubt they will repair it for you.

 

[WILDTHING]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9123364#post9123364 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tsmitti99
I alse have a sls ballast with one side blown. I contacted them and they sent me a shipping label from fedex to have it repaired free of charge.

Although now that yours is opened i doubt they will repair it for you.

I am sure the warrantee was long past as I bought it used.

 

[tsmitti99]

so did i. i just said it was a gift when they asked where i got it. 5yr warranty so odds were high.

 

[manderx]

warranty would cover this case because it was damaged by unplugging the socket while it was running, which the instructions explicitly say not to do. they would be able to tell.