Wiring woes! Stupid cheap ballast help

[Mishap]

Ok, so I got a killer deal on 2 coralife HQI ballasts. however the plug they come with to go to the lamp is vastly different from the one on my reflector.


I cut the ends off of the receptacle on the ballast and the plug off of my reflector.

From the ballast I have a Brown wire marked "B" , a black wire that runs to the on/off switch on the ballast, and a white wire marked "Com"

From the reflector I have a green (ground), black and white.

Before I electrocute myself or blow the components I thought I would ask for help.

Soooo, all you guru's please help!

Thanks,
Matt

 

[MeuserReef]

Do you have a model # on the ballast itself? (off of the actual coil inside of whatever coralife cover they have on it). What we need to figure out is what the Brown wire is for. White should always be NEUTRAL, black should always be HOT, and the Green shoudl always be the GROUND. Perhaps the Brown is a Ground?

Is this an Electronic or Magnetic model ballast?

 

[Mishap]

electronic ballast

Model # HPS-108SA-250
Metal Halide Lamp 250w M80

 

[MeuserReef]

Does it look like this?

http://tdcpower.manufacturer.global...27791/pdtl/Ballast/1006701455/HID-Ballast.htm

 

[Mishap]

kind of, I'm uploading pics to make this easier. Thanks for your help thus far!

 

[MeuserReef]

Im almost positive that the M80 is not electronic, but magnetic.

I just found this:

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20799

Notice that the 250W electronic ballast does not carry a apecific ANSI #, where as the M80 does (not to mention that they are listed seperate)

 

[Mishap]

 

[MeuserReef]

First... you have yourself a magnetic ballast (im 100% sure now)


I still cannot see where the brown wire should go. The pic of the wiring diagram is kinda blurry.

 

[supertech3]

the ballast is a multi tap ballast so if you have to power it by different voltages (ie 240v)

 

[AquaReeferMan]

I'm gonna take the get up into work with me and have the resident expert take a look and see what he comes up with.

I tripped the breaker 3 times tryin to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[AquaReeferMan]

bah, I'm at a friend's house, woops.

 

[H20ENG]

IIRC, the Brown would be the lamps Hot wire, which would go to the black of your lamp socket. The White will be the lamps negative and also be connected to the neutral inside the box.

The diagram on the ballast should show you exactly whats going on.

 

[Mishap]

Hmm, I'll give that a shot. But where should the black wire from the switch go to?

 

[H20ENG]

The 120V lead on the multitap ballast (all others should be capped). Sometimes they are white or yellow, but always labeled with the voltage.
HTH.
If you could post a clearer picture of the ballast and the diagram it would help.

 

[Mishap]

The 120v lead from the ballast Y's off from the switch. Half goes from the switch to the ballast, the other goes from the switch to the lamp socket that I removed.

 

[H20ENG]

Hmm. I can see from the pics that the white from the power wire is connected to the COM wire in the ballast. The other COM wire should go to one side of the lamp.

Looks like the brown is the transformed voltage coming out of the transformer and should feed into an ignitor. Then leaving the ignitor should be LP to the other side of the lamp.

I have NO idea why the 120V would go to the lamp socket! Are you sure it wasnt for an "ON" indicator lamp??

Do you have an ignitor in there somewhere? Or just a capacitor?

 

[Mishap]

The socket that the 120v lead from the switch, the brown, and the white wire went into looked like the bottom socket in this pic. the wire from the switch went into the middle prong. the black to the right, and the white to the left.

What would this ignitor look like?

The pic before the wiring diagram shows everything in the ballast box.

 

[MeuserReef]

OK... Ive done some more homework on this ballast. Your ballast is actually a TDC (chinese) ballast that is capable of firing either a High Pressure Sodium (HPS) or Metal Halide (MH) bulb. With that said, I know that MH bulbs do not require an ignitor where HPS bulbs do, even if running off of identical ballsts.

Because your ballast can technically run either bulb, it appears that the wiring diagram is showing how an HPS bulb should be setup. A MH bulb doesnt need the ignitor, but does require the Capacitor (what you have in the case).

So, with all that said, heres how I would wire this thing up (nevermind how it was wired when you got it)


INPUT POWER SETUP
Black wire comes into ballast and goes directly to switch, then comes off of switch and goes to the 120V tap coming off of the ballast itself (as mentioned above, this wire may be yellow, white, or some other color, but it should definetly say "120V")

The White wire coming into the ballast should go directly to one of the COM wires coming off of the ballast (there should be two wires labeled COM)

The Green wire is simply grounded to the metal case that holds the ballast coil.

WIRING FROM BALLAST TO LAMP

Coming out of the ballast, you should have a wire labeled COM. This COM should go directly to one side of the bulb socket.

There should also be a second wire coming off of the ballast going to the Capacitor. Coming off of the capacitor, there should be another wire (not connected to ballast). This wire should go to the other side of the bulb socket (the capacitor is basically inline on the hot wire going from the ballast to the bulb socket)

Try this wiring config and let us know if it works.

Its hard to see exactly where things are going with the wires bunched together in that box.

 

[MeuserReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12543834#post12543834 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MeuserReef
I know that MH bulbs do not require an ignitor...

Apparently I dont "know" what Im talking about

I just read this in another thread:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12544401#post12544401 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PaulErik
What wattage? Different wattages have different differences.

Both a magnetic HQI 250-watt ballast (ANSI M80) and a magnetic pulse start 250-watt ballast (ANSI M138/M153) will fire/ignite a HQI type lamp. Both ballasts are equipped with an external lamp ignitor (lamp starter). An ignitor is required for HQI type (ANSI M80 and European spec) 250-watt lamps. The main difference is the operating current. A pulse start (ANSI M138/M153) provides less lamp current than a HQI (ANSI M80) ballast. ANSI M80 specification calls for a lamp current of 3 amps and ANSI M138/M153 calls for a lamp current of 2.1 amps. Using a HQI type lamp (built to ANSI M80 or European electrical standard) on a pulse start (ANSI M138/M153) ballast will cause the lamp to be driven under spec (under powered/ reduced wattage). This is not recommended because the lamp never reaches full brightness/operating temperature. The lamp needs to be operated at full power at each start to allow the lamp to properly stabilize. If not short lamp life and color shift may result.

I guess there IS supposed to be an ignitor for these types of ballasts?

Here is the wiring diagram for an <a href=http://www.advancetransformer.com/eCatalog/out/5974388491.pdf>Advance M80 ballast</a>, which apparently has an ignitor too.

I think your lamps are missing the Ignitor!!!

 

[PaulErik]

The ignitor (lamp starter) is not housed inside the ballast enclosure in Coralife ballasts. They use a superimposed ignitor which has a limited wire length to the lamp (the igntior superimposed type should be as close as possible to the lamp because of a voltage drop). The ignitors are housed inside the light fixtures in the Coralife units. An ignitor (a superimposed type 3500 minimum 5000 maxiumum Volt ignitor only) must be used to start the lamp with this ballast.