Ballast still on with timer off - time works fine with other ballst :S HELP!!!!!!!

[cocktail frank]

for the last time,
if the timer is working properly, power will shut off to the LOAD plug on the timer.
which in turn will give no power to the plug.
no power, no ballast ignition.

now,
there is a chance the break in the timer is in the neutral.
highly unlikey, but still possible.
if there is, the casing for the "bad" ballast will become electrically charged via the enclosure.
if you touch the ballasts metal enclosure, then ground yourself to some metal, you will get zapped.

i personally, as an electrician, dont see that to be the problem if everything was wired factory.

was the timer wired by you?
how bout the ballast?

 

[Green Force]

i told you in my posts the ballast is a used raw ballast wired into an electrical box that i got from the hydro store so it could of bin wired by any one

 

[Green Force]

sooo i fuckin use the same timer still on the same ballasts only i have a fan on the ballast's guess what?? no fucking problems so explain that shit LOL =P

 

[trybud]

maybe the ballast is getting too hot and its messing up the voltage ,which in turn causes a situation that digi timer cant handle..still points to the timer being shit.

 

[PharmaCan]

sooo i fuckin use the same timer still on the same ballasts only i have a fan on the ballast's guess what?? no fucking problems so explain that shit LOL =P

Magic!

PC

 

[Chaghatai]

Just looking at the thread title, before I clicked into the thread, I said to myself "I'll bet he has a electronic timer."

If it ever does it again, unplug the ballast and plug in something like a fan into the timer. If the fan is on too - you have a fukked tmer, no if's ands and butts.

What you seem to have is an unreliable timer that doesn't like to run with too much heat on it's load. A light that's running a bit hot is causing the tempermental electronic beasty to malfunction, preventing it's switch from interrupting power. I personally replace any equipment that gets unreliable. I can't afford stretch or hermies from a 24+ hour light period.

A good timer shouldn't care what i plugged into it downstream as long as the total load is below it's amp rating.

A ballast cannot turn on without power, this has been said already, and you indicated your understanding. Since your ballast was on, this means that power was manisfestly flowing through your timer. No ballast can turn on a switch that has been switched off. You feel it is the ballast since other ballasts work with this timer. That is incorrect logic as that could mean that the other ballasts merely fail to activate the flaw in the timer. What you are really saying is that your ballast is causing your timer to fail. But ultimatly the timer still must fail to cause your scenerio.

What people are saying is that a good timer should not fail, regardless of what is plugged into it. (as long as it is not overloaded)

Think of this from another angle. What if you use a solid-state timer with this light and not have a problem, fan or no. Doesn't that put the ball back in the timer's court? What you have is a timer that behaves inconsistantly dependin on what is plugged into it. I guarentee that if you had one of those larger 20 amp intermatic timers, you would not be having this issue.

I used to be a computer troubleshooter. To troubleshoot equipment problems, you swap stuff out. If swapping the ballast fixes te problem, that puts the emphass on the ballast. But switch logic points to the timer. So swap the timer, if other timers work, then you are seeing a nested problem: A bad timer being triggered by a particular ballast. I'm betting however that there are other situations in which this timer would fail. Just because other games work fine, doesn't mean you don't have a bad video card so to speak.

I have seen this problem before with electronic timers.They can get unreliable and not have the switch trip even when it's electronic display says the timer should be off. I think they heat up under consisitant high load and their switch fails. Give it enough time and you will likely see this behavior with other ballasts and heavy loads also. I stopped using an electronic timer due to this very problem. I went solid-state for the lights and have had no problems ever since.

 

[CDM]

its the timers that are failing... they supply power and the ballast cannot operate if the timer is working properly. maybe the current load is messing the timer up which is why it works on some units.. but trust me.. its the timer!! Im an engineer and I am sure.. and if its a power issue you dont want to be having problems there..

Timers are cheap.

 

[CDM]

I was thinking also, if its a raw ballast as you refer to it... are you tapped into the right lag? many transformers have mulitble lags to supply different voltages.. so one transformer (ballest) can supply many different voltages depending on what it is installed in. maybe the wrong tap used can fuck up your timer. whatever the root cause, its the timer that is failing