Thought I had this resolved, but I found how mistaken I was. I seek understanding here. I had been given a 600 Watt Harvest Pro ballast by a friend who told me that it was striking intermittently. I ordered a new cap and ignitor from Atlas. After installing them, I was able to ignite a MH bulb, but not a hps bulb. I ordered a new ignitor from ilighting, and that seemed to work fine. That is to say that when I wired the socket directly to the ignitor, the hps bulb will strike really fast, a second or maybe 2 at the most. Yet when I attempt to use the standard remote cord set and hood, I could not get the hps bulb to strike. I did not think to try the mh bulb. Wish now that I had tried it . I did try a couple of things at that point. I did wire the bulb back up to the ignitor again, it strikes fast and fine. I grabbed a multi meter and found no short or opens in the hood or cordset. At that point, I figured that my problem was that I had too much resistance for the ignitor, so I pulled off the ignitor and ran extension wires to extend the ignitor to the hood. I wanted to make sure that I was using heavy enough wire, so I used 18 g and what ever it is that is one step thicker. It made no difference at all, no strike. Yet when I wire the ignitor and bulb back up directly to the coil,the hps bulb strikes instantly. The ballast was marked :BAHPS 600 CW Autotransformer 600 W S106 Lamp, 64 mfd cap 300 V . The original cap was 64mfd and 300 volts and the replacement was the same. The original ignitor was marked: for 250 - 600 Watt hps , or 35- 150 mh Ballast 105C max case temp 2 foot max lamp to ballast . The ignitor I got from Atlas that did not work was marked : Ignitor BI 802 , for 200 - 600 Watt hps or 35- 450 Watt MH Ballast, 2 ft max lamp to ballast , 105 Max case temp . The 2nd ignitor which I bought when that first replacement did not work was from Ilighting, and was marked: Keystone XGO6 HPS 600 W, Max case temp 105. It is the Keystone ignitor which seems to work but only when wired directly to the ignitor and coil. I think I must be overlooking something very basic. I would like to have the bulb on a cord about 12 Feet long, but could make it work just fine with a 6 foot cord. For some reason, I am having a hard time contemplating running the thing with the socket hanging off the side of the ballast. Any insight would be appreciated.
Ballast Problem continuing
- Thread starter Garhart
- Start date
MH bulbs do not need a Ignitor to run. The Ignitor is used to fire HPS bulbs.. A ballest with a Ignitor should fire both mh/hps.. Here is a complete replacement. Most dont need a new transformer.
http://www.hydrofarm.com/product.php?itemid=1410
This is how to wire a CAP COIL
http://www.hydrofarm.com/product.php?itemid=1410
This is how to wire a CAP COIL
I just supplied you with the basics of wiring a cap coil ballest. when you know the basics of how the ballest is wirred it usually helps people find that right path. Depending how far your run is might prevent the bulb from firing. I know there is a distance limitation. I know they sale 25' extension's but nothing longer then that. If your only going 15' I dont see why your having problems. Im pretty sure the standard cord is 15'
Good luck
Good luck
I agree with you, I would think in most cases the information you posted would be quite enough to get this squared away. This seems like it should be pretty simple, yet I can not seem to find a resolution. I am hoping that someone who has encountered something similar can lend some insight.
B
BasementGrower
didnt u just say the igniter had a range of only 2 feet. ? and ur trying to use a 15? maybe a better ingniter?
I would suspect a bad connection or wiring error when you extended all of the wiring out to make the ignitor local at the reflector. Standard ignitors are available out to a 15' model - however, the ones that you are using are only good for a 2' distance from the lamp. 18 gauge might be a bit light, but 16 should certainly be fine. Are you sure that when you extended the wiring out that it matched up with Hammerhead's diagram?
Here are some pictures
Here are some pictures
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Here are the ignitors, the original ignitor is on the left. The one in the center came with the cap I replaced. That ignitor did not work, so I bought the Keystone ignitor that is in the ballast now. The ballast will work with the socket as shown. I then used the shielded wire that was originally part of the remote hood to try to extend the ignitor. I checked to see if that would work. When it did not, I cut the wire at about half the length to see if that world work. It did not. I removed the extending wire, and now it works again as shown. There were only 3 wires to my extension, I was pretty sure that I had it connected correctly. Not sure what to do here. I have a huge bubba and some SFVs that needs a bulb. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The bare green wire that is showing in the ballast, connects to the ignitor with a hose clamp. The original ignitor had a bolt that was used to attach it to the case. The keystone ignitor did not have the attrachment bolt. The schematic on the coil showed the ignitor as being grounded. I was afraid that if I strapped it to the cap, it might get too hot, so I thought giving the ignitor it's own ground would be appropriate. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Any thoughts as to would it be safe to run the unit as it is with the socket connected directly to the ignitor?[/FONT] [/FONT]
Here are some pictures
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Here are the ignitors, the original ignitor is on the left. The one in the center came with the cap I replaced. That ignitor did not work, so I bought the Keystone ignitor that is in the ballast now. The ballast will work with the socket as shown. I then used the shielded wire that was originally part of the remote hood to try to extend the ignitor. I checked to see if that would work. When it did not, I cut the wire at about half the length to see if that world work. It did not. I removed the extending wire, and now it works again as shown. There were only 3 wires to my extension, I was pretty sure that I had it connected correctly. Not sure what to do here. I have a huge bubba and some SFVs that needs a bulb. [/FONT]
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When you were trying to run the ignitor at the hood, did you use the ground wire from the original hood cord in place of the blue wire, or what? To extend the ignitor to the hood it should take 4 wires - X1, X2, X3, and ground. I'm not sure if the ignitor will function properly without a ground, I've never tried it. However, it isn't safe to run it ungrounded, and some lamp ignition circuit require a ground plane to work (fluorescents, for instance).
Yes, I used the ground wire for x3. When I tried that configuration, I actually had the ignitor and socket on the end of the extension, but still right beside the ballast. The ignitor was hooked up to the original ground. Had it lit, I would have gotten a new ground wire and extended it as well. When it did not I pulled the extension wires out to see if it would still light with the socket connected directly to the ignitor again. It did.
Well, damn. Do you still have a metal halide lamp that you could try at the remote location? That would tell you if everything in the setup is ok except the ignitor.
You could try shorting all of the wires on your long cord together, and read the resistance from one end, checking two wires at a time. All of the resistances should be balanced. The only thing that I can come up with is that perhaps the added capacitance of the long cord is screwing things up. Speaking of capacitance, have you tried the original capacitor? It appears that all of the individual components are working, but when all of them are combined things go to hell.
You could try shorting all of the wires on your long cord together, and read the resistance from one end, checking two wires at a time. All of the resistances should be balanced. The only thing that I can come up with is that perhaps the added capacitance of the long cord is screwing things up. Speaking of capacitance, have you tried the original capacitor? It appears that all of the individual components are working, but when all of them are combined things go to hell.
Yes, I do still have the MH bulb. I will do the check on the extending cord in the morning. I will redo that config and check it with the MH bulb. While I have kept the original cap and ignitor, I have never checked either of them. Thank you very much for the input, it is sure appreciated.
