RFI cable company trouble. (HELP!)

Well.. I'm feeling kind of lucky right now. I painstakingly converted an 11x8 bedroom into a 3 site 1800w biobucket greenhouse.. and the cable company seems to be turning the other cheek as to what might be causing the interference coming from my residence, considering that I've probably been disturbing the neighbors with my ebay-bought Ipower "RFI certified" digital ballasts for about a year now, and nobody has come knocking..
Anyways, about.. 8 months ago, a cable guy came and actually SNIPPED my line from the box. A few months after we had our cable company come and repair it, another cable guy came and again, identified my residence as a source of interference but this time, he installed a "noise filter" between our line and the box, completely blocking our cable. None of this was made known to me until i noticed my cable was out, called the cable company, and got my own tech out.
The service tech guy that came and removed the noise filter didn't seem surprised in the least when I told him my gf worked 3rd shift and that he wouldn't be able to get into the basement.. He said it could have just been old wiring, but I could tell in his eyes that he was thinking "I trust you are smart enough stop whatever is causing this before I have to come out and reinstall another one of these". He seemed like a really cool dude.
Call me crazy, or stupid, but I REALLY do not want to relocate my room, despite the fact that my cable line runs through it. Locationally there just.. isn't much anywhere else to move all my stuff! I was in the process right now of trying to take it all down to move it and FORGET IT. HEADACHE. I'm hoping to just be able to switch out to magnetic ballasts and/or buy some rfi blocking paint and be done with it. So, at the risk of sounding stupid, I've got a few questions.. I've been reading up for weeks but.. there's only so many questions a semi-retarded individual can answer himself..
1. Should I also replace the cords and lamp hoods that came with my ballasts, since what from what I can gather here on the forums, these could be just as troublesome as the digi's?
1a. Furthermore, could I paint the cords and/or light hoods with rfi paint? Cover them with space blankets? Bubble foil? Lead tape? I've read a lot of stuff, but I can't really find anything concrete regarding cords and hoods. I know this sounds silly, but the RFI has to stop at any cost.
2. Are magnetic ballasts going to interfere with the cable lines if they are right next to them? What is the minimum distance you would want your ballasts from your cable?
2a. Should I be worried about the heat signatures coming off of 3 600w magnetic ballasts in a concrete basement? The only 2 magnetics I ever owned got pretty hot.. I feel like it would wear the ballast out if you were to enclose it in a little bubble foil box or what have you.. I don't know if I make too big a deal about heat signatures, but I do everything I can to avoid them
Any feedback is very, very much appreciated!

Get new ballasts imo. Yourchina certified lights, were they certified not to burn the house down either??? Cause china will give you back you life its in the warranty...

Switch to satellite TV

Lumatek is a good product as well of u want digi. American for magnetics... I hate that magnetic buzz

Ditch the Chinese lights, or you can buy shielded cables and shorten them to the exact length needed. You can also add RFI blockers to those same cables.

Some new Gavitas are worth every penny. I bet there's no comparison in the light output as well.

I know how ghetto this sounds but it really does work... Wrap the cord tightly with aluminum foil to shield it. your ballast is probably rfi shielded but the cable isn't, wrap the cable going from your ballast to the bulb and you'll be good. Do the am radio check after to make sure.

We have had a few threads on this subject.

Some of them in more detail, how to nuke the electrical noise that is the signature of a conventional HID ballast.


I think LED's cost too much but their power supplies are very different, so they don't leave a trail of bread-crumbs (in the form of electrical noise) pointing to a nearby grow-op.

Years ago this same knock came on my door.
The cable guy said my house was making noise.
Six months before I had changed over to electronic ballast.
He should me a chart of when this noise was coming from my house and it corresponded to the time that my grow lite was on.
He asked me if I had any ideas of what might be coming on?
lol
He put a meter that was reading this RFI on my incoming line.
After he put a couple of filters on and changed a splitter I shut the light off.
The reading went away, the cable guy thought he fixed something and he also left.
I went back to my old magnetic ballast.
Always missing so many good things that come with electronic ballast.
I found a few things out about RFI and electronic ballast.
Our house current operates @ 60cycles/sec
Electronic ballast operates around 150,000-160,000cycles/sec.
Now some electronic ballast say that they are RFI shielded.
Their is even a new concept in introducing electronic ballast that operates closer to the 60cycle/sec.
Advance has put out a ballast intended to get a grower over this problem.
The ballast is called "Badass"
Their is also a ballast "Galaxy" that guarantees that no RFI will leak onto your cable suppliers line.
Like someone already mentioned their is always direct TV "satellite"
Even better if you have a choice between cable providers and one of them is a FIOS system you'll be good to go.
RFI does not bother fiber optics systems.
These are all part of the learning curve.
Myself I bought the Galaxy electronic ballast and changed my cable provider over to the one that operates on a FIOS system.
Ratz

I've been using Galaxy ballasts since they first came out. No RFI problems ever.

-Funk

Did you have an open cable line in your grow room or around the ballast that wasn't in use?

sourpuss said:

Lumatek is a good product as well of u want digi. American for magnetics... I hate that magnetic buzz

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Not anymore!!! Lumatek has been having tons of problems and their vendors are dropping like flys. The shops in my area blew out all they had for dirt cheap.

sourpuss said:

Lumatek is a good product as well of u want digi. American for magnetics... I hate that magnetic buzz

Click to expand...

I hate that sound (of security---tongue in cheek)... lol....j/j sourpuss
Goes right along with that T-100 intermatic timer huge CLICK

cant be TOO safe...

interference is an inverse proportional square, which means if you double the distance it halves
the interferance.

If you can run a new coax for your cable in the attic and disconnect the old one.

Move ballasts and reroute cables as far away from the coax as possible,
don't coil cables if they are to long, (makes an inductor) shorten them or use long straight seperate runs.

now would be a great time for gavitas or lec 315's

watts said:

Did you have an open cable line in your grow room or around the ballast that wasn't in use?

Click to expand...

No
My AM radio played with VERY little static
When I wore a metal colander on my head jury rig with a old set of rabbit ears wrap in lots of aluminum foil (shiny side in) I was able to get in touch with the mother ship but otherwise I could not tell if I was making noise with RFI with a AM radio.
Ratz

UPDATE. I re-routed the coax, shortened my cables, and moved my lights as far away from the new coax as possible as per post #12. I even wrapped my newly shortened cables as per post #6. Cable guy showed back up a week later to tell me I was still disturbing upwards of 600 people with a measly 600w ballast, and that he had put in a final work order that would require the cable company to check the wiring in the entire house. He knew. He even introduced himself saying "Don't worry now, I'm not the guy that comes in, but they are coming later in the week, so do yourself a favor and make sure you let them in to check the house because.. they are getting in one way or another." and then he proceeded to advice me to look into canceling my current provider (and his current employer) for satellite. This was about a week ago, and nobody has showed up, assumedly because the lights are off and long gone. Somebody should make a sticky about the dangers of using digital ballasts. I spent $800 dollars on lights that lasted me 2 runs and burnt up my spot. FIOS isn't an option for most people yet, it isn't for me and I live in a wealthier neighborhood. Anyways, DON'T BUY DIGITAL EBAY LIGHTS/BALLASTS. IF YOU LIVE IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA, YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT CHEAP OUT ON YOUR LIGHTS.

ALSO, I did the am radio test and once i got 10 feet away from my lights, the interference stopped. My light and ballast were at least 25 feet from the coax. This was obviously no where near good enough.