Do electronic ballast still interfere with wifi/internet ? ??

Scientific Solution:

End your RF problems by placing your ballast inside a box made of thin copper sheeting.(aka faraday cage)

Copper is used for radio frequency (RF) shielding because it absorbs radio and electromagnetic waves.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_shielding

This type of copper foil is probably good enough.

99.9% Pure Copper Metal Sheet Foil

troutman said:

Scientific Solution:

End your RF problems by placing your ballast inside a box made of thin copper sheeting.(aka faraday cage)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_shielding

This type of copper foil is probably good enough.

99.9% Pure Copper Metal Sheet Foil

Click to expand...

In my case ( not RF ) the disturbance goes through mains wire .. not emitted RF.


in more general case.. it is my understanding that main part of RF interference ( I have not encountered nor heard anything apart from this thread) the lead from ballast to lamp is the 'antenna' that generates the interference .. and encasing this in faraday case .. while doable is bit tricky.


Thou encasing ballast in metal container with ventilation holes (I imagine) will improve on fire safety .. and with good design also electicution in water spill risk is lowered .



Thanks for taking time and writing input here.. sorry to be so mean and blast away with both barrels.

^^^ Then wrap the "lead from ballast to lamp" like you mention with copper foil.

troutman said:

^^^ Then wrap the "lead from ballast to lamp" like you mention with copper foil.

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indeed..


Now all we need to is to figure out how to contain the undesired side-effects escaping from ballast via mains plug.. say.. something short of own power plant or industry grade UPS .. those might draw the attention of my neighbors with more speed and more certainty than possible disturbance caused by my digital ballast.



Fcuk.. I would be happy if I knew how to check IF ballast generates such disturbance. Brute force solution would be to use clean address to test it out but no such location available..

Some here should Google "dirty electricity" as well and learn a bit more about how harmonics can be created within an electrical system and how that is detectable.

Here's a link to a short pdf on fleuro ballasts that explains it somewhat.

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=we...FjARegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw3jYPeyqEizv57TLUluur73

The interference is a combination of everything on your circuit. I think some of the old ballasts were possibly dirtier in their draw than newer models but I could be wrong.

None native EMFs make all life sick.

If our hearts emit a electromagnetic field large enough to be detected 10ft away imagine what that charged hamster cage we spend so much time in is doing to us,, and walking around with your phone pulsing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wavelengths through your body..

Who's surprised here that the Nazi's invented microwaves? (The appliance not the spectrum)

Healthiest place you can be is by a clean river as it has negative ions pouring off it..

Thank you so so much lost in SOG!!


That is the best (and only) report I have read on the subject. Short and to the point, perfect.


It confirms several deductions and opinions (from "this might help" to "this will help, well see if it is enough".

Iamnumber said:

Yes, Seriously. Standard here..



It is public knowledge that this is done. Specs are not easily available.
I googled few wikipedia pages about it but they are not in english .. try googling "smart grid" if you are interested or poke me about the local pages if you wish to play with google translate ..

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Your talking about a smart meter and they don’t have 2 way power wires, they use an embedded SIM card to relay your consumption back to the company.

Freedom45 said:

Your talking about a smart meter and they don’t have 2 way power wires, they use an embedded SIM card to relay your consumption back to the company.

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Sigh.. once more.. data CAN BE TRASMITTED through power network. No need for any "2 way power wires". Just electronics at power company end and at the meter in consumer end.


different countries (and power companies) have selected different routes. Just because things are done certain way in your country.. do not belittle me and my statements when I ask advice for my situation.



Some use embedded sims .. that is another way to do it / part of how it is done.


Please look up more information under following key terms:
" PLC, Powerline Communications; BPL, Broadband over Powerlines"


It is my solid understanding that here the data is transmitted and collected through mains powerlines. While I accept that I can be wrong .. I stand by my statement

Hey gang, great discussion on a topic I've given hardly any thought at all. I live in a rural area, about 5 miles from the nearest small town or village so I wasn't all to worried about interference when I bought my gear.
But FWIW I bought a cheap 600w digital dimmable ballast of Amazon it's a purple one made by Apollo horticulture. I have satellite Internet and antenna TV and have noticed no interference or slowed Internet wired or wifi. And IMHO it's a very good ballast for the money. I think $150 gets you an air cooled 600.
Now after reading this thread I wonder if I shouldn't be more concerned with the whole smart meter thing? Definitely don't want the utilities company popping in. I also do have neighbors, the nearest one being about 1/4 mile away. I figured since my wifi seems unaffected it shouldn't mess with someone 1/4 mile away. Maybe I'm wrong? Any input on these thoughts?

Iamnumber said:

Sigh.. once more.. data CAN BE TRASMITTED through power network. No need for any "2 way power wires". Just electronics at power company end and at the meter in consumer end.


different countries (and power companies) have selected different routes. Just because things are done certain way in your country.. do not belittle me and my statements when I ask advice for my situation.



Some use embedded sims .. that is another way to do it / part of how it is done.


Please look up more information under following key terms:
" PLC, Powerline Communications; BPL, Broadband over Powerlines"


It is my solid understanding that here the data is transmitted and collected through mains powerlines. While I accept that I can be wrong .. I stand by my statement

Click to expand...

Great rambling, no facts and a lot of waffle.

If you had any kind of an education you would realise a 2 way power wire is like superman. It doesn’t exist.

If it did the following would happen

- smart meters would be irrelevant instead of popular
- electric meter readers would be redundant
- the general laws of kinetics would be irrelevant
- Tesla’s would be able to communicate with houses


Etc

2 way wire ? Ffs grow up and learn to spell key words like transmitted. Otherwise you look like an illiterate moron.

About 3 years ago I was on vacation and had a friend watching my grow. They called me and said the cable company had stopped by and shut my cable/internet down because there was "interference" coming from my place and was messing with my neighbor's tv reception. They wanted to send a tech into my place when I got back to find out what was causing the "interference".

All my ballasts are digital. A combination of Lumatek and Quantum. The ballasts are about two feet from the cable line entering my residence.

After an hour of stressing/thinking I called my cable company and asked to speak to a manager. I explained to them I live in a medical state and didn't really want anybody coming into my house. They are one of the major cable companies and told me as long as what I was doing was legal the person entering my house and talking about what they saw could be fired. Still uneasy about the situation I called the cable company back and had them send a tech out.

Once the tech arrived I told him I had a medical grow. He just smiled and said he runs into a lot of those anymore.

I asked him why my cable reception worked fine while my neighbors experienced "interference". He said the frequency from the digital ballasts can enter the cable lines in my house and then travels back to the houses around me causing them to have tv/internet issues. My house was 11 years old at the time and the cable lines ran was coaxial RG6.

The cable tech checked all the lines running from the cable outlet to the tv's and found some cheap cable lines I had been using. He replaced those lines with RG6 coax. He put a cap on all the cable outlets not being used to stop the ballast frequency from entering. Then he made sure all the cable connections were more then hand tight from the cable outlet to cable box to tv.

Once all that was done he checked to see how much "interference" was coming from my place. Problem fixed. Haven't had any problems since then. When a tv gets moved now I make sure a cap is put on the empty cable outlet and all connections are tight.

Older cable lines and anything of lower quality then coax RG6 will not stop the interference from digital ballasts.

Freedom45 said:

Great rambling, no facts and a lot of waffle.

If you had any kind of an education you would realise a 2 way power wire is like superman. It doesn’t exist.

If it did the following would happen

- smart meters would be irrelevant instead of popular
- electric meter readers would be redundant
- the general laws of kinetics would be irrelevant
- Tesla’s would be able to communicate with houses


Etc

2 way wire ? Ffs grow up and learn to spell key words like transmitted. Otherwise you look like an illiterate moron.

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hmm.. you do sound a bit like troll.. .. Just a feeling I get.. peace ..


FYI I am Not a native english speaker .. That is quite abusive to tackle down what are .. while flaws.. fairly minor flaws..



You twist my words about two way wire .. data transfer CAN be only one way at specified time. Sequential one way communications totaling up two way communication. Used in communications with space probes and such due to extreme distances.



https://www.tp-link.com/uk/products/details/cat-18_TL-PA9020-KIT.html


while not necessarily same tech.. proves a point of data transfer through power mains. power companies have had the option to develop custom hardware, protocol etc..

Iamnumber said:

Sigh.. once more.. data CAN BE TRASMITTED through power network. No need for any "2 way power wires". Just electronics at power company end and at the meter in consumer end.

Click to expand...

Freedom45 said:

If you had any kind of an education you would realise a 2 way power wire is like superman. It doesn’t exist.

Click to expand...

now.. I an saying THERE IS NO NEED FOR 2 WAY WIRE. quoting your use of the term 2 way power wire.


Now.. why are you telling me it is impossible when I just told you there is no need for such a thing. This is annoying ..



This is partly why I get the feeling you are trolling .. peace if you are sincere in your comments..

here is a google translation from electricity company's website regarding potential health dangers of remotely read meters.


"Communication on the power grid

The vast majority of Landis + Gyr's remote-readable electricity meters use a wired PLC (Power Line Carrier) transmission. The measured values are transferred from the consumer meter to the transformer in the transformer via the power line in the frequency range permitted by the EU standard. The data transmission is used for the EU DLMS traffic. The EN-SFS standard 50065-1 has defined accurately used signal power and other signal permissible values.

Discussion on health hazards does not apply to PLC technology."

The risk of the electrical/digital ballast is to much. I can't risk internet interference, and my older Galaxy 600 would knock the internet Everytime. Fast forward 7-10 yrs and I'm looking to start back indoor growing. I ordered the Hydrofarm 1000 HPS MH magnetic ballast last nite. These old reliable magnetics is were my money went. I may possibly add a led later on, but really not even sure about that.

I'm a die hard mag ballast fan. One of my 4's has been burning for damn near 15 years. She runs hot but the cable company doesn't come knockin.

I've been using digital ballasts for quite a long time now. Had a room at my old man's running 4k worth of digital ballasts. Never had any kind of interference , or cable/wif-fi going out. Not once. I have a 2k room now. Away from the house and my router. Internet using wifi still works exactly like it should, connects to my phone every time. And that's with my phone less than 2ft from a ballast. Not saying one way or another that one type ballast is better than the other. Just stating my experience.

They will always be noisy. The trick is making the noise where it's acceptable. The 120hz adopted by some of the latest drivers, is the first harmonic of the 60hz US grid system. They will stay together right through the spectrum. Landing on frequencies where noise is expected. So people are unlikely to start looking further and seeing that square wave. It's not so useful here where the mains is 50hz though. Still.. It's many multiples away from causing problems. Now look at AM radio. Atlantic 252 perhaps. 252khz. The AM band could be the first (thus strongest) harmonic of a 100khz switchmode. A common item.

I would be interested in trying the new lower frequency stuff used with 315 lights.

The worst light by far, for me, was the cheap china LED drivers. The 10w one's were as bad as the 50s(pretending to be 100s). I added 3 common mode chokes, and still my radio was wiped out totally at 10 foot away, on the FM band, where amplitude isn't even the mode of reception. It barely cleaned the mains at all, and did nothing to help a battery powered radio. 3 chokes. Not 1.



What was that 2 way wire talk? It went right over my head. Obviously a single wire can be used by multiple transmission systems. Many smart meters talk to the substation via the local ring. You can take your broadband and send it round the house using your final circuits. Many systems run power through a wire, in two direction at a time.

Ill be starting a new grow with 4k in hps. I was going to go magnetic but with needing magnetic bulbs for the ballast, i also read that they have a slight loss of power depening on how well your house wires are?? I dont mind too much noise/heat with either.. Room is in a garage 20ft from house and 100ft from nearest neighbor?? I can always build a faraday cage or something to help? I didnt have issues with my 1 vivosun 600 for my first grow, im in a legal state just dont need/want ppl rolling around lol

What size fuse provides power to the garage, and what's the voltage?

If it's a 6 amp fuse, and you have 110v, the math is 6x100. 660 watts.

Where 110 is common, you're quite likely to find 16 amp circuits feeding garages. Enough for lighting and a power tool. Perhaps a mower. But 3x600 would blow the budget.

Pop to the distribution point and have a look


Edit: I think we are some way off topic here.