Need help building a flip-flop

Eyyyyyyyyyyy.

I need help. I have scoured the threads here and still cant find what I need!

I want to build a flip-flop for a single 600w galaxy ballast, so I can run two seperate grow areas on alternate light schedules with one ballast. I am familiar with how flip flops work, what they do, etc, but I have some confusion on how to go about designing one for my needs.

I read this:
Ballasts have to be turned off to prevent the contacts on the flip relays from arcing. They'l last about 2 years and need to be replaced. There is no way to prevent the arcing from hot flips unless ballasts are powered off and then back on during each 12 hour flip cycle.

So will I need two timers? One for the actual flop, and one to power off and on the ballast before and after the flipping and flopping?

Where do I find female ballast plugs that I can use for this? I am not finding those anywhere. I am having trouble finding what I need. And trouble finding complete instructions anywhere on how to actually complete one. Also every single one of the "guides" on how to build them leaves out the part about grounding. What all needs to be grounded? How does one go about doing that? I could use a pro.

Has anyone built a single flip-flop for just one ballast? Please help!

sounds like you have a lot of questions to be building something that could potentially burn your house down.

Yeah, that's why I am asking. I am not a complete moron.

lol nice reply paul.. i too want to know some more stuff on wiring a flip flop u got any links that could help me m8?

Whoa there big fella!

Whoa there big fella!

If you don't buy a UL listed Flip-Flop, you are litterally playing with your life. Unless you are a Licenced Electrician, this is NOT a DIY subject. I say this only out of intrest for your safety.

Psycho Paul said:

Where do I find female ballast plugs that I can use for this? I am not finding those anywhere. I am having trouble finding what I need.

Click to expand...

I dont have any experience with "flip flop" however you might need to find a broken ballast for parts if you cant find them. Hope you figure it all out.

Psycho Paul said:

Eyyyyyyyyyyy.

I need help. I have scoured the threads here and still cant find what I need!

I want to build a flip-flop for a single 600w galaxy ballast, so I can run two seperate grow areas on alternate light schedules with one ballast. I am familiar with how flip flops work, what they do, etc, but I have some confusion on how to go about designing one for my needs.

I read this:
Ballasts have to be turned off to prevent the contacts on the flip relays from arcing. They'l last about 2 years and need to be replaced. There is no way to prevent the arcing from hot flips unless ballasts are powered off and then back on during each 12 hour flip cycle.

So will I need two timers? One for the actual flop, and one to power off and on the ballast before and after the flipping and flopping?

Where do I find female ballast plugs that I can use for this? I am not finding those anywhere. I am having trouble finding what I need. And trouble finding complete instructions anywhere on how to actually complete one. Also every single one of the "guides" on how to build them leaves out the part about grounding. What all needs to be grounded? How does one go about doing that? I could use a pro.

Has anyone built a single flip-flop for just one ballast? Please help!

Click to expand...

Hi Psycho Paul,
Here is a link to 0040's DIY Flip-Flop. He uses one timer and also has a timer profile to prevent the contacts from arching while live. His setup flips while off and it looks top notch bro . Check it out..

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=96209&highlight=Flip+Flop

Neo-Hippie said:

If you don't buy a UL listed Flip-Flop, you are litterally playing with your life. Unless you are a Licenced Electrician, this is NOT a DIY subject. I say this only out of intrest for your safety.

Click to expand...

This is absolutely a DIY subject. WHY wouldn't it be?

I love how when somebody with a low post count asks an electrical related question the instant response is to go speak with an electrician because it's assumed the person asking the question has zero knowledge on said subject and is a nooblet. NO. I came here because I want to learn more on this subject, so that in the future I am able to do this myself, why else?

RELAY Wiring:



So I understand the wiring, fine and dandy. I am not a noob biscuit. What confuses is me is the different configurations.

HOW in the world does this flip flop work:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=35561

It only has a single 3 prong male outlet coming out of the box. Where does the timer come into play? How does that flip-flop even work? If you plug-in that male plug to a timer how the hell do you hook up your lights to the outlets? Re-wiring the plug ends? Lol. Also it looks like he wired up electrical outlets to the trigger/timer 110v hot and neutral on the relay???? So how the hell does it trigger the relay to flip the lights? Unless he's plugging that male plug into a timer that flips all of the relay contacts at once, but then im back to how does he connect the lights to the outlets then? Re-wiring the plug ends or something? That's what really makes it confusing.

Same thing with this one:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3863631&postcount=62

Help me understand how this works. The two ballast cables coming out of the box obviously go to the two ballasts, the 120vAC IN line operates the timer? Am I understanding this one correctly?

Then there's this one:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=1832203&postcount=1

The instructions are incomplete, he doesn't really mention wiring much, if anything a very messy and shitty how-to.

WHO OUT THERE will help me? Seems like nobody wants to educate on this subject!

Where's a good place to find the female ballast plugs that are compatible with my galaxy ballast and sunlight supply lamp cords?

Thanks

I totally feel you on this one. 0040 did a great job of outlining the details but there is still some stuff missing.

You will need two digital timers, and two power cords that will plug into the timers and have the other end to the C connection on the relay diagram. That will actuate the contactor to the B connection for the input(where your ballast outputs go into it.) from D. The other timer is for your single 600. Use a few minutes to ensure switching occurs before the ballast re-ignites.

For the plugs you can look for a ballast extension cable.

The A and B connections are for your two sockets. D is where it all feeds in. C controls the A/B output.

And I just noticed you are in Manchester, guessing you are using 240?? If so you want a R04-11A30-240.

Be sure to ground everything that needs to be(green wires).

Good luck!!

Psycho Paul,

I know this isn't what you want to hear but buy another ballast for 150-200 bucks and save yourself the aggravation and time of attempting this. Why would you even dream up this idea? Sounds extremely dangerous. When its about safety that little bit of extra cash is worth it!

SS

Super.Seeds said:

Psycho Paul,

I know this isn't what you want to hear but buy another ballast for 150-200 bucks and save yourself the aggravation and time of attempting this. Why would you even dream up this idea? Sounds extremely dangerous. When its about safety that little bit of extra cash is worth it!

SS

Click to expand...

Why would I dream up this idea? I didn't, somebody else did. It's practical, it works, it's safe when done right, and it's cheaper than a 2nd ballast.

sixth6 said:

I totally feel you on this one. 0040 did a great job of outlining the details but there is still some stuff missing.

You will need two digital timers, and two power cords that will plug into the timers and have the other end to the C connection on the relay diagram. That will actuate the contactor to the B connection for the input(where your ballast outputs go into it.) from D. The other timer is for your single 600. Use a few minutes to ensure switching occurs before the ballast re-ignites.

For the plugs you can look for a ballast extension cable.

The A and B connections are for your two sockets. D is where it all feeds in. C controls the A/B output.

And I just noticed you are in Manchester, guessing you are using 240?? If so you want a R04-11A30-240.

Be sure to ground everything that needs to be(green wires).

Good luck!!

Click to expand...

Very helpful, Thank you! That's exactly what im looking for!

Actually by the time you're done building a proper flip, it will be marginally less expensive than a single ballast. These things are really alot more economical when built for multiple ballasts, when the savings begins to really add up.

Ok so here is one of the flips I built.You can see 3 cords coming out of the bottom. The center cord provides power for the timer, it's also one option for getting ground into your flip. The two outer plugs are the cut off male ends of a pair of matching extension cords. These are where the power from each ballast enters the flip, before being output at one side or the other. The female ends of those extension cords(not shown), will be attached to the output of each ballast. It's important the female end goes on the ballast, otherwise you could have a potential 600 volt tazer if you used the male end on the ballast! The pairs of outlets are the output to the lamps. Just attach a quality grounded plug to your lamp cable and plug it in. Plug your ballast into the wall somewhere and you're good to go. If you use digital ballasts you can't hot flip, so you will need to build a secondary switching box to power down your ballasts 10 minutes for the flip cycle. You could build it all into one housing, just be neat with your wiring and triple check everything.

Got it! Thanks a bunch for the help on explaining that Greentoe, very helpful and important information. I have been pricing it out and you're right it's not much cheaper for what I want to do.

I don't know if i'll build one or not, but at least I understand how to build one now. Thanks for the help!