[Rolling_Stoned]

DIY – 400w MH Ballast Kit!
(I am not responsible for your actions; this is for educational purposes only)

Initially I felt that this was quite an undertaking, because I have no previous electrical experience. Prior to a week ago I had never even considered assembling my own ballast, and after reading though a few helpful threads on here I was inspired.
I chose the MH because I already have a HPS, the 400w MH bulbs are available locally, and the bulbs are also a little cheaper than the HPS’. The ballast configuration is also a little simpler than the HPS’ because there’s no ignitor. My final reason is that I wanted to give my flowering plants a little more balanced spectrum. There are several good reasons to assemble a grow light from a kit, mainly cost and the overall learning experience.

Things the kit included:
(The kit cost aprox. $50 w/ shipping)
-400w MH ballast

-Capacitor

-Mogul Socket

-5 High Temperature Wire Connectors


Very clean kit, all of the wires were well labeled (thank god) and it included some decent instructions.

Other stuff you will need to buy:
-Electrical Box - 3.5 x 1.5 octagon ($1.50)
-Cover for Electrical Box - 3.5” round ($.70)
-3/8” Cable Connectors - Bag of 10 ($1.50)

-10’(14 gauge15amp) extension chord – male head only ($9)

-15’(14 gauge 15amp) extension chord – chopped in half ($11)

-High Temperature wire connectors – Box of 20 ($1.40)
-400w MH Bulb ($30)

You may already have some of the things listed above, like the extension chords (If so it brings the cost down like $20!) but I didn’t have any to spare. The total cost of the build was aprox. $100

Thing I had:
-.308 Ammo tin (Cheap ballast housing, inspired by an ebay vendor)

^^Cable Connectors already installed in picture^^
-Drill (Used to punch holes in the ammo tin)
-Screwdrivers
-Wire cutters
-Electrical tape

I would personally recommend the ammo can, it took a little work to get it to accept the cable connectors, but you can still buy one for pretty cheap. I think I paid maybe $5 for the tin. Any DIY’er should have the remainder of the stuff in the “things I had” list.

Procedure:
(To use the wire connectors: line-up the two exposed wires, pinch them together and twist clockwise until they’re tight, then insert the wires into the connector, again twist clockwise. Make sure the wires are tight, but don’t over-tighten or it may cause problems. This process should leave you with a strong connection.)


-First, feed your 10’ male extension chord into one of the cable connectors in the ammo tin, then connect the Ballast’s 120 wire to the power chord’s black wire.

-Attach the power chord’s white wire to either of the ballast’s common (COM) wires.

(There are not alot of photos of the internal wiring, my cam sucks)

-Connect the capacitor’s black wire to the ballast’s capacitor (CAP) wire.

-Feed your 7.5’ female extension chord into the last available cable connectors in the ammo tin.

-Attach the female extension chord’s white wire to the last available common wire on the ballast.

-Join the female extension chord’s black wire to the available black capacitor wire.

-Feed you 7.5’ male extension chord into the cable connector on the 3.5” electrical box.

-Mount the mogul socket to the top of the 3.5" box.

-Connect the socket’s white wire with the male extension chord’s white wire.

-Finally, join the socket’s black wire with the male extension chord’s black wire.


***Remember to ground all of the extension chords, to something metal. Hopefully some of the resident sparkys can help me with some more specifics about electrical safety.***


^^ In the pic with the light on, it had only been pluged in for like 10sec. any longer and you would not even be able to see it.^^

Conclusion:
This can be a simple and cost effective way to make your own grow light. My pics kind of suck, and then my camera died. I will pick up some batteries and get some more pictures up soon. I hope this has been helpful to someone. Any additional input is greatly appreciated, if someone has a MH diagram they could post that would be helpful.

[JamestheJiant]

This seems like a sweet idea for the learning aspect, but it really sketches me out. I'm paranoid as it is when it comes to electrical saftey (I had a mishap in my last box which almost made me cancel the whole thing), just because you don't want the fire dept. trying to figure out why your house burned down. The other thing is that you can buy a 400watt digi switchable ballast from hidhut for around $120, I know you don't get the bulb or the socket with that deal. Either way this seems like it would be a great project for some people, but not for me.


Bad ass idea with the ammo box, I've got a couple of them sitting around and might just have to use them for another project.

[Rolling_Stoned]

Here is a diagram I pulled together on a crappy paint program. It does not show the ground wires, but I think it demonstrates the point. If anyone has a better one please post it!

[DrHydro]

Real nice... Were do you buy the parts at?

[crftymofo]

I built a bunch of 600s in a vertical set up. ended up saving a lot of money.

[Rolling_Stoned]

Thanks for stoppin by guys!

James - HIDHUD definitely has good deals, but once you buy the socket and get it shipped it will end up costing closer to $200. Plus I have heard some negative scuttlebutt about their wiring. If I already had the extension chords i could have gotten it done for $80.

Dr.Hydro - I don't really want to advertise where I got the kit, if you click here i've googled it for you (Honestly I see some nicer ones, looking through this lol) but if you can't find anything you like PM me and I will tell you.

i was just thinking today if it was possible to build your own ballast. If you you were going to set up 10 of these, could you just mount them on a board with no box? Obviously they would have to be in a spot where they wouldnt get wet or where anyone could touch them.

Do most of the kits include the bulb holder/socket?

[Rolling_Stoned]

I don't have a lot of electrical experience, but I don't see why not. Maybe if you got a peice of thick plywood then attacked some sheet metal to it then mounted the ballasts to that, kind of like in YUKON's cab. My kit did include a socket and many other that i have seen do, but some do not. I believe mogul sockets can be purchesed at some of the mega hardware stores.

[kdk-lotnar]

I have used toolboxes in the past and they work great. Nice room to mount to, or mount on something fire resistant, then mount. Open, or drill holes for vents.

Don't use google, man. They keep all your data on file. They use "bots" to scan your emails so they can send you ads. They will sell out any day to anyone as long as they get paid. They help communism, and oppression and don't give a shit about privacy. If they scan for "keywords" in your mail and they keep it as their own, do you not think LEO can have them search for other "keywords" then cross-reference?

I don't trust them for shit, bro. Nice thread... be safe use proxies and scroogle.

https://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

[Rolling_Stoned]

A toolbox is a great idea also. Other ppl have mentioned using a fuse box, but in my case it was hard to find one that could fit the 400w ballast and my wallet. The fuse boxes are nice because they already have the holes for the connector cables, but a lot of them include a bunch of other unnecessary stuff.
I have heard of the whole google-bot-spam deal before, while it is disconcerting that all of that is true, if i were worried about my online security I probably wouldn't be posting on this site.