YOUR INPUT please: Best DIGITAL ballast?

[habeeb]

I would go with lumatek

they seem to be re-designing the damn thing every 6 months. now if you buy one then yours is gonna be "old" in 6 months, but I beleive as times goes by they will have less changes and progress will come to a slow down for all electronic ballasts

I use to have some old lumateks and they worked fine. I still have a newer 600 that I dont use as space restrictions, but I plan on picking some more up later when I move



I have also never heard recommended to use a CMH with electronic ballasts? I know GE carries a ballast for CMH bulbs

 

[strass]

The lumatek 400W can be dimmable to 250w 275w 400w. Does that mean i can run a 250w hps bulb in it?

 

[wdcf]

you can run a lower watt bulb in a higher watt ballast without issues, but not a higher watt bulb then ballast

 

[TommyTheKid]

First timer, so complete noob. We are running the LumaTek 600W and a Ushio 600 SuperHPS, and we love it. We run a small fan over the ballast, I'd rather have the fan external, for easy replacement. We used the dimmer function to "ease" new clones into the big light, but it probably wasn't really necessary. Our tent is ~4ft x 4ft, the "tray" is 3ft by 3ft, plants are in 5gal buckets. Everything seems good soo far

Tommy

 

[MediScrogs]

How does it run 240 or 120 with out changing cords the plugs are differant

Hi, no idea. Plugs are the same. I've got one pair of outlets in the house, one is 120, one is wired for 240 for some reason. Fortunately the landlord figured this out at some point with a tester, and not by fire. The outlet looks normal otherwise and would have assumed 120. it also runs off the one I know is 120. Is this bad?

I'm not knowledgeable about electricity at all, in general, just going off what the owner told me. I have no experience with other ballasts except the Galaxy 600 I'm also using, which I understand I would have to change the cord to use 240.

Whatever the ballast is running on, it runs GREAT, that much I know. It was almost $100 cheaper than other units, i guess that's why I like it. Alas, it is just aluminum colored, and not purple or orange. Sigh....

If it blows up I'll let you know, if I still have fingers to type with.

 

[mrred]

you can run a lower watt bulb in a higher watt ballast without issues, but not a higher watt bulb then ballast

no you cant, even if its dimable, youll run the risk of the bulb explodeing and fire, you can if it says its a switchable watterage ballast then run the exact same wattage for your bulb

 

[montanaorganics]

Yep digitals are wattage exclusive. I didnt think so at first.
Well my digital greenhouse ballast pooped on me. Hehe may have been the inch of gnats accumulated inside it... ah well it was used lesson learned. Bought a cheap hydrofarm to replace it only to find out I had a sun system cord. Grrrrr
Given I have the money I will never buy anything but CAP again.

 

[Cave Dweller]

Initial reports on the 1000w digi's were that they produced interference, this was in all brands.

Has this been corrected? I assume so, or everyone would still be having a bitch fit and appropriately so.

 

[chronicCA77]

I've had some friends talk trash about Quantum Horticulture - any truth to those rumors? Something about being crappy for MJ growing...

Been thinking about making a light change, so I'd like to know if these are lights to avoid???????

 

[Inkster]

i have 2 1000w next gens... fooking amazing... though i like the dimiable option on my lumatek 600w... but doesnt have built in fans like the next gens... toss up... for what its worth i think lumatek sells ballasts in other colors than purple now..haha

 

[Green&Gold]

Do anyone think the Phillips 400w CMH will work, in the new 600w dimmable lumateks?

Do you use the CMH on the 400W setting in the 600w Lumatek?

 

[Hawk]

It is possible to rum CMH bulb as well as HPS on a lumatek digi ballast....

CMH as in Ceramic Metal Halide? Or are you referring to a metal halide conversion and/or a traditional metal halide lamp?

Just wanna be sure we're all on the same page here cause I've seen some say "CMH" when they were talking about a MH conversion lamp rather than a ceramic metal halide lamp.

 

[fireman]

Sooo i am literally about to go to 4000w of digital quantums. i heard things in the past about the digital interference, but now im kinda worried about switching now!!!

I definitely have police drive around my neighborhood often as a part of their normal route you could say. Not the most ideal thing, but not a problem and used to it. Does anyone have experience or know how much would be too much digital and could actually cause problems?

Example? IS a cop gonna drive by my hosue on his radio and hit a dead spot everytime he drives by my house?

All the help is appreciated considering i was about to switch to these ballast soon

 

[BigTop]

fireman~ no, to keep it real. maybe a local ham operator real close to you might notice, but a cop... no.


chronic~ what have you heard on the quantums? just curious to know...


For what's it's worth... the 1k quantums I've got are working fine thus far.
- fans make noise, for sure & the case still runs 140F depending on ambient
- there's a hard flicker at initial start-up
- hortilux & ushios are running fine... horti's are actually maintaining PAR readings slightly better over ushios
- horti's do make a discernible hum w the quantums vs the c&c's
- PAR maintenance is actually better w the quantums vs the c&c's, which surprised me considering the higher sodium loss one is supposed to experience while running the digis...?
- visible spectrum is more "orange" over the c&c's, which appear more balanced... to the naked eye. PAR reading started out about equal... w/in 5% depending

That's my experience thus far, though they are relatively new for me as well. The quantum's were the first digi 1k's I felt comfortable buying. Still not sure how I would outfit the next project though...

Peace

 

[Greenmopho]

Sooo i am literally about to go to 4000w of digital quantums. i heard things in the past about the digital interference, but now im kinda worried about switching now!!!

I definitely have police drive around my neighborhood often as a part of their normal route you could say. Not the most ideal thing, but not a problem and used to it. Does anyone have experience or know how much would be too much digital and could actually cause problems?

Example? IS a cop gonna drive by my hosue on his radio and hit a dead spot everytime he drives by my house?

All the help is appreciated considering i was about to switch to these ballast soon

The electromagnetic radiation given off by those are pretty minimal. If your are trying to detect those frequencies, then yes, within a few feet of your grow, you will see those freq. being messed with, but not much further. If you have a cell phone or laptop on wifi or bluetooth IN the grow room, you may have some interference, but not far from outside the room! Old School magnetic ballasts put off more of a signal than the digitals, actually.

If you are still worried about it, there is an easy fix. You can line the inside or outside of your grow room with chicken wire or chicken fencing, and just connect a piece of the fencing to a ground somewhere. This will essentially make you grow room into a Faraday cage, and make your room impervious to any electromagnetic signals entering or leaving your room!

 

[Greenmopho]

Anyone know about D-Lux bulbs? They are supposed to be reversed engineered from the patent of Eye Hortilux SuperHPS bulbs. They have a slightly higher lumen rating than the Hortilux's. I think 147,000 lumens or so. Only read good things about em, wondering if anyone has used em?

 

[Bud Bug]

The electromagnetic radiation given off by those are pretty minimal. If your are trying to detect those frequencies, then yes, within a few feet of your grow, you will see those freq. being messed with, but not much further. If you have a cell phone or laptop on wifi or bluetooth IN the grow room, you may have some interference, but not far from outside the room! Old School magnetic ballasts put off more of a signal than the digitals, actually.

Actually not true. Two month ago I know someone who had to shut down 17 Lumatek ballast grow because the interference give off by them was causing a loss of radio signal way beyond his house/property. When you drove a car close to his house the radio in the car would slowly get static which got more intense as the car got to his house. Once at the house you could barely pick up the radio stations and as you drove away the radio signal got better.

This was tested out by simply turning off the ballasts while someone drove past the house but they were close enough to see notice the radio interference. Once all the ballast where off the radio received the signal properly. Going back to magnetic ballasts got rid of any radio interference. This was also tested out with another brand of ballasts with same results.

Another senerio - Lumatek and Light Energy ballasts.

Apartment building - the building has cable internet. The cable internet comes into the phone/cable room and is connected to some kind of router/modem. From there each suite has a built in cable modem.

No one knew what was happening till a few days of growing when the landlord came and said the cable company needs access to the suite as something in the suite is causing all the modems in the building to loose their signal.

Well lo a behold when the ballasts where turned off the signal on the modems came back and the second they were turned on the signal was lost. Switching to a magnetic ballast solved the issue for these guys.

Now having said that I run digital ballasts and know people who run them in apartment buildings with no problems. I also know people who run 10's of ballasts in houses with no problems. The only way to know is to hook them up and test it out. If the radio interference is too big return the ballasts.

 

[Bud Bug]

Anyone know about D-Lux bulbs? They are supposed to be reversed engineered from the patent of Eye Hortilux SuperHPS bulbs. They have a slightly higher lumen rating than the Hortilux's. I think 147,000 lumens or so. Only read good things about em, wondering if anyone has used em?

Is that the Maverick Sun ones? http://www.mavericksun.com/Lamps2.htm

If so just don't buy anything from Maverick Sun. Cheap prices reflected in cheap products. You're better off with the basic Sylvania or Phillips 1000W bulbs.