DIY Metal Halide Problems!!!

[AFDOC]

Just put together a lighting system by using the double 400w Mercury vapor ballast from Advanced along with 2 Iwasaki bulbs. They will fire without problem, but only one at a time. After a few minutes of running their brightest, one will shut off and the other fires up. What do I do? I have tried plugging it in to other outlets, but nothing works. Is this a faulty ballast or what? I had run 3 175w MH lights prior to this with a bunch of other stuff without problem so not sure what give? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[esmithiii]

Sounds like a bad ballast to me.

E

 

[AFDOC]

Thanks for the reply. I was afraid of that. I have had nothing but a troubles so far. When all the kinks are worked out, it will be great, but till then I will continue to growl. I guess I'll contact the company then and ask them. If anyone has any other ideas, let me know.

Mark

 

[Bodine]

AFDOC
Will the bulb relight after about 15 minutes if you leave it alone?
I am not that familiar with iwasakis and MV ballast, but many times new bulbs will be a little hard to keep lit and this will stio after a week or so.
However I see you say that both lights will not fire at start up. You can never get both lights on at the same time?
BTW I see you are In San Antonio

 

[Roach]

Man Mh's are so finicky. I got a Prizm Pendent about a year ago. The bulb that came with it would fire up...stay on for about 40 seconds and then die again. Finally I bought another bulb and it fired up right away. In your case it sounds like it could be the ballast, but I am by no means the expert

 

[AFDOC]

It will only fire one bulb and then after it is lit, it will cause the ignitor in the other bulb to glow and then after 5-10 minutes, the lit one turns off and the other starts. It is like musical chairs. Haven't tried leaving it like this all day...not sure if it would help.

Mark

 

[Marcosreef]

Try plugging each ballast on a separate circuit to see if that may help. Also check to see if your grounds are good.

[ May 04, 2002: Message edited by: Marcosreef ]</p>

 

[suckair]

The problem sounds like a current problem to me. Maybe your ballast can't deliver the wattage needed to run both bulbs. Either it is the wrong ballast or it is defective. Good luck

 

[dinhouse]

SO Mercury Vapor Ballasts can be used to power Metal Halide lights? Also how much did that ballast cost you? I have thought about trying to build my own MH lighting like I did my PC lighting.

 

[AFDOC]

I guess that I will give the ballast supplier a call and see what's up. This is really frustrating. Could it be the bulb? I noticed that if I put the bulb in the left and power up, it will start. Then if I put the same bulb over in the right, it will be the only one that powers up. This things leaves me with too many variables that could be the problem.

Mark

 

[AFDOC]

Oh....I forgot to mention, the ballast was $130 shipped. I just got done talking with the electrical supplier and they think the wiring is wrong that I have done. They talked about having it wired in series instead of parallel. Problem is that i tried that and it didn't work.

Mark