First things first! Don’t try this if you have never used a soldering iron or have no experience with electronics. If you smoke your ballast or cause your lamps to explode too bad! You have been warned! Not to mention that this modification will void your warranty!
I was having a problem with my IceCap ballasts flickering and decided to figure out how to fix it. The trick is R17 located on the “I/O port side of the ballast. This is the small plug on the opposite side as the power plug and has 4 pins on it. R17 is located in-between a couple ice’s on the ballast main board and is clearly marked.
On most models R17 is a 32K ohm ¼ watt resistor. This resistor controls the switching frequency that operates the lamp. The trick is to change this resistance slightly to increase or decrease the frequency to correct flickering in the lamp. Care must be taken not to over drive the ballast or the lamp as this can cause ballast failure or the lamp can explode!
First purchase small 50k Ohm trim pots “I used Panasonic ones from Dig key PN#4LG54BK-ND and set the pot to 32k Ohm with a ohm meter before installation. You will also need to use a small drill to drill out the rivets holding the top of the ballast in place. I use small self-taping metal screws to put the top back on the unit when completed. The cover is removed by pushing the top to the power side until the metal clears the power plug and lift from that side first. Then slide the other end off the smaller 4-port I/O plug on the opposite side. The fuse has long wires and the fuse does not need to be removed to disassemble the ballast.
[01 Modify the I/O port “small 4 pin white plug” by cutting the top two pins of the plug from the main board. “I just cut them before they bend down to the main board and pull them straight out leaving a wire sticking up. Then pull the pins free from the plug by pulling them from the inside of the ballast with needle nose pliers. The pins are stiff and do require quite a bit of pulling to slide them out.
[02] Solder small wire leads onto two of the pot wires “make sure one wires is soldered to the center one! I then cut the 3rd post off the potentiometer, as it is not needed. I have found that wire wrap wire available at your local Radio Shack works great for this. You will need about 3 inches of wire to reach the board you will be soldering them to.
[02] Then slide the two wires from the pot into the new empty pin holes on the digital plug and use 100% silicone glue to glue the pot to the end of the small 4pin white socket. Give the glue about 2-4 hours drying time so the pot is secure. This allows external adjustment of the frequency while the ballast is running to correct the lamp flicker.
[03] Next find R17 and cut one end of the resistor with a small wire cutter. Pull up the resistor on one end. Next solder your two leads to the main board where R17 was attached. I usually just leave R17 connected on one end incase I want to put it back later. You can also just heat up one end or R17 and pull just that end up with out cutting it.
[04] Make sure that your pot is set to 32k Ohm with an ohmmeter “this is not a option” Failure to check this can result in dead ballast or an exploding lamp! I am not kidding!
[05] Once the unit is reassembled I mark the starting point of the pot in it’s current 32k ohm setting with a pen so I can reenter it if needed with out taking the unit apart again and using a ohm meter. I also mark the rotation of the pot for an increase in resistance so I know which way to turn it.
[06] Start up the unit and cross your fingers! Once the lamp has started give it a good 10-15 minutes to warm up before you start adjusting it. Once you are warmed up and ready BE VERY CAREFUL TO ONLY MAKE SMALL ADJUSTMENTS! Turn the pot as little as possible until the flicker stops. This is usually just 1/50th or less rotation of the pot. I adjust the pot so the resistance increases when I make this adjustment. If the light goes out or the ballast fails to start again re-center the pot to the mark you made and repeat the process!
This has worked on every ballast I own and I have 5 of them! None of my MH lamps flicker including my HQI 250’s
Randall
AKA suckair
PS If you are over your head on this just send in the lamp and ballast together to IceCap and let them tune it!
I was having a problem with my IceCap ballasts flickering and decided to figure out how to fix it. The trick is R17 located on the “I/O port side of the ballast. This is the small plug on the opposite side as the power plug and has 4 pins on it. R17 is located in-between a couple ice’s on the ballast main board and is clearly marked.
On most models R17 is a 32K ohm ¼ watt resistor. This resistor controls the switching frequency that operates the lamp. The trick is to change this resistance slightly to increase or decrease the frequency to correct flickering in the lamp. Care must be taken not to over drive the ballast or the lamp as this can cause ballast failure or the lamp can explode!
First purchase small 50k Ohm trim pots “I used Panasonic ones from Dig key PN#4LG54BK-ND and set the pot to 32k Ohm with a ohm meter before installation. You will also need to use a small drill to drill out the rivets holding the top of the ballast in place. I use small self-taping metal screws to put the top back on the unit when completed. The cover is removed by pushing the top to the power side until the metal clears the power plug and lift from that side first. Then slide the other end off the smaller 4-port I/O plug on the opposite side. The fuse has long wires and the fuse does not need to be removed to disassemble the ballast.
[01 Modify the I/O port “small 4 pin white plug” by cutting the top two pins of the plug from the main board. “I just cut them before they bend down to the main board and pull them straight out leaving a wire sticking up. Then pull the pins free from the plug by pulling them from the inside of the ballast with needle nose pliers. The pins are stiff and do require quite a bit of pulling to slide them out.
[02] Solder small wire leads onto two of the pot wires “make sure one wires is soldered to the center one! I then cut the 3rd post off the potentiometer, as it is not needed. I have found that wire wrap wire available at your local Radio Shack works great for this. You will need about 3 inches of wire to reach the board you will be soldering them to.
[02] Then slide the two wires from the pot into the new empty pin holes on the digital plug and use 100% silicone glue to glue the pot to the end of the small 4pin white socket. Give the glue about 2-4 hours drying time so the pot is secure. This allows external adjustment of the frequency while the ballast is running to correct the lamp flicker.
[03] Next find R17 and cut one end of the resistor with a small wire cutter. Pull up the resistor on one end. Next solder your two leads to the main board where R17 was attached. I usually just leave R17 connected on one end incase I want to put it back later. You can also just heat up one end or R17 and pull just that end up with out cutting it.
[04] Make sure that your pot is set to 32k Ohm with an ohmmeter “this is not a option” Failure to check this can result in dead ballast or an exploding lamp! I am not kidding!
[05] Once the unit is reassembled I mark the starting point of the pot in it’s current 32k ohm setting with a pen so I can reenter it if needed with out taking the unit apart again and using a ohm meter. I also mark the rotation of the pot for an increase in resistance so I know which way to turn it.
[06] Start up the unit and cross your fingers! Once the lamp has started give it a good 10-15 minutes to warm up before you start adjusting it. Once you are warmed up and ready BE VERY CAREFUL TO ONLY MAKE SMALL ADJUSTMENTS! Turn the pot as little as possible until the flicker stops. This is usually just 1/50th or less rotation of the pot. I adjust the pot so the resistance increases when I make this adjustment. If the light goes out or the ballast fails to start again re-center the pot to the mark you made and repeat the process!
This has worked on every ballast I own and I have 5 of them! None of my MH lamps flicker including my HQI 250’s
Randall
AKA suckair
PS If you are over your head on this just send in the lamp and ballast together to IceCap and let them tune it!
