MH Ballast

[catfishcity]

Ok so i have a 150w metal halide pendant and light bulb but now ballast. my pendant has a cord that has a plug-in on it for a ballast. i have looked everywhere for a decently priced electronic ballast but cannot find one. but i can find one that isnt electronic. is it possible to take the plug-in off of my lamp cord and connect it to a non-electronic ballast with just wires. if it is, can u tell me how to please. also, any other ideas would be appreciated.

[catfishcity]

bump..

[PowermanKW]

I'm no expert, but most ballasts have proprietary plugs, or at least not standard plugs. If you can't find a ballast with the type of plug in from your pendant, then your only option is to change the plug end.

My Coralife had special plugs. Mt Galaxy had different ones. I bought Galazy cords to go along. The Galaxy pig tail would have been too short to cut and put on another plug.

So you can use magnetic or electronic ballasts. Are you using SE or DE bulbs in your pendant.

[catfishcity]

i am using DE bulbs in my pendant. my plug-in looks like a big triangle but more spread out than regular plugins. is it possible to connect this to a ballast without a plug-in?

[PowermanKW]

Closer to a straight line compared to a regular plug? Sounds like the same as my Galaxy. It just depends. I don't know all the plugs on other ballasts. You can always put new plug ends on wires. Just a matter of finding the ballast you want, determining the plug, and going from there.

[Toddrtrex]

Does it look like this at all? (( or that it would plug into this )) It is an old Hamilton ballast, Galaxy ballasts use the same plug.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/toddrtrex/ballast3.jpg

[kgross]

If you can't match the plug, you can cut the plug off and connect it to any ballast. You will have to figure out which 2 wires go to the bulb and which one is the ground, then hook them up the same to the other ballast.

Also remember if you go with a magnetic (non-electronic) ballast since you are doing DE bulbs, you need a pulse start ballast, not a probe start like most of the common units.

Kim

[catfishcity]

no it looks like this.

http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l465/catfishcity/ballast.jpg

[kgross]

Looks like the plug on a computer power supply if you need an adapter.

[catfishcity]

yea it does look like that. what i am wondering is if i can take the plug off of the light cord so that there are just wires exposed and connect them to a MH ballast that doesnt have a plugin on it.

[DPalm3]

I have 2x 150w mh ballasts left over, they're not standard plug either. is it possible to hook them up to ice cap reflectors even though they don't have the same plugs if I do some electrical mods to the plugs?

[kgross]

CatfishCity.

Yes that should be fine.

Dpalm3 Yes if you change out the plugs you can still use the ballasts without any problems.

Kim

[catfishcity]

thanks