Old style 175W ballast and Hamilton 10K bulb

[slimreb]

I have just gotten a old style 175W IceCap ballast (at least I believe it is) and a hamilton 10K bulb from a fellow reefer. After getting everything setup whenever I plug the ballast in I get a flicker in the bulb. I have the ballast properly grounded and the arc nipple at the 12oclock postion. The bulb fires up right after plugging the ballast in. After a little burn in time the bulb starts to flicker. I am not sure if I have something hooked up wrong or not properly ground. The Hamilton bulb has a lot of black on it so I know it has seen a lot of use. I have not tried a different bulb to see if it still flickers. Is there something I should look for? I will try to take a pic of the setup when I get home and post so you have a visual of the setup. Thanks in advance.

[IceCap Service]

If the bulb is blackened I would suspect a bad bulb. If a new bulb does not cure the problem you can send the ballast in and I will check to see the proper operating frequence. May need a slight adjustment.

[slimreb]

Thank you for the fast response. I will test with a two month old CA 10K bulb I have tonight and see if it fixs the problem. The hamilton is not totally black but the arc tube is blackened a bit. I will repost the details after testing later tonight. Thank you once again.

[slimreb]

Well I have tested the ballast with a Catalina(CA) 175W 10,000K bulb and still have the flicker and noise. This bulb is only a couple of months old and has no blackening on it anywhere yet. This bulb works great on the magnetic ballast that is on my 55G tank. Here is a pic of how the ballast was wired when I got it. The ground is just set inside one of the mounting holes of the ballast because I have dismounted from my canopy.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/580/71315ballast_wiring.jpg


Here is a picture of the ballast itself so you can verify that it is an older model.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/580/71315ballast.JPG


Please let me know what I have to do in order for this to work correctly. I need this ballast in order to start the cycle of my new 100G tank. Thanks in advance.

[IceCap Service]

Send it in and we will see if we can adjust it to work properly. Be advised this is our old style ballast.

[slimreb]

Originally posted by IceCap Service
Send it in and we will see if we can adjust it to work properly. Be advised this is our old style ballast.

Thank you. So when you say "be advised this is our old style ballast" what do you mean? Does that mean you might not be able to fix it or what? Also I guess I send it to the address that is on the ballast correct. Latestly is there any cost with beside shipping it to you that I might get charged to fix this ballast? Oh and does the wiring look correct? The power cord to the socket comes out the same connector that the power cord for the ballast, is that correct? Once again thank you for all the help.

[IceCap Service]

By old style, I mean we no longer manufacture this ballast but we can still repair it. We went to a newer style ballast over 2 years ago. The wiring appears correct but I could not see a black wire on the top row of the harness which would go to the lamps. Send the ballast to the address on the ballast label. If all it needs is a frequency adjustment there is no charge.

[slimreb]

Well here is a rough drawing of the wiring harness for the ballast. It may be incorrect because I am at work and can not physically look at the ballast to verify. I looked at the picture I posted earlier of the harness and draw this up so let me know if something is not right here.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/580/71315socket_layout.jpg

[IceCap Service]

That is in reverse of what it should be. The black and white on the top row go to the lamp socket. The black - green - and white (solid core wires ) on the bottom row go to power.

[slimreb]

I will have to verify that how I drew the harness is correct when I get home tonight. I might have labelled them incorrectly. I would imagine that if what I drew was correct that the ballast would not power on at all correct? If that is the case then I just labelled the drawing in the reverse way.

[chriscobb]

Is the ground screw to the ballast tight or is the screw just resting in the hole???? If it's just resting in the hole then it's not properly grounded.....

[slimreb]

No the screw was screwed into wood when I was testing the ballast. I just removed the ballast and just placed the screw in the hole when I took the pictures.

[slimreb]

Well I looked at the harness to verify the wire layout last night. I was mistaken about the picture that I draw. The top wires are indeed to the socket and the bottom three are from the wall outlet. So the wiring is indeed correct. Could you please tell me what all I should include in the box to ship to IceCap to get this ballast repaired. Thank you.

[IceCap Service]

Just all return shipping info and a note describing the malfunction.

[slimreb]

Thank you for all your help. I have sent the ballast out today via Priority Mail. What is the standard return postage?

[IceCap Service]

We take care of the return shipping.

[IceCap Service]

Got your ballast today. The ballast had a minor flaw which we corrected. You harness where it plugs into the ballast was heavily corroded. It corroded to the point where the pins were broken off. The black wire was not even connected to the pin. We completely rebuilt the harness with a new connector. Also your black and white wires to the lamp were barely making contact. It appeared it may have been soldered but when I removed the tape the splice fell apart. I redid the splice connections using wire nuts. Also the ground was not connected to the socket fixture. There was no white paint scraped away so it was impossible for it to be grounded. I believe we have everything taken care of and will ship back to you Monday.

[slimreb]

Thank you for everything. I did not look really hard at the harness. So a pin was broken? I will have to talk with the person I got it from and see what happened with the ballast. The only thing I ever did was plug the ballast in and see what happened. Once again thank you for everything. Were you able to test the ballast with a bulb to see if it everything worked right? Also is it possible for you to private message me the address I put for the return, or I will send you a message. I can not remember if I transposed a number or two. It has been stressful with everything going on that I keep forgetting things.

[IceCap Service]

Will verify everything for you Monday. I left it on test over the week end and when I left it was running fine. I used an USHIO 10K lamp.

[slimreb]

Well I got the ballast today. There is a problem though. The ballast will not power any bulb I have put into it. I tried the hamilton and the Catalina bulb and neither worked. I did notice that the wires are on the right side of the harness. The wires were on the left when I sent the ballast out. Does that make a difference? I have screwed the ballast into a piece of wood. I then tried the two different bulbs with no luck. Please advice on this issue. How will this be resolved.

[IceCap Service]

The wires are on the right side????
I have to take a second as I have egg on my face. It sounds like I rebuilt the harness and inserted the wires in the connector with the locking tab pointing down instead of up. This would then result in the wires being on the opposite side and NOT working properly.
I sincerely apologize and Monday I will get a harness sent out to you. I will have it shipped over night so you will get it Tuesday.

[slimreb]

Thank you for your prompt response to my problem. I also appreciate the fast manner to solve this problem.

[slimreb]

I received the harness today. I have wired everything together and it works. Though the hamilton still has a very slight flicker to it. I will try again tonight with one of my Catalina bulbs to see if it is the hamilton that is causing the slight flicker. Thanks.