250 MH ballast

[radone]

I've been reading about the new style ballasts(250w), could someone explain what is different?
I've read they will fire all metal halide bulbs, does this include the XM's?
Thanks to anyone who can help, I will be setting up plans on a lighting upgrade real soon, so a response would be great.

Almost forgot will these ballasts fire the pulse start type bulbs like the Ushio's, I ask because I would like to be able to interchange bulbs if need be.
How can I tell if a used ballast will fire(all bulbs or not?) Any kind of numbers to look for?

TIA:rollface:

[IceCap Service]

The new style ballast will fire everything except the XM double ended lamps. They work well with the Ushio lamps. If you have an old style ballast (with external quick disconnect harness) it will not operate all bulbs properly. If it is marked Iwasaki it will only run the Iwasaki lamps. If it is just 250MH or 250MH-P it will run the 10 K single ended lamps. The old style will not run double ended lamps very well. This is one of the primary reasons for the upgrade to the newer style ballast which has performed extremely well for over 2 years now.

[radone]

Thank you for responding, I was pretty sure this was what I wanted, just wanted verification before I ordered them and find out they wouldn't work.

Thanks again