Vue660 Issue

[FishDad2]

I recently acquired a new Vue660 ballast set it up to work with 4 x 60" T5 lamps. The first time I plugged it in the lamps lit as expected but only stayed on for ~20 seconds. I unplugged the unit and plugged it back in but the lights stayed on for less than a second. After tryingthat a few more times and gettingthe same results I then unplugged it and disconnected the wiring harness from the ballast before reconnecting the unit and plugging it back in. It again repeated its original behavior with the lamps lighting for ~20 seconds. After repeating a few more times the lights finally stayed on. This morning though they did not light when the automatic timer kicked on. I don't know if they lit briefly before going out as I was not present at the time the lights should have come on. Unplugging the ballast and plugging it back in resolved the issue.

I've checked all of the connections and seating of the lamps...I'm confident there are good connections throughout.

The one unusual aspect to the setup is that I needed to extend the wiring the runs to the set of end caps at the far end of my tank. I did this by scavanging the wiring from an old IceCap ballast wiring harness and splicing in the extra lengths of wire one at a time. I was certin to only work with 1 rire at a time so there was absolutely no chance of cross-connecting any of the wires. The end result is that the ries running to the end caps at one end of the tank are significantly longer than those running to the other end. This allows me to place the ballast where there's no danger of coming into contact with water.

Is the difference in the wire lengths at the root of my problem? Is there a maximum length I may have exceeded? Would it be fixed if I reduced the length of the extenstions or do I need make both sets of wires roughly equal in length?

Or is it more likely something completely unrelated to the wiring modification?

Chris

[chris@CoralVue]

Chris,

I do not believe extending the wires is causing this problem. Can you try another outlet on a different circuit? It sounds like the ballast may not be getting enough power at start-up to ignite the lamps. How many other electrical items are running off of the circuit?

Thanks,

Chris
CoralVue

[FishDad2]

The only other devices on that outlet are a couple of small fans used to circulate air through the canopy. Note too that I previously had an ancient IceCap ballast plugged into this same outlet and it was driving 4 x 75 watt VHO lamps without issue. I'd be surprised if an extra 20 watts total would make a difference but I suppose it could be enough to reach a tipping point.

I'll try moving the plug and I'll reseat the bulbs one more time just to rule that out as a possible cause.

Let me know if you have any other ideas and I'll let you know if I see any improvement. I'll check to see if I can turn them on in the morning after the ballast has cooled overnight.

Thank you.

[FishDad2]

Last night I re-re-seated the bulbs and moved the power cord to a different outlet. This morning when I powered them on they lit just fine. I then moved the power cord to the old outlet and again they lit properly.

The real test will be after the ballast has been sitting for several hours but it looks like it may have been a poorly seated bulb despite my best efforts to ensure they were all seated properly.

I'll let you know how it goes after the bulbs power on at their normal time later today.

Thanks,
Chris

[FishDad2]

The mystery continues. With the lights plugged into their normal outlet they did not light at the regular time despite lighting when I tested them earlier in the day.

As I mentioned previously, the ballast is plugged into a power strip with only a couple of fans used to circulate air through the canopy. Tracing that strip back to the wall socket I found that it connects to the same circuit that has the heaters and chiller plugged into it. However, neither the heaters nor the chiller were on.

I suppose I need to move the lights to another circuit and try again to rule out the outlet/circuit itself. The challenge of course is that the only valid test is when the ballast is cold from stitting unused for an extended period. So it will take more time to figure out whether or not it's potentially the circuit. The critters won't be happy about the extended night.

So, I've now moved the plug to the circuit where I used to have my MH lamps plugged in (3 x 400W). This circuit is more heavily used than the other as it also has some pumps plugged in but I never had any problmes lighting the MH lamps and this outlet is the one in greatest proximity to the tank so I'll give it a shot.

If this fails, I'll try another circuit well away from the tank and see how that goes. Of course that's a repeat of the test I did last night / this morning which appeared to work fine. But it's also true that plugging it into the original outlet also worked fine early this morning, so I don't know that we really learned anything.

If swithcing plugs doesn't work I'll remove all the bulbs, re-check the connections I made when splicing in the extra wire, then reconnect the bulbs.

I'm at a loss here...I've never had a lighting system misbehave like this before.

Anything else you recommed I try?

Chris

[FishDad2]

I think I've elimintaed the outlets as the root cause. I've now tried cold starts from each of 3 different outlets and gotten the same odd behaviors.

Behavior 1a - If, while the power is off, I disconnect the harness from the ballast and reconnect it before supplying power, the lamps will remain lit for ~30 seconds before shutting off.

Behavior 1b - Same process as 1a but the lamps sometimes stay on.

Behavior 2a - If I simply switch the power on without first disconnecting & reconnecting the harness then the most common outcome is for the lamps to light for a brief moment and then go off.

Behavior 2b - Same process as 2a but the lamps stay on...this is the least common outcome but obviously is the desired end state where the lamps come on an stay on each time power is supplied and withoy me having to disconnect & reconnect the ballast.

So, given that the power source has been eliminated (do you agree?), I proceeded to remove the bulbs from each end cap and re-seat them. As well, I removed each wire nut from the wiring modification I made and found that each pair of wires was neatly and firmly twisted together. I then replaced the nuts.

At this point I supplied power and the lamps exhibited Behavior 1a, coming on for ~30 seconds before going dark. I then switched the power off & on a few times with the lamps lighting briefly and going off before finally they stayed on.

With the lamps lit, I figured that the only other connection I could check were the wires into each end cap. With the caps screwed into the roof of the canopy I couldn't look down into the connections but I did give each individual wire a tug and found none to be loose. As well, tugging on them did not produce any flickering, the lights stayed on steady, so I don't believe those connections are in question.

Everything in the system is brand new from HelloLights.com.

Is the fact that I get ~30 seconds of light after disconnecting & reconnecting the ballast from the harness indicative of anything? Seems odd to me that it would produce any different behavior than simply cycling the power does...but I'm not the expert.

I'm at a loss...help needed.

Chris

[chris@CoralVue]

Chris,

I think you've done everything on your end, the only other thing I can think of is a bad lamp. Do you have a spare to try?

Chris
CoralVue

[FishDad2]

Unfortunatley, no...it's all new equipment and I only bought 4 lamps. I'll have to check with an LFS to see if I can pick one up for testing.

On a positive note, the lights came on as they should and have stayed on.

I'll still get the bulb for testing but at least I have this going for me today ;-)

Will advise.

Thanks,
Chris

[FishDad2]

Buld testing will take some time as my LFS is closed today and Petco doesn't carry 60" bulbs. I'll get back to you as soon as I can conduct some experiments.

[FishDad2]

I've been calling around and none of the LFS in my area carry 60" bulbs. No wonder I shop on the internet before I ever go to any of these places ;-(

This pretty much means I'll have to order of the Internet so it will take some time before I can test.

Any chance I'm damaging the ballast? I need light in the tank but obviously I don't want to do damage.

[FishDad2]

Chris,

The bulbs finally arrived so I can begin testing. I think UPS walked them to my house.

Of course now that they're here the testing situation has been muddied by the fact that the ballast has lit the lamps every day just as it should starting on the day I placed the order for additional bulbs...8 consecutive days now. As I didn't have any bulbs in hand to test with and given that it has been working properly each day I've been reluctant to touch it...not even switching it off then back on to see if the lamps re-light immediately.

At this time, given that the lamps are lighting at the start of the day and staying lit, it seems the only experiment that remains is to turn them off and then back on again to see if they re-light immediately...then test for a bad bulb if they don't.

The question is whether or not my assumption that lamps should immediately re-light is correct. Please confirm/deny my assumption.

From there I'll conduct some tests and we'll see what they reveal.

Thanks,
Chris

[chris@CoralVue]

Chris,

The lamps should light immediately when you cycle the power off/on.

Thanks,

Chris
CoralVue

[FishDad2]

Both new bulbs were broken in shipping...cracked in half. Testing will have to wait for replacements.

In the meantime, the lights knew that I posted the fact that they were lighting correctly for 6 consecutive days so naturally when I came home from work last night they were not lit. So, there's still an issue. It may be a challenge to reproduce it but it's there.

More to come when I finally get new bulbs.

Chris

[FishDad2]

I want to close the loop on this issue...

SInce the replacement bulbs showed up I've been unable to recreate the issue. The lights now turn on and off without an issue.

Looks like whatever was wrong has burned itself out over time.

If things start back up or if I experience other issues I'll reopen the discussion.

Chris

[FishDad2]

Unfortunately, I need to reopen our discussion as the problem has resurfaced. At first it was an occasional failure of the lamps to light and stay lit but now it's an everyday occurrence. Note that I've made no change to the system since we last discussed the topic.

The key points I have observed are as follows:

1. When powered for the first time each day the lamps light very briefly then turn off
2. Immediately switching the power supply off then on again affects no change in the above behavior
3. Allowing the unit to receive power for an extended period (even though the lamps don't stay lit), then switching the power off and back on again allows the lamps to light and remain lit...has worked every time

Essentially what I observed is that when I got home from work and found the lamps not lit, I'd flip the power strip off and back on...voila, light. At that point the ballast had been receiving power for nearly 8 hours but without successfully lighting the lamps. Consequently, this past weekend I set the timer flip the circuit on an hour earlier than normal, then off at the usual start time, then back on a minute after that. Thus far I’m 3 for 3 in successfully lighting the lamps on the restart using this method…we’ll see tonight if it’s 4 in a row.

As well, as I thought about the issue I realized that when the problem first started it was in the April/May timeframe, so outdoor temperatures were still fairly cool, particularly at night. And now that the problem has resurfaced it's again cool outside…chilly at night. This is important because the ballast sits in my attached garage, not in the house, as it's installed on the opposite side of the wall from my tank. Morning temperatures in the garage are in the high 50's right now…well down from the warmer temps of Summer.

It could be coincidence but there seems to be a correlation between the cooler temperatures and the failure of the lamps to properly light. The problems have only occurred in cooler weather and allowing the ballast to “warm up” a bit before retrying has been working consistently.

I’d like to move the ballast inside the canopy of the tank to see if the behavior goes back to normal when the unit is exposed to the warmer indoor temps. My only concern is with the possibility of the unit getting splashed. Not that my fish splash all that much but it does happen.

Your thoughts on the problem, next steps, etc.?

Thanks,
Chris

[FishDad2]

Any thoughts on this issue?

The problem remains...the lamps light initially but go off immediately, then after I let the ballast "warm" for an hour by allowing the power to continue to flow to the unit the lamps will remain lit when I power the ballast off then back on a minute later.

I don't think this is how it's supposed ot work.

[FishDad2]

The temperature really dropped here in NJ three days ago and now the garage where the ballast sits is in the high 40's in the morning...48 degrees the last two mornings and likely around that same temp the morning before although I didn't look at the thermometer.

In lock step with the drop in room temperature the ballast has again begun to fail to light the lamps, even with a 1 hour "warm-up" period as described in prior posts. Last night I decided to see what would happen if I moved the ballast inside the canopy where the temp at lights-on time will be room temp for the house. Conducting a test this morning before leaving for work the lights came on just as they should and I fully expect that they will be lit tonight when I get home.

It seems that the problems I've been experiencing since the initial purchase/install of the ballast are temperature related as there has been a consistent correlation between room temp and the ability of the ballast to light the lamps.

How do we make this right?

Chris