I bought and successfully used a 600 watt electronic HPS ballast two years ago. Now I am going to try and grow again, but I can't seem to find my notes on how the ballast is connected to the lamp. I'm hardly a handy-man, so I would like to get some feedback. On the ballast there are two black wires. On the lamp there are three wires: on one the outside is colored gray, another is colored yellow and green, and finally one is black. The black one (which I believe is the ground) was not connected to the lamp the last time I set it up two years ago (Actually a friend of mine set it up for me). My dad suggested that I just connect either of the black wires on the ballast with either of the wires (the grey one or the one colored yellow and green) that are now connected to the lamp, and then connect the other black wire on the ballast to the other wire on the lamp. He said that I should then cover them in black electrical tape. Would this seem to be accurate?
in my dealings with home electricity green with yellow stripe is always ground and black is usually ur hot leg. as far as how to wire it exactly.....im not sure...i couldnt quite understand your description, could you post a photo???......theres a few sparkies that frequent here tho so hopefully they will interject and help you out better'n me. good luck, be safe.
Thanks for the advice so far. I talked to a technician from a company that produces ballast yesterday. Based on his advice, I connected the lamp wires to the ballast wires as shown in the third and forth links below (the photographs). But this did not work: the ballast turned on for a few seconds, then shut off, then back on, then off -- so I just shut it down. (I elaborate a little more on this in the 4th link below.) Basically, I must have lost my notes on how to set this damn thing up. It ran two years ago trouble-free, and back then I did not have the green and yellow wire coming from the lamp hooked up to the place for the ground wire on the ballast, because I was told this was unnecessary since my electrical outlets were grounded. As shown in photos 3 and 4, I did connect the green and yellow wire to the screw on the ballast this time -- only to read an old email this morning saying that I did not need to do this. Incidentally, I live in a developing country so it's hard to get good advice here. Also, the manufacturer (Empower) has not returned an email I sent. Here are some photos with descriptions: http://www.growkind.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19975&cat=500&ppuser=13535 http://www.growkind.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19976&cat=500&ppuser=13535 http://www.growkind.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19977&cat=500&ppuser=13535 http://www.growkind.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19978&cat=500&ppuser=13535
