Calling all electricians and DIYers: Help me turn this 250w HPS into remote ballast

dukeofbaja · #1 11-07-2009, 05:09 PM

Howdy

Just went out and bought a couple 250w HPS lights for $30 off Craigslist. I want to turn one of them into a remote ballast and if successful, use or sell the other.

Right now, these are on 277vac, perfectly useless for my purposes. So first step will be to go into the ballast and switch it over to 120vac. I am pretty handy but electricity scares me and I want to be safe as possible. I will make frequent updates as I go along and when I get stuck.

Please, anyone good with electricity feel free to jump in and help me along. I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks everyone! And good luck

dukeofbaja · #2 11-07-2009, 06:41 PM

Well, I have it disassembled to the guts, and it looks like this is going to be incredibly simple. However, for safety sake, I ask all those knowledgeable about electricity to chime in at this point.

The negative (white) wire was connected to the wire that said 'com', and I assume that it will go back this way.

The black (positive) wire was connected to the wire that said '277'. I assume I am going to ignore this wire, as well as the ones that say '208' and '240' and go right for the wire that says '120'. I will, however, go back and cap the '208', '240', and '277' wires.

Now, I have some questions....

1) What type of wires (what gauge) should I use to extend the mogul away from the ballast?

2) Can I wire the wall plug right onto the yellow wires that say 'com' and '120', or should I use some lengths of black and white wire in between?

3) What the hell do I do with the the ground wire? Does this need to wire to the wall plug?

4) What am I missing? Does it sound like I am on the right track? Or am I going to blow myself/house to smitherines?

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can provide. RIU rocks

dukeofbaja · #3 11-07-2009, 06:45 PM

By the way, here is how it looks now. One picture is the guts and the other picture is the scrap housing.

crazy7605150 · #4 11-08-2009, 03:32 AM

you are on the right track... and i would use that orange extension cord that lots of people use... i believe its 13 amp which i believe would hold 1560
120 volts x 13 amps = 1560 watts i believe that is right ... someone correct me please if its wrong. and you should have your extension cord going from the wall to the ballast and give it a few feet or so then use the other part of the cord to use to wire up the lamp.. and here is a pic i found that might help you out..

dukeofbaja · #5 11-08-2009, 10:39 AM

Using the leftover orange cord to extend the mogul away from the ballast is a great idea to save some money, thank you very much for that (+rep). Also, thanks for the diagram. I took apart the other one of these last night and figured out what to do with the ground wire.

I am headed off to get supplies and will test it when I get back. Provided everything works, I wil then construct a safety box to house/cool the whole ballast/cap/ignitor mess and a cool tube for the lamp since this bulb is 100 watts more than what I need but was just too good a deal to pass up.

If anyone Portlanders want a great deal on a 250 watt HPS, just let me know and I will refer you to the people selling them ($25 each but they want to get rid of them so they did 2 for $30).

keico · #6 11-08-2009, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukeofbaja

Howdy

Just went out and bought a couple 250w HPS lights for $30 off Craigslist. I want to turn one of them into a remote ballast and if successful, use or sell the other.

Right now, these are on 277vac, perfectly useless for my purposes. So first step will be to go into the ballast and switch it over to 120vac. I am pretty handy but electricity scares me and I want to be safe as possible. I will make frequent updates as I go along and when I get stuck.

Please, anyone good with electricity feel free to jump in and help me along. I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks everyone! And good luck

This is what you are looking for I did the same and it worked great.

It is a tutorial on how to change a industrial fixture to remote system

how to use an industrial low bay light fixture

Cronic The Hemp Hog · #7 11-08-2009, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazy7605150

you are on the right track... and i would use that orange extension cord that lots of people use... i believe its 13 amp which i believe would hold 1560
120 volts x 13 amps = 1560 watts i believe that is right ... someone correct me please if its wrong. and you should have your extension cord going from the wall to the ballast and give it a few feet or so then use the other part of the cord to use to wire up the lamp.. and here is a pic i found that might help you out..

you are correct on the calculations. I use an outdoor 13 amp extension cord for my remote ballasted 400w hps.

dukeofbaja · #8 11-08-2009, 12:15 PM

Thanks to everyone for their contributions. Thanks Keico for the diagram.

I have all the materials here, now it is time to put it all together. The best extension cord I could find was rated for 75 degrees celcius, which should be good enough. I also bought a fire extinguisher just to be safe though, lol.

crazy7605150 · #9 11-08-2009, 01:08 PM

well im glade this has helped you out.... what i did for my ballast after i took apart a outdoor security light is throw it into a computer power supply... i gutted an old computer power supply and just screwed everything into that... if you have a big enough one u can even put a fan on it or something....

dukeofbaja · #10 11-08-2009, 02:55 PM

SUCCESS! This thing is so bright I can't even look at it with sunglasses on. Incredible.

Now it is time to get on the whole coolbox and cooltube designs.

A million thanks to everyone.

Here is a photo...the ground wire is just grounded to a piece of scrap casing I had leftover until I build the coolbox.