this is ridiculously obvious and probably not the problem but if it is switchable, did you hit the switch?

is the ballast electronic or core and coil?

have you tried a 400w hps conversion bulb (to run on mh ballast)?

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OK guys.... took the ballast the the freaking store today and they tested it... of course it works. note** they tested it with 2 spare pieces of wire...say 12"** So I get home and screw in the bulb and hook up the reflector... STILL FUCKING NOTHING!! at this point im pretty damn annoyed! so i get my extra socket **with the 6 inches of connector cable and connect that f^%$r up to the ballast directly... and theres light... WTF IS GOING ON??? Ok so I said to myself...."Self its obviously the wire... I'll just change it!" (the wire from the ballast to the bulb). I had bought a new cable the other day about 10' long. I pull down everything and connect up this cable to the light... moment of truth right?!?! STILL FREAKIN NADA!!!! So at this point I'm pretty fuckin livid!!!... then i thought maybe its the length of the connecting wire.. I go into my toolbox and pull out a 6' piece of 220V wire. Thinking that it might be borderline short to make it to the light I hooked that fucker up anyways... I was desperate! Well ladies and gentlemen I still dont have a clue what the deal was... but we DO have HPS light as of tonight. As I said I have NO clue why the longer leads wouldnt power the light, and I'm only talking say 10' here. It's not a 30' run. But anyways the shorter lead worked. Guys thanks so much for trying to help a brother out.. +REP to all of you...

Cheers

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5,4,3,2,1 blunts pass off! Pick a planet, roll it, toke it, smoke it and we blast off...

Finally so happy!! btw the plants have been on 120W T5 light combined with 2 80W CFs i rigged up while trying to figure this out for the past 3 days. Had them on 12/12 cycle.. I have my first 2 girls out of my 13 plants!!!!! YAY!! Looking up again.

Cheers

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5,4,3,2,1 blunts pass off! Pick a planet, roll it, toke it, smoke it and we blast off...

Congratulations on the light.

hmm... probably wasnt the leads - but maybe a short elsewhere that you moved while changing the leads, thus making it work again... maybe...

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I DO grow weed - Dandelions to be specific.
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Well done mate getting it worked out!

if the shorter wire worked where longer wire didn't souns like you have some sort of voltage drop.
I am not a fan of these switchable ballasts as the capacitor in some of the models is inadequate,and couldlead to problems.
electricity is not something to fuck around this whole post I haven't read anything about discharging the capacitor of it's electricity.
the last thing you want to do is monkeyfuck with a ballast if you don't know what your doinG!
please read up on discharging a capacitor there are pictures of how to do it correctly.having a capacitor discharge on you could be potentially life threatining given size of ballast magentic coil types only.
I would recommend k.i.s.s. theory. keep is simple stupid.run your present ballast for mh
get a new ballast for hps bulb.also make sure to ground your reflectors.

Maybe someone already said this but tighten the bulb more.. HPS bulbs really need to be screwed in to go

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All of my post's and questions on this website are strictly for research/ educational purposes and no opinions stated actually reflect my own opinon. Everything you see and read is actually a figment of your imagination

I must be missing something here. Why do you need a switchable ballast if you are running 400w HPS and 400wMH.? I have 400w Lumatek and a 400w Nextgen ballast and I run MH and HPS bulbs with no problem ??? Hope you get it figured out, and probably do by now. Happy flowering.

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A HPS bulb requires an ignitor, which provides a pulse of over 2500v to strike the arc and then cuts out once the bulb is lit. The MH does not require this, and using an ignitor with it could shorten bulb life and reduce lumen output.

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Originally Posted by ceestyle
Don't be a martyr wasting $100 or more on CFLs to prove they're inferior for flowering pot.