Ballast Assembly

Does anyone have any resources on how to assemble a 400 watt ballast to the cords. I just bought a 400 watt Magnetic Metal Halide ballast, a 400 watt light, A mogul socket, 2 heavy duty extension cords and i built my own reflector which i will post later (its pretty sweet), but i have know idea what im doing when it comes to putting everything together properly, just know ive got all the parts, ive searched every where but can not find shit. Much would be appreciated.

Thanks In advance.

Im assuming you bought a ballast that doesnt have a plug that you plug the special cord into that goes to your mogul socket? Is the ballast in a case? Does it have a 3 prong plug somewhere on it?

its not in a case its all the guts of a ballast and wires dangling. 2 white, 1 red, 1 120v black which is what i think i want to use and all the rest are purple and black with different voltages on them its a 5 tap ballast and i have extension cords that im trying to figure out how to wire them to the ballast so that i have a female connector and a male connecter.

Does the ballast have an ignitor? Let me know and I'll show you how to wire it.

Its got this big heavy weight block with copper it it and a round tube like thing which i think is the ignitor, there connected together

The ignitor is the one on the right. Does it have one?

This is how I bought my HPS. Much cheaper. The wires are usually all labeled. The wires with the voltages printed on them, except for the one that says 120, you will not use. The one that says 120 you connect to the black wire (hot) on your supply. There will probably be several that say common or comm. They connect to your white (neutral) supply line. Then there will also be one or two that say lamp. They will connect to one side of the lamp and the other side connects to the white wire from your supply. It looks from the picture that the wires that run between your transformer, capacitor and ignitor are already connected? If so, I think I have addressed the rest of the wires?

Here are some pics of what ive got.





I want to make a power connection and a plug in connection to the light. Its a 5 tap ballast 120v,ect... tryied wiring last night but know luck.

Sorry forgot to say what was what, the red wire is the lamp, the 2 whites are com X2, and the rest are voltages. Mogul socket and the green ones are 16 gauge extension cord.

any of the unused wires from the ballast transformer should be capped off with wire nuts to keep them from shorting out.

If you want to make a plug in connection to the light you're gonna need another male extension. Then, you need to connect the mogul's wires to the male extension's wires (white with white, black with black, then trim the green wire and put wire nuts on all of them).

That male extension will be connected a female extension. The wires of this female extension will be connected to the ballast as follows. One of the COM's will be connected to the white wire, and the LAMP will be connected to the black wire.

Finally, to connect the ballast to an outlet you'll need another male extension. The 120 wire goes with the black wire and the other COM goes with the white.

Good luck and happy growing.

Thanks, bro.

Cheers.