Ballast Confusion HELP!

joe2010

joe2010

Member
Okay, my ballast just came in. NextGen 400/600 ballast. The only cord it came with looks like this.


Since its dual voltage and I don't live in the USA. I will use something just like this but the male piece is for 220V, its just two prongs.

The problem is not the power cord to the ballast from the wall but from the ballast to my light.

The male end coming of my fixture looks like the one on the right in the pic below.

That will not connect to my ballast. The output on my ballast look like this. Its on the left.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
i never saw anything like that,it should have another plug that matches those prongs to run to your light,you sure you got all the cords with it.
 
joe2010

joe2010

Member
Unfortunately it doesn't match. European style I guess. Looks like I'm waiting around for a power cord in the mail, I'll rewire the fixture.
 
joe2010

joe2010

Member
trapper said:
what was it?
Click to expand...
Apparently the standard in the UK is the IEC cable for ballast and reflectors. It makes sense considering it is a universal power supply cable able to handle the voltage used for lighting systems.

As far as I can tell and just to name a few; Custom Automated Products (C.A.P), PL lighting, and Hydrofarm all have different receptacles that don't even have specific names for them. The receptacles on the power output of the ballast are actually named after the manufacturing company.

For example; the NextGen ballast above is manufactured by C.A.P and has the receptacle they use but the other ones available on the ballast are listed in the next gen manual as PL and Hydrofarm.

So the answer was for me to order a Hydrofarm lamp cord and rewire my reflector.

Sounds simple when stated like that but I couldn't find it laid out anywhere, it seems information about power cords, lamp cords and associated receptacles just isn't organized.

Said and done now, hope someone finds this useful someday.
 
trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
joe2010 said:
Apparently the standard in the UK is the IEC cable for ballast and reflectors. It makes sense considering it is a universal power supply cable able to handle the voltage used for lighting systems.

As far as I can tell and just to name a few; Custom Automated Products (C.A.P), PL lighting, and Hydrofarm all have different receptacles that don't even have specific names for them. The receptacles on the power output of the ballast are actually named after the manufacturing company.

For example; the NextGen ballast above is manufactured by C.A.P and has the receptacle they use but the other ones available on the ballast are listed in the next gen manual as PL and Hydrofarm.

So the answer was for me to order a Hydrofarm lamp cord and rewire my reflector.

Sounds simple when stated like that but I couldn't find it laid out anywhere, it seems information about power cords, lamp cords and associated receptacles just isn't organized.

Said and done now, hope someone finds this useful someday.
Click to expand...
i bought a digi ballast a few years ago,it never had the respticle,it turns out i had to order one that matched their female inlet,so then my ballast became worth $400 not $290 lol.
 
joe2010

joe2010

Member
As you can see here on the information provided with the Nextgen ballast, the connectors are named after different light and ballast companies. If anyone knows the actual names for these power receptacles please do tell.








Here is the HF or HydroFarm connector.



The PL for P.L. lighting





C.A.P and Common (Custom Automated Products) - looks just like PL but reversed.


I remember seeing the foreign star shape design somewhere but can't seem to find it now.

This name issue has to be a marketing thing. I would bet these cords with associated receptacles are sold at half the price by general electronic stores and easy to find online if you had the correct name for them.

If anyone wants to make corrections or add info, please do.
 
tom__420

tom__420

Well-Known Member
How you like those nextgen ballasts? Not only do they look sweet but I hear they run very cool too
 
joe2010

joe2010

Member
tom__420 said:
How you like those nextgen ballasts? Not only do they look sweet but I hear they run very cool too
Click to expand...
Not sure, I don't have the cord yet. It's light weight, came with a mounting bracket as well.

I've only heard good things though. We will see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top