ballast questions lol need help

whys it so hard to get HELP here on thi site.? how many people looked at this thread 167 views and only 20 replys... half of them are my posts. thanks RIU
 
cosmoridez said:
i picked up a mag ballast it says 240v on box in marker but it has a 3 prong plug so it fits into normal plug.
my qustion is how do i know for sure if its 240v or 120v?
i pluged it into my wall plug and it worked..but is it safe..
if its 240v can i make it 120v to work in my plug lol
what are my options for this??? heres my pics of the ballast so take a look pls..
Click to expand...
Bro it works, and safe?That's on your judgment.
 
ok thany for the help i was not sure and dont know nothing bout electrical stuff sorry for sounding rude but the help was much needed as i didnt want to blow something up or start a mass fire.
 
thats a multi tap ballast. your currently hooked up to the brown wire? (277v) you need to switch this wire with the one that has 120v printed on it.
 
cosmoridez said:
ok so a 240v plug is like a dryer or stove plug... this has ur normal 3 prong plug on it. before i bout it the guy pluged it in and it fired no prob no weird sounds ect ect but if someone is a wire guru an could take a peek at the wiring to see if it meets spec that would be great.
or have any other questions ill be on for a bit
Click to expand...

On lights this is NOT true. I have low bay shop fixtures (converted) that were wired 240 but had the 120-type plug. It will light (maybe) but not usually at full strength. Look up Scooby Dooby Doo on RIU. He's one of the real electricians on here.
 
hotrodharley said:
Polyarcturus knows his shit too. I posted on Scoob before reading to the end.
Click to expand...
thank you for the compliment.

cosmoridez said:
ok well ill open it up again and look. poly you can see this from the pics?
Click to expand...

not really becuase i cant tell which way wires are going. half the time in the pics.

but what wires are connected to you power cord anyways at this point? should be a green(ground i see that) white or yellow(common/neutral) and then a hot leg to your magnet inside ballast.(which could be a lot of colors)
 
ok so my plug line (power) is green white black. now i have an orange wire thats conected to that black wire, a white to white and green to green that gose to lamp green.
 
orange should be 277v, light shouldn't work at all when plugged in. are you sure its not yellow or really really faded red? (IE theres another orange wire in there, or yelow one, GOING INTO MAGNETIC CORE AND NOT CONNECTED TO ANYTHING.)
 
Your pictures:
Need better pic House hold plug it came with, where it splices to transformer wires, what color to color is it
Please show me where your plug is wired to what color on transformer...
Then show what is the color of the unhooked wire, and IF THERE is any letters/numbers on it...
Those are the keys to fixing your issue...

The transformer is a multi tap like he says above.
Usually 120//240//277
check if any small writing is on the transformer wires that come out of it...

If the unused wire has a color [most likely] that is your other leg of your either 240/277

If your household U ground plug black [Hot] is hooked to color good

If your Household plug white is hooked to a white on Trans than that is [Prob] hooked up correct at 120 vac
[IF household plug white is hooked to a color then you could have wrong wire hooked up...]
House hold plug, Green is always ground [make sure it is grounded to metal screw ]

Show the splice on house hold plug from/to transformer better... what colors are spliced color to color...
and what color is not used, and if there is any miniature writing on the wires coming out of transformer...


Please, and we'll figure it out...

Also, if wired for 240/277 why did the idiot put a 110 U ground household plug on it ?

The writing on box could have been the cover plate when it was previously installed somewhere else....to 240vac

And YES, a transformer will work fine hooked to 240/277 with only 110 power. This exact issue I had to fix on a hotel 300 miles from my home/shop when I didn't 'catch' one of my workers during install of Parking lot light, that spaced out the wrong hooked up wire, Ballast fired up fine and continued to work fine for 6 months with wrong voltage feeding. The Lamp fired up just fine for six months....
 
8 wires in front . from left to right. black -not used, purp-not used, tan/cream-not used, orange- to black on plug, black/white strip-big cap, yellow-small cap, white-lamp.IMG-20130117-00277.jpg4 wires behind the 8. red-lamp conected to black lamp. white/red stripe-small cap. blue-small cap.black/whit stripe-big cap.IMG-20130117-00279.jpgthese are lamp wire. red tied int lamp black. white to white lamp. green-plug to green-lampIMG-20130117-00278.jpg
 
One last request:
Your house cord, the splice is to the wires
On Cord:
Black hooks to what color
White to what color
green to what color
For some reason, the part of each picture I need to see is cut off....
 
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