View Full Version : Best ballast for a diy kino.
Im putting one together that uses the kino/case/biax types lights. they are 4pin 2g11. I trying to find a ballast that will do two fluorescents or better at 55w each. Ive done pleny of google searching. But when I break down the ones that I find they are either not for twin cfl tubes or are not 55w. I know these have been made as Ive seen photos. So does anyone know of a good ballast to use on this kind of project?
drago vejnovic
12-26-2006, 05:00 PM
Philips HF-R 255PLL work well!
Cool Lights
12-27-2006, 07:02 AM
Im putting one together that uses the kino/case/biax types lights. they are 4pin 2g11. I trying to find a ballast that will do two fluorescents or better at 55w each. Ive done pleny of google searching. But when I break down the ones that I find they are either not for twin cfl tubes or are not 55w. I know these have been made as Ive seen photos. So does anyone know of a good ballast to use on this kind of project?
Philips ballasts are great but not very available in the USA for various reasons. Many in Europe and Asia use this ballast and it is just fine in all specfications for film and video work.
Basically you are looking for most of the type that will work with a T5 54watt bulb. A biax bulb is really just a T5 bent in half. I've used a lot of different kinds, including some very inexpensive Chinese ones (that aren't available in the USA yet) and most are all just fine for video work. You might try the following that are readily available in the USA:
- Fulham Workhorse 5 is a great one but no universal voltage model available--110v or 220v models only. This is usually the least expensive of the models here. It has hard wires coming out of it. Output driving frequence is 40khz which is great. I personally prefer the push-in terminal models like the following ones though...
- Advance Centium ICN-2S54 available in 110v 220v or universal (I've used this one and even though its output frequency is lower than the fulham (25khz) it works just fine.
- Universal (Triad) B254PUNV-D most all specs just like the Advance.
Another one I don't have direct experience with but hear is really nice is the Icecap 660 -- but easily the most expensive of all these at around $150. Usually that's the price of a dimming ballast in the 2 x 55w so you're really paying a lot for that one. This one is from the aquarium world (there's quite a bit of use of the 55w biax in the aquarium community) and there are some others too that seem to be very good from the specs but I have not personally used any of them.
Your going to be hard-pressed to find most of these other ones I mentioned for under $50 (except the fulham) in many cases though. Not that many discounters yet for this type of ballast. Occasionally you can find one on Ebay for cheaper though. My original one that I bought for use with a 55w fixture was the Advance model and I got some of them on Ebay once for about $15 with shipping but you can't count on that as a source and are really lucky if you find one in that price range. Hope that helps...
Richard
I'll look into the ones stated and order one or two. will see how this comes together.
I'll post some pictures when done. :)
Should I be going for a ballast that has an operating frequency of 60khz? Ive been looking at the more expensive one (icecap660) as a comparison and it has an operating frequency of 22-25 KHz. This seems very low to me. So im not even sure why this would even be a good ballast to consider.
Cool Lights
01-01-2007, 06:34 AM
Well as I said, I don't have direct experience with the Icecap ballast. Only second hand information on that one. I ruled it out personally a long time ago as it is just too expensive. The 40khz models are all just fine. For instance the Fulham above will work great for you.
To make it more convenient to use and repair if something goes wrong though you should buy one of those plastic screw in terminal strips to allow you to connect to it with other wires from your power cord and wires going to your 2G11 sockets. Separate the terminal strip into two parts by cutting it into a section with 3 connections and a section with 8 connections. One is for your 110 volts and the other is for the connections to the 2G11 sockets. They are very easy to cut with a knife.
The reason to do this is that all the push in terminals on 2G11 sockets are permanent. Once you push a wire in them they are there forever. If something goes wrong and you miswire something or you have a bad ballast then you have to throw away your sockets. So, use of the terminals will guarantee ease of replacement of the ballast or fast correction of wiring problems.
Otherwise, one of the other two ballasts that I mentioned with pushin terminal connections will alleviate the need for a separate terminal strip. Its very easy to remove wires from the Advance or Universal ballast because of their convenient connections. 25khz if just fine too. As I said, my first fixtures used a 25khz Advance ballast and I never saw any flicker problems at all from those fixtures. And the light output was just fine too.
I know there are 60 khz ballasts but not very many though. The 25 and 40khz ones are by far the most commonly available. In general, the higher the frequency the brighter the light will appear but the light can also be made bright by just choosing a high power factor ballast. The power factor is a specification that shows how efficient the ballast is. All of the models that drive 2 55w bulbs, in an ideal world would be 110w (or so) ballasts right? Well unfortunately it isn't that easy. For various reasons (including bulb life) a 110w ballast really is driving at only about 85 - 95 watts. Even the best ones typically drive at 105w. A 105w ballast is a really high power factor of about .99. If you find a ballast with a .95 to .99 power factor that is considered good for our purposes. Fixtures for general use in household, warehouse, grocery stores, etc. will typically have the lower power factors because they are more interested in bulb life in those settings and not so much about brighter bulbs.
All that was just to say that a high power factor plus a high output driving frequency will get you what you want. No flicker and more lumen output.