Jarrett P. Morgan
Well-known member
Though I doubt that anyone here has this ballast, let alone this problem, but I decided that I would post just for those nerds like me that enjoy things like this. Plus the chance that someday someone may need this info.
Backstory:
I bought the used HMI with the intention of running it off of dryer outlets and 30 amp outlets on gennies (which is should be able to do just fine with a 23 amp draw). I got it and used it on my first show without issues (using 60 amp outputs on Honda 6500i gennies), but on the second show I worked on with the light I did not have the luxury of a true 60 amp source (though technically the 6500i doesn't actually push a full 60 amps, but that is another story). I ran the light off of a dryer outlet using a very simple pigtail from the three-prong 30 amp plug to a female 60amp bates connector. The light would strike and come up to temp, but then after about 10 mins of being on, it would trip the breaker. Needless to say, this was very annoying.
I ended up only using the light once on the show because of that. Afterwards I took it to a local rental house (PCE in Atlanta) and they helped me by metering the light. We figured out that it was drawing 37 amps when up to speed and a huge 58 amps on hot restrike. One of the repairmen there said he thought he knew what the problem was as the rental house used to have these ballasts.
Issue:
Turns out there are ten 1200 micro-ferad capacitors in the bottom of the ballast that are crucial to regulating the voltage going to the light. When one of the capacitors goes bad, the other 9 have to work harder to maintain the arc in the lamp, thus drawing more power. The repair tech at PCE happened to have the correct capacitor from when they had the lights and gave a good one to me. It was fairly simple to take out the capacitors and check to see which one had been damaged. Sure enough, one of them had a short on it. Replaced it and the light now functions fine at 21 amps!
Backstory:
I bought the used HMI with the intention of running it off of dryer outlets and 30 amp outlets on gennies (which is should be able to do just fine with a 23 amp draw). I got it and used it on my first show without issues (using 60 amp outputs on Honda 6500i gennies), but on the second show I worked on with the light I did not have the luxury of a true 60 amp source (though technically the 6500i doesn't actually push a full 60 amps, but that is another story). I ran the light off of a dryer outlet using a very simple pigtail from the three-prong 30 amp plug to a female 60amp bates connector. The light would strike and come up to temp, but then after about 10 mins of being on, it would trip the breaker. Needless to say, this was very annoying.
I ended up only using the light once on the show because of that. Afterwards I took it to a local rental house (PCE in Atlanta) and they helped me by metering the light. We figured out that it was drawing 37 amps when up to speed and a huge 58 amps on hot restrike. One of the repairmen there said he thought he knew what the problem was as the rental house used to have these ballasts.
Issue:
Turns out there are ten 1200 micro-ferad capacitors in the bottom of the ballast that are crucial to regulating the voltage going to the light. When one of the capacitors goes bad, the other 9 have to work harder to maintain the arc in the lamp, thus drawing more power. The repair tech at PCE happened to have the correct capacitor from when they had the lights and gave a good one to me. It was fairly simple to take out the capacitors and check to see which one had been damaged. Sure enough, one of them had a short on it. Replaced it and the light now functions fine at 21 amps!
