Making a 55w biax wand

Shawn Philip Nelson

Shawn Philip Nelson

Veteran
In analyzing other's lighting setups in comparison to my own toolkit, I realize I would very much like to have the ability to use individual tubes for under counter accent lighting, taping in right spots (next to door frames, in cabinets, etc).

So, what's out there? Well I dont want to buy a 4bank for $1000+ just to disassemble it. Or, I could spend around $650 for a single Gyoury wand. Ouch!

It seems that DIY has a ton to offer in this. The biggest challenge of DIY Kinos are making the fixture (housing, reflectors, barndoors, yoke, etc). Well scratch all that and all you have it getting an off the shelf ballast, connectors, cabling and off to the races it is.

I'll start with a straight Gyoury knockoff: one ballast that powers one 55w bulb. After an evening of searching this forum I see some recommendations for AHSupply. I see they have a kit that includes all the core parts of what I want for just $44.99 http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm. But, it doesn't say what type of ballast is included in that kit. Anyone?

Second, I see that Fulham Workhorse gets a good rep. Upon further searching I see the Workhorse 3 will do exactly what I want. Furthermore, it could also power a T12 bulb if I want to get a second connector cable (ooh, one ballast that I can use for different bulbs, cool!). I wonder if the Fulham Workhorse 3 is any better/worse than the AHSupply ballasts?

Then I will need a good plastic or aluminum casing for my ballast. According to Fulham, their Workhorse three is 1x1.5x6.5". So probably a 2x2x8 would be great. Anyone know where i can even begin earching for such boxes?

After that I good connectors that can are sturdier than the normal clip in kind. The AH supply ones look good, and they are probably rated for water, which could be extremely handy.

The last tech issue I foresee is some sort of cable and connector to run between the bulb and ballast. It needs to be a four pin cable I think, plus some sort of four pin connector. Maybe the connector that Richard used for his 150w CDM header cable? I'm sort of lost on this issue.

After this I would have working wands. A mechanical way to hold one or two in a china ball could be very useful, not sure yet how to do that.

As a last out-of-rightfield option, I found this on eBay. I wonder how good it would be?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300242535386

Thoughts? Richard, have you ever thought down these paths? Anyone else?
 
Of course I've thought about this one. I would indeed use the CDM 150 connector between the ballast and socket but some of these solutions will already have a wire going from the ballast to the sockets. You'd have to break that wire to insert the connector of course. You also have a limitation on the length of the cable that is different for each ballast so you have to check the specs of your ballast. Use a 4 conductor, 600v rated solid core wire between if possible. Our Cool lights ballast is a great one too--$28.99 or so and dual voltage input but will only work with either 55w biax or T5 54w linear tubes. Fulhams are fine too. I would definitely get the aquarium type rubber cap socket for your fixtures too which would help out with the strain relief needed on the socket end and also waterproofing built in. The one on ebay is a winner for sure and what I'm talking about. I'm sure their ballast is probably a great one too but will only also probably work with T5s like the Biax 55w. Just need a reflector which cool lights sells a reflector kit for $9.99 too.
 
Oh hey, I didnt realize you sold a ballast and reflector!

Would you consider also selling those 4 pin connectors? Or at least pointing us in the right direction?

On your ballast, can it be used for only one 55w bulb or does it have to be used for two?
 
AH Supply uses the Fulham workhorse ballasts. I don't know off the top of my head which ballasts they use for which sets, but I'm pretty sure all the sets use a workhorse ballast.
 
Hi Shawn:

When I built my AH/Kino Diva 200 knockoffs, I included an extra 6 feet of cable from ballast to bulb for the same reason as you want to. The AH stuff is pretty good and the prices are decent.

OTOH, if you are really going DIY, the GE/JASCO cheapie strip lights that Home Depot sells work pretty well for what you are trying to do with undercounting light. The lower CRI is not a bother since I am not lighting people, just areas. I almost always end up wrapping the tubes with gels anyway. They are cheap, I think I buy the 12 or 14" fixtures for something like $25.00. They have a flickerless ballast, the bulbs are cheap and they are small enough to use for undercounter, behind objects on book shelves, etc. I have about a dozen of them and use them a lot for narrative and larger interview setups where I am seeing a lot of room behinf the talent. Much cheaper, easier and quicker than a "real" lighting fixture.

Dan
 
My ballast can be used for 1 or 2 bulbs (only T5 types) and I probably have maybe four or five of the 4 pin connectors in stock right now, not very many.
 
Cool Lights said:
My ballast can be used for 1 or 2 bulbs (only T5 types) and I probably have maybe four or five of the 4 pin connectors in stock right now, not very many.
Click to expand...


The Fulham ballasts that AH sells are pretty high quality, they are heavy, built well and flicker free, I think they operate at something like 30Khz, very high frequency. If you have your heart set on building this, I would recommend the AH stuff, it's cheap, it works and I have been using two of them for close to two years without an single issue.

D
 
Any suggestions from anyone on what would be a good "project box" to put the lamp in? And a box for the ballast? And US suppliers? I've been wanting to build a one-lamp wand fixture to mount on a grip arm for use as a soft backlight or rimlight and the holdup has been the enclosures.
 
I made a wand simply by buying a single stand-alone ballast and extending the leads. A bit ugly, but works fine. Took 5 minutes to do, and less than that to set-up. It's a bit fragile though, and needs to be taped into place.
 
sunporchmedia said:
Any suggestions from anyone on what would be a good "project box" to put the lamp in? And a box for the ballast? And US suppliers? I've been wanting to build a one-lamp wand fixture to mount on a grip arm for use as a soft backlight or rimlight and the holdup has been the enclosures.
Click to expand...

Until we come up with something, I would suggest corrugated plastic for the exterior and one of our reflector kits for the interior. Socket can be either the aquarium waterproof cap kind or our socket we sell like in our fixtures.
 
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