HELP PLS - Metal Halide Problem - HELP PLS

hi all

can anyone help pls

i bought a secondhand light unit with 2 x 150wat metal halides and some blues / moon lights in it.

when i got it it had a blown / non working halide, the other one worked but was a bit dim.

i replaced the two 150w 14000k bulbs, but when i ran the light there was very little light from the halides. i know theres a burn in phase but i expect more than just a faint glow from the halides, i have been running them for 9hrs a day for 7 days and they actually look dimmer then when i first fitted the new bulbs,

i changed a new bulb for the old one suplied with the unit and that has now gone dim.

is it fubar

is the ballast shot

anything i can try


thanks

scaff

 

I am by no means an expert however i would have to say look into the ballast idea.

Not sure if your lfs will let you but try brining either your ballast or light into them and trouble shoot it that way.

 

Most likely the ballasts.
What unit is it?

 

the make is arcadia

i cant see a model no



the ballast is buzzing away like a good one


is there a quick fix or a test for the ballast



.

 

I have never noticed a burn in period where my new MH bulb was dim. They start up dim an slowly come on but they weren't dimmly immiting light when fully on.
You can take your newly purchased bulbs to the store you bought them and tell them you are trying to do a process of elimination starting with the easiest.
After you know you got 2 good bulbs, see if there is a warr. on your ballasts. Most of the time, they get splashed or over heat from running to long or what not and burn up a diode or capacitor. Then, if no warr. you can have a shop do a circuit test on it and replace what ever part broke. I had a capacitor take a dump and it was like 4.99 or something stupid. The soldering job took more effort.
Good luck!

 

150W HQI are smaller form bulbs. To get them to fire properly, you have to play with how they are seated in the sockets. If you look at the bulbs, you will see a little nipple on the inside of the bulb. On my fixture, my bulb needs to have the nipple facing away from the tank to fire, if it is facing the water, it will not fire fully and will only be barely dim. Try this and see if that helps. If it doesn't help, it may be the ballast.

 

thanks for the replies


the bulbs do have nipples, i will try them the other way

thanks


scaff

 

ummmm

bit a development

i took one of the halides out, and run the light with one halide bulb,

in one of the halide bulb holders / ports the halide barely came on ............however in the other bulb holder / port the halide jumped into life


so it looks like i have a duff bulb holder / halide port

the bulbs are rx7 type........can i strip em down and replace the bulb holder / port

thanks

scaff

 

I was unaware these were HQI, apologies. I assumed mogul.
See if your housing was tampered. Someone may have crossed the wires on your output. If not, you can always replace the outlet.

 

The bulb sockets rarely go bad. If you are handy with tools, you can take the fixture apart to see if the connection into the socket has gotten corroded.