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Charred! I found a small chromed F14 striplight today. When I opened the fixture I noticed the ballast was unbolted and disconnected. The wires seemed a bit loose to me, but I didn't really care. Well this mistake costed me a vintage Westinghouse F14T12/D... ;___; The ballast was in fact shorted, oh well! I assume I didn't pay attention because I had never got a shorted preheat choke before, all the others I found before were all working great. I gotta be more careful next time! Oh I forgot to say, since the ballast became a direct short, it blew a 15A fuse in my panel. It even blew before the 15A breaker all my stuff is plugged to! This could make fuses even safer than breakers when used properly! Keywords: Gear

Charred!

I found a small chromed F14 striplight today. When I opened the fixture I noticed the ballast was unbolted and disconnected. The wires seemed a bit loose to me, but I didn't really care. Well this mistake costed me a vintage Westinghouse F14T12/D... ;___; The ballast was in fact shorted, oh well!

I assume I didn't pay attention because I had never got a shorted preheat choke before, all the others I found before were all working great. I gotta be more careful next time!

Oh I forgot to say, since the ballast became a direct short, it blew a 15A fuse in my panel. It even blew before the 15A breaker all my stuff is plugged to! This could make fuses even safer than breakers when used properly!

PeerlessFixturesBallasts.jpg 100_1167.JPG 100_1165.JPG HPIM0778.JPG 100_1146.JPG
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Filename:100_1165.JPG
Album name:Vince / All my ballasts
Keywords:Gear
Filesize:576 KiB
Date added:Aug 13, 2012
Dimensions:2592 x 1944 pixels
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DateTime Original:2012:08:13 17:14:08
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URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=12642
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Comment 1 to 11 of 11
Page: 1

GullWhiz   [Aug 13, 2012 at 09:59 PM]
preheat chokes do burn out, I have had a few....some burnt out ones will just not work at all, while others will KILL the lamp or trip a breaker!

What brand is the ballast, mine was a GE preheat choke...
streetlight98   [Aug 14, 2012 at 12:07 AM]
Hmm. I always keep a few "test dummie" lamps around when i'm testing fixtures. That way if they short out it's not as big of a deal to me. Laughing
TiCoune66   [Aug 14, 2012 at 12:22 AM]
It's an Advance. BTW, the lamp has been killed, but the starter survived!

I don't have any test tube in the F14 size, but I definitely should!
streetlight98   [Aug 14, 2012 at 12:33 AM]
How can fluorescent ballasts run all different wattage lamps but HID ballasts cannot? Will a fluorescent ballast work with one wattage but not anotherif it's damaged/old even if it's rated to run both?
TiCoune66   [Aug 14, 2012 at 01:50 AM]
Many fluorescent tube sizes share the same current. 14 to 20W T12s run at ~380mA, only the voltage changes, so a preheat choke can run all of them with no problem (the voltage will "auto-set" to the proper value).
streetlight98   [Aug 14, 2012 at 01:53 AM]
Is there ever a case where the ballast can't "auto-set" the voltage and therefore only run one wattage or not run a certain lamp wattage?
TiCoune66   [Aug 14, 2012 at 02:01 AM]
Well reactor-based ballasts (standard chokes and HX ballasts) should normally always run any lamp as long as the current stays the same. For other ballasts types I would need to know more about their magnetic characteristics, so I can't tell.

That could partially explain why most HID ballasts can't run multiple wattages, each wattage of lamps runs at a specific current, even if they share the same voltage.
A_lights   [Aug 14, 2012 at 05:01 AM]
I was fixing some lights today for someone and the valmont 2XF40 RS ballast would not start F34 or F40 U bent lamps at all, I removed it and replaced it with a Motorola rapid start F32 ballast. ..anyways the ballast only worked when I capped the yellow leads and ran a lamp between red and blue
GullWhiz   [Aug 14, 2012 at 01:20 PM]
U lights rapid start are really a nightmare to work with, usually the problem is bad grounding connections, and dirty lamps. Cleaning the lamps can help plus scratching the paint off where the grounding wire is to have better connection helps too.....I know because I dealt with a lot of those, including my old home kitchen which had 2 lamp U lamps. It also works better with F40 than F34 also...
A_lights   [Aug 14, 2012 at 02:19 PM]
yeah they were brand new 2011 lamps, grounded too
joe_347V   [Aug 14, 2012 at 03:24 PM]
Ack! Too bad that it killed a Westy F14 :/ I usually use Altos or those cheapo generic lamps as my test subjects. Razz

Comment 1 to 11 of 11
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