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AGH!!!! I plugged both lights in after supper so they'd come on at night and I'd snap a pic. The M-250R's Ripley made the usual audible "CLICK" but the M-250A's Ripley didn't make any sound. I didn't think too much of it though, and left it plugged in until I came outside at about 8:30 to snap pics. I noticed the M-250A wasn't lit. Figuring the plug pulled out, I checked the connections and I freaked out once I realized the M-250A had power but wasn't lit. First I grabbed a night light and plugged it in. The night light worked, as you can see in the pic. It burned out a few minutes after the pic though (it was brighter than normal; it's a 7W lamp but seemed as bright as a 15 or 25W lamp, typical of near-EOL C7s). Anyway, I got confused so I grabbed a shorting cap and swapped the PC out for it, thinking the PC was bad. Still nothing, but I heard the faint hum of the ballast so I knew the fixture had power. So I put the PC back and swapped out the lamp for another one. I though it strange that the lamp would be dead since all my lamps work, but I thought maybe a weld came loose or something. Well, I was let down again when I put a different lamp in and it still didn't work. So I grabbed my multi-meter and tried the voltage on the outlet. The outlet has 116V. I thought maybe the voltage was too low due to the M-250R running, so I unplugged the M-250R and measured the voltage of the outlet again and it was only one volt higher (117V) so I knew that wasn't the issue, as the OV-10IB worked just fine at presumably the same voltage. Both have reactance ballasts too, so it's not like one has better regulation over the other. The only thing I can think of is that I wired the light wrong when I installed it, but that doesn't make much sense either because I've wired this light countless times, so many times that I could do it in my sleep. It's very easy. The black wire goes on the far left terminal and white on the far right. The center terminal is only used when wired for 240V. Keywords: American_Streetlights

AGH!!!!

I plugged both lights in after supper so they'd come on at night and I'd snap a pic. The M-250R's Ripley made the usual audible "CLICK" but the M-250A's Ripley didn't make any sound. I didn't think too much of it though, and left it plugged in until I came outside at about 8:30 to snap pics. I noticed the M-250A wasn't lit. Figuring the plug pulled out, I checked the connections and I freaked out once I realized the M-250A had power but wasn't lit.

First I grabbed a night light and plugged it in. The night light worked, as you can see in the pic. It burned out a few minutes after the pic though (it was brighter than normal; it's a 7W lamp but seemed as bright as a 15 or 25W lamp, typical of near-EOL C7s). Anyway, I got confused so I grabbed a shorting cap and swapped the PC out for it, thinking the PC was bad. Still nothing, but I heard the faint hum of the ballast so I knew the fixture had power. So I put the PC back and swapped out the lamp for another one. I though it strange that the lamp would be dead since all my lamps work, but I thought maybe a weld came loose or something.

Well, I was let down again when I put a different lamp in and it still didn't work. So I grabbed my multi-meter and tried the voltage on the outlet. The outlet has 116V. I thought maybe the voltage was too low due to the M-250R running, so I unplugged the M-250R and measured the voltage of the outlet again and it was only one volt higher (117V) so I knew that wasn't the issue, as the OV-10IB worked just fine at presumably the same voltage. Both have reactance ballasts too, so it's not like one has better regulation over the other.

The only thing I can think of is that I wired the light wrong when I installed it, but that doesn't make much sense either because I've wired this light countless times, so many times that I could do it in my sleep. It's very easy. The black wire goes on the far left terminal and white on the far right. The center terminal is only used when wired for 240V.

051115_003.JPG 051115_009.JPG gol5915_001.JPG gol050915_001.JPG gol050915_003.JPG
File information
Filename:gol5915_001.JPG
Album name:Mike / My Lights In Use
Keywords:American_Streetlights
Filesize:581 KiB
Date added:May 10, 2015
Dimensions:1536 x 2048 pixels
Displayed:243 times
Color Space:sRGB
DateTime Original:2009:03:27 03:02:02
Exposure Bias:0 EV
Exposure Mode:0
Exposure Time:1/29296 sec
FNumber:f/2.8
Flash:Unknown: 5798
Focal length:28.8125 mm
Light Source:Unknown: 0
Make:Vivicam
Model:V5024
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=19325
Favorites:Add to Favorites

Comment 1 to 13 of 13
Page: 1

xmaslightguy   [May 10, 2015 at 01:50 AM]
Maybe one of the wires or connections is bad?
Or maybe a bad capacitor?
Mercuryvapor123   [May 10, 2015 at 01:51 AM]
Maybe a loose neutral?
streetlight98   [May 10, 2015 at 02:24 AM]
This is just a reactance ballast so no capacitor but I'm thinking there's a bad connection somewhere. Possibly I didn't connect the powr/module plugs good enough? I'll have to look into it more on Monday or whenever I have time... The ballast is humming so I can't think of anything else, unless the hot is going to ground?
GEsoftwhite100watts   [May 10, 2015 at 03:32 AM]
Bad cap?
joe_347V   [May 10, 2015 at 06:49 AM]
Hmm, swapped ballast wires. I did that once on a yardlight ballast and I thought it was dead until I checked how another one was wired. Turns out I didn't wire it properly. Laughing
streetlight98   [May 10, 2015 at 01:44 PM]
No capacitor. A connection might be loose, but the fixture itself is properly wired. The only things that could have gone wrong are the supply connections, a wire inside broke, or the plug isn't plugged in all the way (or who knows, maybe a wire pulled out of the plug, since I think a couple wires were loose). I won't have time to look at it today though since we're going out with the family for Mother's Day.
streetlight98   [May 11, 2015 at 08:44 PM]
OK it has been FIXED! Turns out one of the slip-on connectors on the ballast can came off somehow. The connector had some arcing marks on it. I knew the power was making it to the ballast, but somehow it wasn't reaching the lamp. The powr/door plugs were fine. I stuck a shorting cap in it and let it run up and it works fine (thank goodness!). I stuck the PC back in and will plug the light in later and grab a pic.

BTW, those friggin' bees decided to make a home inside the M-250A too. Mad Rolling Eyes Confused So I evicted them and soaked the M-250A with Hornet killer. I'm hoping that stuff will keep them away (and I hope it doesn't eat away at the paint on the light!).

I've never had such an issue with bees before. Our lazy next door neighbors (the ones with the camper, just on the other side of that fence) don't like to mow their grass so there's a lot of wildflowers growing over there and the bees are all over the place! They've started nesting in the shed too! By July though they'll be cooked out of there since it gets well over 100 in there in the summer. The heat is really on these past few days too. It's been in the mid-80s the past two days and it's supposed to be in the mid-to-upper 80s tomorrow too. Wednesday there's supposed to be a cool-down though to the low-mid 70s.
lite_lover   [May 12, 2015 at 07:17 AM]
Ah great it was an easy fix. Smile Are there just bees or paper wasps as well?
streetlight98   [May 12, 2015 at 10:35 AM]
To be honest, I'm not sure. Their nest was about the size of a ping pong ball (but not sure if it'd get bigger if left alone) and the "bees" were like wasps except with yellow stripes (so i think yellow jackets?) and possibly yellow legs too. There are some "fuzzy" bees the size if ping pong balls too (I kid you not! they're HUGE!). The nest has the typical little honeycomb cavities in it.
lite_lover   [May 13, 2015 at 07:50 AM]
Yeah probably yellow jackets if the nest is enclosed with a single opening,paper wasps if the nest has exposed cavities for the larvae. The "fuzzy" fellas are bumble bees.
streetlight98   [May 13, 2015 at 10:28 AM]
The nest was open with the honeycombs visible from the outside. Those are the only kind of nest I've ever seen in my area. So I guess they're paper wasps. So that means they're not really that aggressive? But they're poison is stronger than others? Yeah there were bumble bees too but not in my light. Those bumble bees were HUGE!
don   [May 15, 2015 at 01:24 AM]
Those sound like European paper wasps. They have the yellow stripes like yellow jackets but have the long body like the regular brown paper wasp. They've been slowly making their way across the country the last few decades and they sure like to put a nest everywhere! I've heard that they are an invasive species but are not considered a threat....just a pain in the butt. When they first hit our area in the 90's, I was constantly dealing with them in electrical boxes, fixtures, and machinery we store outside at work. Fortunately I haven't gotten stung yet. I did get nailed by yellow jackets last summer in my yard though while mowing. They like to live below ground and they are viscous! There's more of them than wasps around my yard mid-late summer.
streetlight98   [May 15, 2015 at 11:03 AM]
Ah so they're more tan likely paper wasps? They used to make nests behind my traffic signs that were mounted to the fence (they'd make the best in the 2" space between the sign and the fence pickets since the signs were attached to the horizontal planks on the fence.

These bees seem low key in terms of aggressiveness but seem very active with nest building! I've just decides to leave them alone. At least they won't chew the wires or anything like that. And when winter comes I'll scrape out the nest. I just hope they don't make a giant nest in the whole fixture. How big do those paper wasps build their nests? Just keep getting bigger and bigger or do they stop at a certain size?

Comment 1 to 13 of 13
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