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Custom Enclosed Ballast 
Took a 50w MH ballast I had lying around and installed it in this aluminium project box to make this enclosed ballast. It's currently used with my 75w Eye Merc in my Powerlite gumball. I didn't want to modify the gumball nor the ballast above the lamp so I remote mount it in this custom box.  The ignitor is installed but wired out of circuit. 
Keywords: Gear

Custom Enclosed Ballast

Took a 50w MH ballast I had lying around and installed it in this aluminium project box to make this enclosed ballast. It's currently used with my 75w Eye Merc in my Powerlite gumball. I didn't want to modify the gumball nor the ballast above the lamp so I remote mount it in this custom box. The ignitor is installed but wired out of circuit.

COL_20170504_202426.jpg COL_IMG_6997.JPG COL_IMG_6265.JPG COL_IMG_3270.JPG COL_IMG_2771.JPG
File information
Filename:COL_IMG_6265.JPG
Album name:joe_347V / Lighting Components
Keywords:Gear
Filesize:257 KiB
Date added:Aug 11, 2016
Dimensions:1920 x 1440 pixels
Displayed:197 times
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=20917
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Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1

lite_lover   [Aug 11, 2016 at 06:34 AM]
Very nice custom enclosure Joe!
streetlight98   [Aug 11, 2016 at 04:02 PM]
AWESOME! Love the foil nameplate. I tried doing that with the school printer but the foil got creased and the rollers made marks in the foil so the labels came out horribly. Neutral And of course I have a stinkjet printer so that's no good lol. Did you use standard aluminum foil or is this thicker heavy duty foil or something?
joe_347V   [Aug 12, 2016 at 04:08 AM]
Thanks! I also like the foil labels but they're a PITA to print. My printer also tends to pinch the foil and make crease marks. You can see one of the marks on the right side of the tag. I use standard aluminium foil but I wonder if I can find some thicker foil to print on.

Apparently you can use a inkjet printer to print on aluminium but you'll need to coat it with a coating to absorb the ink before printing.
streetlight98   [Aug 12, 2016 at 02:04 PM]
Yeah they do sell heavy-duty aluminum foil at the grocery store, which is thicker. It might do a little better. Ah how many takes did it take you? I actually saved a piece of gold foil from a candy wrapper (yes, crazy, LOL, but I wanted the gold foil to make a HPS NEMA tag) but I need to wait until I can get my hands on a laser printer and if I screw up, that's it, since I only have enough foil for one NEMA tag.
vaporeyes   [Aug 21, 2016 at 01:03 AM]
Very nicely done and I love the foil label too.
streetlight98   [Aug 21, 2016 at 02:56 PM]
One thing I noticed, the foil label says 70W but ballast is 50W? Or is the same ballast sometimes used for both lamps? I should get some low wattage PSMH ballasts and lamps. I got that 70W PSMH deck fixture we never use. I could convert it to incandescent...
joe_347V   [Aug 22, 2016 at 07:30 AM]
Thanks, the "70W" is actually a typo on my part. Laughing I meant to type in 75w instead lol. 50w PSMH ballasts can also run 75w mercury lamps at close to rated current. Yeah the low wattage PSMH ballasts are pretty neat, useful for indoor HID fixtures. I suppose you could take the 70w PSMH ballast from your deck light and then put a HPS or a PL ballast inside or convert to incandescent and stick a LED in Razz.

Still looking for a cheap magnetic 39w CMH ballast for running 50w MV lamps, they seem to be quite rare. All of mine are electronic which you can't easily disable the ignitor on. Electronic MV ballasts exist though, I have a 80w fixture that has one.
streetlight98   [Aug 22, 2016 at 02:48 PM]
Ah I see. Yeah I'll probably just buy a 100W= LED and stick it in place of the 70W PSMH lamp and remove the gear and wire the socket directly to the button PC and mains. I'd like to find an empty cobrahead (or a cobrahead with a non-120V or non-240V ballast like my boxy OV-15 had) and convert it to 70W PSMH. I love my 85W induction boxy OV-15. The light from it is crisp like CMH and soft on the eyes like MV.

Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1