Rewiring a ballast. Help needed.

Sean · 2005-03-12T06:14:32+00:00

Hello, I am having some trouble rewiring a ballast. It's an older one that my wife has above her fish tank. The On/Off switch is flaky (it works about 30% of the time) so she wants to set it up on a timer to go on and off for her fish.I am trying to bypass the on/off switch, but I am having some trouble as it is an older ballast.Here's the scoop.It is a 4 foot single lamp ballast.There is the standard black and white wires, plus a blue wire. (I am used to seeing 6 wires in a 2 lamp system.)The black goes to the Power. The white goes to the right hand side of the lamp. The blue goes to the left hand side. Coming from the left side of the lamp is another black that connect to the top left of the on/off switch. The top right of the switch goes to the right side of the lamp. The bottom right of the switch goes to the other connector on the right side of the lamp. The bottom left of the switch goes back to Power.I am sorry if this is a little complicated, but that's the best I can do in writing.I figured that I should connect the black from the left side of the lamp to one of the wires on the right side of the lamp, and connect the other wire from the right side back to power. That doesn't work. (I get a very low glow from half the bulb, but it doesn't go on.)Any suggestions would be appreciated.Here are the specs on the ballast in case they are needed:120V 60hz .55 ampKeystone Transformer Co.Cat no. M4OP40 W Ballast.Thanks a lot!Sean.

Mar 12, 2005 61 Replies

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Victor Roberts 21 years ago

The life of the ballast can be quite long as it is only an inductor and capacitor. And, when you add to that the fact that this high current crest factor ballast destroys lamps rather quickly, you can see that the ballast should outlast many lamps :-)

Vic Roberts http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com To reply via e-mail: replace xxx with vdr in the Reply to: address or use e-mail address listed at the Web site.

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Jeff Waymouth 21 years ago

And of course the short life will be blamed on the lamps! ==Sigh==

;>(} =======> a winking bearded grimace

Jeff Waymouth Fluorescent Applications Engineer OSRAM SYLVANIA jeff.waymouth@ sylvania.com --- business email address

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