MH help

[youngcity]

I bought a 400 watt metal halide industrial type light. U know the ones that hang in like a warehouse or lowes. But anyway i hooked it up green to green white to white and black to black. Plugged it in and nothing. I can hear a low level buzzing from the ballast but the light bulb doesn't light up. Even bought a new bulb and nothing. Someone plz help.

[Bodom Children Of]

How can I build my own HPS or MH light system? (http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/966.htm)

try it:thumbsup:

[OmegaVermelho]

How can I build my own HPS or MH light system? (http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/966.htm)

try it:thumbsup:


Cant get much easier then that :D :D :D :D

[youngcity]

ttthe thing is it was already hooked up with the ballast when I bought it. all i had to do was hok a grounded extension cord to tthe three wires coming out of it.

[Pass That Shit]

Even though the colors are all the same, and it would make sense to match them color to color, I would check the instructions to see what colors are for what on each item. The ground wire could be different color for each item. I'm no electrician, but you never know?

I would return it and try another one.

[invision]

usually black is possitive white is negative and gray is ground it hums so it must work to a extent does the socket where the bulb goes look burned or otherwise tampered with?

[Stylus]

check ur wiring. im an electricians apprentice and 90% of the time a fixture dosent work its faulty wiring. mostly likely the neutral(white wire). the green is the ground and black is the hot. double check ur connections, if there is a connection that is loose, it wont come on. has it tripped any breakers since u tried turning it on? anyways its kinda hard to diagnoss from hear say, find a manual online for ur fixture and see if the connections to the ballast are ok.
<3 u all
stylus

[stinkyattic]

Are you waiting long enough for the bulb to ignite?
The capacitor needs to charge first.
If it's humming, you wired it right.
Is the bulb screwed in snugly? Sometimes those big sockets can be tough to screw into the first time. Be gentle but firm.
The ballast may take up to a minute or 2 to charge and ignite the bulb.

[youngcity]

It actually did trip a breaker, so what does this mean.

[youngcity]

BTW can anyone tell me where the grounded wire is supposed to go?

[bejay]

is this light made to run on 110 or 220 or what voltage do you know?
the ground wire is usually attached to the ballast housing or metal portion of the light.
you need to look at your ballast and see if the ballast or wiring coming from the ballast is labeled.

[youngcity]

on the ballast it says it runs on 120 208 240 and 277

[bejay]

and you are going to run it on 120 I guess? you should hook the black to the 120 volt lead and the white to comm and ground the green wire to the housing and if you have extra leads for the 208, 240, 277 make sure they are insulated from each other and the housing.

[youngcity]

Im sorry im not too familiar with this stuff. what exactly is a lead, something inside the ballast?

[bejay]

its just a short piece of insulated wire in multi tap ballast they either have a wire for each one of the different voltages that the ballast can be hooked up to or they have 4 different attachment points to where you can attach your black wire to the corresponding voltage you are using. not sure which type you have but it should either have 4 leads or four diffent attachment points for the black wire.

[youngcity]

ok scratch that after shocking my finger while touching the metal piece insde the socket the light is on. It is just very dim and its flickering. plz tell me u know why its doing this.

[bejay]

are you sure the bulb is good and if you blew a breaker something isnt right or you are overloading the circuit you hooked it up to what else is running on that same breaker.

[youngcity]

the reason the breaker blew was because it was some bare copper wire showing. I saw it spark and the power went out in the grow room. I just flipped the breaker and it was all good. How can u tell if the bulb is blown?

[Stylus]

dark cloudy marks in the glass. find something metal to rap the ground wire around.

[brookerosebud]

mv and mh lights can take a few minutes to light. up to 5 mins.

[youngcity]

Thanks for da help guys. It was runnin at 277 volts so i used the 120 volt wire and its runnin cool. be on da lookout for my growlog.