Raw MH Ballast Wiring

I think this really belongs in Growroom Setup but I don't seem to be able to post my diagram in that forum so here it is:

I picked up a raw MH ballast with capacitor and I'm ready to wire it up. Can you guys look at this diagram and confirm or correct what I have in mind? Don't wanna smoke a new bulb or my house if I can help it.

Also, if I wanted to put a fuse in it, where would I do it and what value to use?

look here there are some other wireing diagrams you can compair to
http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/wiringlights.htm


good luck-Bomb

Thanks Bomb! Ive seen that onlinepot diagram 10 times and it never registered that I have the black & white wires crossed in my diagram. Exactly the information I needed.

NOTE TO READERS: My hand drawn diagram above is incorrect and possibly dangerous - the black & white wires from the wall outlet need to be swapped white goes to common (yellow on my ballast), black to 120v tap on the transformer (black & yellow wire on my transformer).

In the interest of safety, a MOD may want to delete this thread of mine altogether. I would hate to have someone use my diagram and have catastrophic results.

I got your email, feel free to repost the diagram with the proper wiring.

is this balast made from scratch?

Here is the corrected Metal Halide 400 watt Type M59 ballast wiring schematic. In the first diagram above I had the black & white leads from the wall crossed.

And yes, McBlaze, this is made from raw parts: I got the GE ballast/capacitor off ebay for $30 delivered and the ballast box from BGHydro for $25, a power cord and a cord to the MH lamp was maybe $10 - net result: 400 watt MH Ballast for $65 and a little research to help keep from becoming a statistic. ;)

good job i would buy that in a store after you figured out the wireing how long did it take to assemble?

-Bomb

Well I actually researched it for several days because electricity scares the piss outta me-I was zapped pretty good when when i was young.

Anyway, once I had the concept down it took me 5 minutes to drill and mount the ballast in the cabinet and 5 minutes to nut the proper wires together - it's fast & easy once you know what goes where.

One innovation I implemented was to use a heavy 14/3 extension cord as my lamp cord. I cut it in half and wired the cut ends to the ballast and cooltube...now I just plug the two together once I have the ballast remotely located, nice & easy