Sounds like ballast overheating. If it is sitting straight on floor try raising it up some so more air can get around it or put a small fan blowing on it.
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Sounds like ballast overheating. If it is sitting straight on floor try raising it up some so more air can get around it or put a small fan blowing on it.
TInyToon, I'm picking up a fan today that I'll point directly at and into the ballast, which I hope helps to solve the problem. BTW, the BD's are at 15-16 inches now! They are getting so bushy, its like they are trying to escape from the grow cabinet :D
Temperatures were in the mid to high 90â??s today, which is cooler than it has been but still wicked hot. Itâ??s dipping into the mid 80â??s over the next few days so Iâ??m keeping my fingers crossed. I bought a fan and pointed it at my ballast, but the light went off again while I was working in the grow room, and this time I know I didnâ??t touch the light or cool tube. It could be the heat, the bulb, faulty wiringâ?¦who knows. The ballast itself never shuts off, but the light suddenly turns itself off, glowing orange and slowly fading. Then, the bulb slowly begins to turn yellow, all the way lengthwise, until it finally flashes on and grows brighter over a slow period. Very strange. The plants so no obvious signs of stress, but Iâ??m going to have to keep an eye on this.
Before I post my daily update, hereâ??s a pic of BD#2â??s roots. Remember the little runt that I was going to pull? Here she is: http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01662.jpg
Daily Update
BD#1
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01646.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01647.jpg
BD#2
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01648.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01649.jpg
BD#3
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01650.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01651.jpg
BDâ??s: http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01658.jpg
GDP#1
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01652.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01653.jpg
GDP#2
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01654.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01655.jpg
GDP#3
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01656.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01657.jpg
Entire Grow:
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01659.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...ey/DSC0160.jpg
Well sorry to say I am not an electrician (my father is hehe) and I have never used a magnetic ballast before so I dont want to steer you wrong but I think I might be saving pennies for a new digital ballast. Nextgen has some really nice ones that are comparable to Lumitek but cost less :thumbsup:
Sounds like a thermal switch in the ballast. No way to tell without hands on to check with meter. When a HID bulb goes it goes so I don't think it's the bulb. I have dealt with magnetic ballast for years and rarely see one go bad. They just need replacing like the bulb that degrades over a year only they last much longer.
The high heat makes me want to say thermal switch.
Thanks Tinytoon and loc for your comments. I went ahead and ordered my own lighting system lat night with a digital ballast, so hopefully that will solve my problems :-)
My partner came over and we did our reservoir changeout. It was 100X easier with the pump, so thanks again for that tip Tinytoon. I slid the lid over a bit, inserted one end of the pump into the reservoir, and pumped at all out very easily compared to lifting each bucket out of the cab, let alone the trouble and possible damage to the babies from transporting them to their temporary bucket while I emptied their reservoir. So yeah, the pump was awesome! I got a peak at the roots with the lids slid over, and some of them were reaching the bottom of the bucket.
The bad news is, in the course if spending so much time in the grow cab today, the light turned itself off every 40 minutes or so even with a fan pointed right at the ballast. The ballast itself has outtake vents, but the force of the fan should still be enough to cool whatâ??s inside I think. My new system should, hopefully, arrive next week. Again, the plants donâ??t show any obvious signs of stress yet, and the light is only off for less than a minute before it turns on again. Iâ??m looking forward to a digital ballast, but Iâ??m not looking forward to taking apart my light system, which is attached to my vent system, in the middle of the grow X_X.
Today we started the pre-flower nuts, adding some open sesame for the first time, and a dose of Big Bloom. One more week of veg, and then I turn my lights on to 12/12. It may work in my best interest, in waiting for my new system to arrive, to set my lights to 36 hours (I think that was the time) of darkness at the start of the flowering stage as tiny mentioned thatâ??s how he starts his flowering stage. If my new system has not yet arrived by the end of next week, it wouldnâ??t hurt to just leave the malfunctioning light off for as long as possible so long as it wonâ??t hurt the babies.
Itâ??s getting harder to take pics of individual BDâ??s, their foliage is merging together!
DAILY UPDATE
BD#1
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01667.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01668.jpg
BD#2
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01669.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01670.jpg
BD#3
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01671.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01672.jpg
BDâ??s: http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01680.jpg
GDP#1
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01673.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01674.jpg
GDP#2
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01675.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01676.jpg
GDP#3
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01677.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01678.jpg
All: http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC01679.jpg
Dont flip till you get that light working right. Odds of creating a hermie are not very high in Veg but flower is a diff story. With the new ballast you are getting if it is the same wattage as what you are using now and if light cord fits into digital ballast then there is no need to tear it all apart and reinstall, if all the same just change ballast out :jointsmile:
If you don't already, get some flouro's of any kind untill your new light and ballast get here. Any good light so they won't freak out. Just a couple compact flouro's and it won't mean much when the big one blinks off. I used a couple 4 foot shop lights for the second week of flower once.
I was out of town all day and just got home. To my complete surprise, my lighting system was waiting for me on my front porch!!! The company I ordered from must have overnighted that baby. I ran to my grow room and sure enough, the light was OFF. I quickly switched out the ballast, and BAM, the light came on almost immediately. I think my lighting problem is solved as Iâ??ve now replaced the faulty ballast. Iâ??ll implement the new light and cool tube for my next grow but for now, Iâ??m just using the new digital ballast. The ganja gods are being really kind to me this grow for some reasonâ?¦.
Anyway, its late and Iâ??m, tired, so I only took two pics:
Daily Update
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/IMG_3944.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/IMG_3945.jpg