Please help. Need some ballast guru's!!!!

I just picked up a 400w mh fixture, and a ballast from my buddy. I'm not sure how to wire it up. The ballast has a black red white and yellow wires. Any idea witch goes where? The fixture has a green, black and white wires. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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the color of the wires isnt too important, you need to find out what they are connected to, judging by your description it is a home made job from the get go. your going to need to find out which are the positive, negative, ground and etc. without pics of what you got and stuff it is impossible to tell you what to do.

 

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Well the bulb lit up for about a minute or two then shut off. I think I'm gonna pass on this light and save for something else. It's just hard with 3 boys and a wife in school. I was hoping for a break.


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Anyone have any ideas?


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What kind of ballast is it? Should have a wiring diagram attached somewhere...

 

Painted ballast... No diagram..


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So how do even know it is a 400W ballast?

Is it electronic or magnetic?

 

A logical starting point is finding out what the conductors on the ballast side do. As for the bulbs, it's generally standard for the black and white to go on either side of the bulb, with the green being ground.

As for the ballast, the only way you're going to know for sure in the absence of a wiring diagram; is to determine what the voltage to ground is for each of the 4 leads, and the voltage from phase to phase for them as well. This would not only require a voltmeter, but also the requisite knowledge in using one.

Once you know this, it will be imperative to know (as Wiggy asked,) if this is magnetic or electronic. If magnetic, you'll need an ignitor module. If electronic, you won't.

Not to sway you, but this would probably be best left to an electrician. It's not uncommon for ballasts running 400W lights to experience startup voltages that range in the thousands. This is NOT something you want to get hit with. Trust me.

Again--not to sound like a doomsayer, but this is VERY dangerous stuff we're talking here, and if you continue on, tread very lightly, sir.

 

typically one side of the ballast will be power in, and then there will be power out.

power in:

black = power from wall outlet
white = neutral from wall outlet
green = ground from wall outlet

power out to bulb:

then you will have a few other wires, green will be ground for the fixture

red will be the power side of the light, and white will be the neutral. If the fixture has a switch side I will need to see it.

This only applies to a 120 volt ballast.