Ever notice the lines when someone takes a pic of their plants? Ever notice how when someone shares a pic of a cmh in proper ballast how there are no lines? Not visible to the eye but the plants see them. Those are gaps in the light available to the plant from the high frequency flicker. A square wave ballast, sometimes called low frequency, longer sine waves with less peaks and valleys. So more light is available per cycle from high peak to low peak in your 120/240v Alternating current power. That's what the 60hz meanslisted on electronics. Ever try taking a pic of a regular tv screen or computer monitor? The lines you see are the gaps from +peak through 0 to the - peak. Both peaks give the power for the appliance, but as it passes through zero there is no power. Regular sine wave looks like a ~, where as square wave looks like (this is going to look stupid but hopefully illustrate the idea) -l_-l_
Does that make sense?
I'll try to find the technical manual if you would like. I'm not the best at explaining stuff, I just went to trade school and did the electrical apprenticeship.
you are totally right about electrical knowledge, when it passes through zero there is no power.
In the circumstances of HID does not produce any light when pass through 0, you are right because HF passes more than LF during same period of time.
but for the light itself, when the moment there is no power, light still emitting because the plasma inside remains the working temp for a short while.
im sure you heard duty cycle, if the duty cycle is low the plasma losses its working temp because of long time no power, there will be a very obvious flickering, and easily catch the line by camera, it happens on both LF and HF.
For both HF and LF ballast, the key is to control a good duty cycle to let the light emitting consitantly.
The low frequency is good for bulb life for sure, cuz HF waves damage the bulb more.
Hope it explains.
