A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

doctorD

doctorD

Well-Known Member
Doing electric can be scary but dont be afraid of it just respectful of it. I had never done any household electric before but I was able to put in a 20 amp breaker and ran that to my grow room to a 4 outlet box. Just make sure you through the main breaker and follow the wiring that is done for the other breakers you will be fine. I dont blame you for wanting to get a pro in to handle the breaker as it can look intimidating when you take the cover off but maybe you can save some money if you pick up all the materials yourself an run everything to the panel and just have him do the actual hook up. I cant imagine he would charge more than an hour labor to do it. Just hit up iam5toned to find out the correct breakers and wire gauge I wont even pretend to know what to recommend. You may also want to look into your local codes so you dont have to have it redone if you ever sell the place or god forbid you have a fire and the ins wont cover it because of the noncomply wiring or something. I think most places make you use conduit to run the wires.
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
Hi there,

I am having some difficulty connecting my Comp Fan to a DC-AC convertor.

The fan has 4 wires, Black Yellow, Green, Blue,

The convertor has two wires black, and black with white stripe (the guy in the shop I bought the convertor from told me the white stripe is +'ve)

I have tried a few different connections but no life at all....pics attached, any suggestions? Help much appreciated :joint:
 

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IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
bad thing about pc fans is if you hook them up backwards the first time, you fry the motor and it will never work again.... im guessing you toasted it. also that fan looks like to me like yellow = positive and black = negative. but like i said if you hooked it up wrong you probably cooked it.. and possibly the power supply as well... hate to be the bearer of bad news...


reminds of the first time i used a pc fan outside of a pc. i needed one in my entertainment center cuz the hd/dvr box was getting too hot and causing problems. i fried three fans and two power supplies before i made it work ;)
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
bad thing about pc fans is if you hook them up backwards the first time, you fry the motor and it will never work again.... im guessing you toasted it. also that fan looks like to me like yellow = positive and black = negative. but like i said if you hooked it up wrong you probably cooked it.. and possibly the power supply as well... hate to be the bearer of bad news...


reminds of the first time i used a pc fan outside of a pc. i needed one in my entertainment center cuz the hd/dvr box was getting too hot and causing problems. i fried three fans and two power supplies before i made it work ;)
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Ok, so when I plug the convertor in, the light is still burning on that so I don't think that is fried. When I first connected there was nothing happening, if something is fried would there not be som eindication of that? cheers
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
DST said:
Ok, so when I plug the convertor in, the light is still burning on that so I don't think that is fried. When I first connected there was nothing happening, if something is fried would there not be som eindication of that? cheers
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not if the motor is bad..... you might notice the power supply get a little warm after a minute if u left it plugged in
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
and the geez in the shop said, "only thing that will happen if you wire it up wrong, is that the fan will turn the other way"

If only it would turn......hahaha
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
DST said:
Ok, so when I plug the convertor in, the light is still burning on that so I don't think that is fried. When I first connected there was nothing happening, if something is fried would there not be som eindication of that? cheers
Click to expand...
you could also try connecting the green, yellow, and white stripe wires together... and black to black. if that doesnt work id say you have a bad fan
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
you could also try connecting the green, yellow, and white stripe wires together... and black to black. if that doesnt work id say you have a bad fan
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And just leave the blue wire un-connected? It was a brand new fan..:cry:
 
jats

jats

Well-Known Member
Hey IAm5toned ,,,,I just want to share my good news with you... I have found an electrician who grows too.... and he is sorting out my shit.... I am very happy about this...he is sorting out my earthing problem ((that's what he said was happening,,because what I didn't mention to you was that the shed and the mains were on the same fuse)) and is building me a purpose built power box with heavy duty timers and all kinds of useful kizmos in it for my grow room,,,as well as us setting up a swap of some choice clones.....
have you thought about advertising yourself in a speciality mag or newspaper/letter in your area for hydroponic gardeners ??? or something along those lines..? maybe that is worth checking out...... I'm sure you would develop a gr8 network of people who used your services regularly :^)
 
SLH

SLH

Member
Hey, just bought a 250w HPS with built in ballast et al, but not wired up. Does it matter which way round the circuit is? Also Im going to seperate the ballast from the bulb because my closer cannot support the weight. I'll be making a reflector, should it be earthed? And finally this was bought second hand, and when I was carrying it back from the post office, it got a little knocked around, not dropped hard maybe 1 or 2 feet, sort of, but it was well packaged and all. Anyway I get home and tear it all open and the HPS has a piece of wire which kind of rattles around, is this meant to be there, and if the bulb appears to work alright, is it? Thanks in advance!
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
No joy, here is the other one I have - you can see the wires were initially housed in that connector which i snipped off, now I am wondering if I should go ahead and snip this off and try your suggestion.......

naturally if i snip the second one i won't be able to take it back for a refund
 

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SLH

SLH

Member
DST said:
No joy, here is the other one I have - you can see the wires were initially housed in that connector which i snipped off, now I am wondering if I should go ahead and snip this off and try your suggestion.......

naturally if i snip the second one i won't be able to take it back for a refund
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You don't have to cut the wires, if you look on that end thing you should see little holes on the side (not the plug), if you get a knife or needle or something, and poke them in while pulling the wire gently but firmly you can pull them out in such a way that they can be put back.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
DST said:
No joy, here is the other one I have - you can see the wires were initially housed in that connector which i snipped off, now I am wondering if I should go ahead and snip this off and try your suggestion.......

naturally if i snip the second one i won't be able to take it back for a refund
Click to expand...
in stead of snipping it off... try holding the 12vdc cord to the black and yellow.. black is neg, ylw is pos
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
SLH said:
Hey, just bought a 250w HPS with built in ballast et al, but not wired up. Does it matter which way round the circuit is? Also Im going to seperate the ballast from the bulb because my closer cannot support the weight. I'll be making a reflector, should it be earthed? And finally this was bought second hand, and when I was carrying it back from the post office, it got a little knocked around, not dropped hard maybe 1 or 2 feet, sort of, but it was well packaged and all. Anyway I get home and tear it all open and the HPS has a piece of wire which kind of rattles around, is this meant to be there, and if the bulb appears to work alright, is it? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
if the bulb is rattling i doubt it works... but they do have 2 wire elements in them.only way to tell is to plug it in though.
the reflector should be grounded...
and im not exactly sure what u meant by 'Does it matter which way round the circuit is?' lol.. can you be a little more specific?
 
SLH

SLH

Member
I think that means no, it doesn't... You know how if you hook an ammeter or a voltmeter up to a circuit one way it will read, say -10v or 10v depending on which way round its plugged, that's what I mean. If
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
so that didn't work either....and there were no holes in the plastic connector to open it up either. at least I can take one back to the shop and start with different fans -you live and learn eh. Thanks for your help Iamstoned
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
drnkrssn said:
Thanks for helping people out.

Right now I have two 600W HPS in a grow tent. My plan is to have a second tent with two 600W lights and use a single set of ballasts. I got some good advice here: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/241239-one-ballast-two-alternating-lights.html. But the diagrams are too small for me to make out. Could you tell me more clearly the exact items I will need and produce a larger diagram. Thanks
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well first of all the diagram in that thread will not work. it missing a timed relay output to restart the ballasts when the cycle switches from tent to tent.

second of all, in order to run your ballast that long, it really needs to have a giant heat sink, or a small fan blowing directly on it.. preferably both.

third of all, to do this right, the relay/control circuits need to be low voltage.. like 12 or 24v dc. this is because 120v timed relays are really expensive.

i have no problem drawing a schematic for you but you need to understand your looking at several hundred dollars in parts to do this right. the relays needed to switch the load on a ballast are not cheap! your also looking at a time clock and a seprate timer relay... let me know if you still want it, it will be a few hours before i have timt to draw one up
 
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