ebay lighting at its finest POS...

Whats up guys.....So i ordered a t5 light ballast and lights inlcuded from ebay last week. I recieved it yesterday with broken lamps and not the best of packing. I had gotten over this untill i went to wire it. Im no electrician but i took my extension cord wired negative positive and ground. NOTHING thats exactly what happened i was wondering if their is a relay or something i did not get/order to go between the ballast and the extension cord. Any help much appreciated dont want the baby's to roll over on me thanks...

dapearl said:

Whats up guys.....So i ordered a t5 light ballast and lights inlcuded from ebay last week. I recieved it yesterday with broken lamps and not the best of packing. I had gotten over this untill i went to wire it. Im no electrician but i took my extension cord wired negative positive and ground. NOTHING thats exactly what happened i was wondering if their is a relay or something i did not get/order to go between the ballast and the extension cord. Any help much appreciated dont want the baby's to roll over on me thanks...

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What kinda of extension cord are u using..
What wattage/amps is the ballast

No, that should be it. Have you tried multiple bulbs and an outlet that your positive is live. If so, then you got a bunk ballast or a short somewhere in the hardware.

Sure Shot said:

No, that should be it. Have you tried multiple bulbs and an outlet that your positive is live. If so, then you got a bunk ballast or a short somewhere in the hardware.

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If hes using a normal house hold cord it will NOT run the ballast.. The reason i ask is because u need to make sure the cord can supply/rated for the right amount of amps u need...even if it energized w/no problem if the cords the wrong one it would be a fire hazard... pulling to many amps in a shit cord will cuz it to melt...burn... u kno fire?

also if there is a short.. bad wiring.. or missing parts (believe it or not i once got a HPS ballast with no igniter) I will try to help u with pics if u can take them

360w total at 3 amps.I just took a orange extension cord with a ground and chopped it. Then i took the yellow twist caps ground to ground and so on. The ballast looks new but you never know. Thanks for the speedy replies

dapearl said:

360w total at 3 amps.I just took a orange extension cord with a ground and chopped it. Then i took the yellow twist caps ground to ground and so on. The ballast looks new but you never know. Thanks for the speedy replies

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Do you have composit (white wire) wired to the bigger hole of the outlet side.. and the voltage (black wire) wired to the smaller hole?

ya im sure i have wired right black black green green and so on. I will take pictures when i get home im on my cell phone right now. It sounds like it would make since with the wire getting to hot ..Could someone guide me to what kind of wire i would need to use. The ballast come to me with live wires black white and green.

dapearl said:

ya im sure i have wired right black black green green and so on. I will take pictures when i get home im on my cell phone right now. It sounds like it would make since with the wire getting to hot ..Could someone guide me to what kind of wire i would need to use. The ballast come to me with live wires black white and green.

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90C wire... rated at least for 90C+

yo thanks alot for the help. So i guess what im wondering even if i used one of the "shit" wires shouldnt it still power on and work. Also i only have 5 out of the 6 lights and the 6th is broken upon arrival would that affect anything

dapearl said:

yo thanks alot for the help. So i guess what im wondering even if i used one of the "shit" wires shouldnt it still power on and work. Also i only have 5 out of the 6 lights and the 6th is broken upon arrival would that affect anything

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It might,I have some 4 bulb fluro fixtures & if you leave out a bulb it won't work.

ya thats kinda what i was thinking with the floro idea. Because i have only 5 of the 6 bulbs plugged in.

dapearl said:

ya thats kinda what i was thinking with the floro idea. Because i have only 5 of the 6 bulbs plugged in.

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There's your problem right there!

Even if the wire wasn't the right rating, you would have completed the circuit.

If the circuit was complete, then that leaves either the ballast or the bulbs.

But you failed to mention that you didn't have all the bulbs in.

So now, there is the possibility that the device is wired in a series circuit and all bulbs will be needed to complete the circuit.

So first thing is get a new bulb and put it in.

dapearl said:

ya thats kinda what i was thinking with the floro idea. Because i have only 5 of the 6 bulbs plugged in.

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I change thses fuckin bulbs out of all kinds of fixtures at work... Im a general maintenance worker at a huge company. Check ur light fixture and where the bulbs connect look for wire (any color) coming from the ballast to where the bulbs twist into.. Now thats where the current goes to entergize the bulbs but with MANY flo fixtures the bulbs are wired to only receive current from another bulb.. so look where the bulbs connect to.. if u see NO wires going to each area.. then u need ALL bulbs in the fixure for it to entergize


::EDIT:: Also dont worry about the cord it seems like u have the right one if it DOES have a ground and its the kind im thinking of... Also since its so beat up from shipping check ALL the wire connections (it wont take long) to rule that out