Well, never did end up trying the choke on the cord. Bluelab decided my issue wasn't warranty-able but I learned the newer meters (shipping in the last 6 months) all have a GREY cord for the temp/ec probe that is now shielded. The old cord is WHITE, thinner and unshielded. Since Bluelab wasn't willing to help me out in anyway (besides telling me to move my ballast 15 feet away in a room that's 10x10 lol u do the math) I was considering selling the meter and getting a Hanna that is advertised digital ready (shielded). Luckily the store I buy my supplies from was awesome and salvaged me a temp/ec probe with a grey cord from a recent defective meter they were going to scrap. I'll provide a little info about the project here in case anyone else is ever stuck in my predicament.
The old cord (white casing) has 4 wires, White, Black, Red, and Blue
The new cord (grey casing) has 5 wires, White Black, Red, Green and a bare aluminum wire that is attached to the aluminum shielding
Obviously I was a bit confused as to why they would change the blue to green, but figured the other 3 must match up, not so. After some trial and error I figured out the correct pattern.
Old wire -> New wire
White --- Black
Black --- White
Red --- Red
Blue --- Green
The last problem I encountered was a lack of a grounding point for the shielding. I decided to just wrap it back around the wire and tape it off to ensure it made no contact with anything. I thought this may defeat the whole thing but to my suprise I have yet to see the errors I was in the past. Seems the aluminum shielding wrapped around the wires was really all that was needed.
The Bluelab Guardians are fixed now, so don't be worried about buying one, just be SURE it has the grey cord for the temp/ec probe before you buy. Online orders you might wanna call them up to be sure. If you have magnetic ballasts it doesn't matter, but even the best shielded digital ballast will still leak EMF interference from your lamp cord set, socket and bulb.
