SolisTek, Europe and my utter frustration!!!

HashSmoke420

HashSmoke420

Active Member
As may the title be just descriptive enough ... It does not disclose the horrors I am enduring ...

Plain & simple I liked ST and upgraded to a 1000w 6K colored digital MH and I bought a digital ST1240-EU ballast for it ... After 3 months of duty and almost finishing my plants it suddenly one day went dark!!!
Needless to say I re-wired my whole apartment, been talking & testing with both SolisTek and my local grow shop to whom both I believe I have turned to be a pain in the ass 'cause nothing worked.

Today I went to the shop to push lastly and they gave me the most recent experimental bulb of SolisTek - great! It worked! In their shop ... I went home I tried to run it - no success ... While all of my magnetic ballasts work ... Wohohow! The thrill ...
So for all those wandering between digital and magnetic ... GO DIGITAL FOLKS it's all true ... IF your electrical can support the digis? Yeah ... on paper and meters my electrical can! In reality it does not seem to ... Fucking third world country ...

Trolls go troll, I was about to go mad if I did not share this with anyone ...
 
Jaybodankly

Jaybodankly

Well-Known Member
It might help to get a computer UPS (Uninterruptible Power supply). Besides some backup power. It conditions and smooths out the spikes. If it helps you feel better. As long as the ballast is working. The ballast is acting as it should and shuts down when the power is not the correct range. I have a few soli-tek ballasts and have been happy with their performance.
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
HashSmoke420 said:
As may the title be just descriptive enough ... It does not disclose the horrors I am enduring ...

Plain & simple I liked ST and upgraded to a 1000w 6K colored digital MH and I bought a digital ST1240-EU ballast for it ... After 3 months of duty and almost finishing my plants it suddenly one day went dark!!!
Needless to say I re-wired my whole apartment, been talking & testing with both SolisTek and my local grow shop to whom both I believe I have turned to be a pain in the ass 'cause nothing worked.

Today I went to the shop to push lastly and they gave me the most recent experimental bulb of SolisTek - great! It worked! In their shop ... I went home I tried to run it - no success ... While all of my magnetic ballasts work ... Wohohow! The thrill ...
So for all those wandering between digital and magnetic ... GO DIGITAL FOLKS it's all true ... IF your electrical can support the digis? Yeah ... on paper and meters my electrical can! In reality it does not seem to ... Fucking third world country ...

Trolls go troll, I was about to go mad if I did not share this with anyone ...
Click to expand...
I was gonna buy a Solistek ballast but they are out of stock in most places and they are introducing a new model soon.
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
Jaybodankly said:
I run mine with a splitter to two-600W bulbs.
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yeh, I want to buy a splitter and run it off my Nanolux 1200 watt ballast, but Solistek claims it won't work with other ballasts. Manufacturers lie all the time so I don't know whether to believe it or not. I hate to buy one and find out it does'nt work. The nanolux is better than the solistek in that it could run both bulbs at 600 watts each.
 
Jaybodankly

Jaybodankly

Well-Known Member
One day when I have another brand-name ballast around I will test that claim. It will connect together. Nothing stop it there. whether it lites up is another story.
 
kingtitan

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
yeh, I want to buy a splitter and run it off my Nanolux 1200 watt ballast, but Solistek claims it won't work with other ballasts. Manufacturers lie all the time so I don't know whether to believe it or not. I hate to buy one and find out it does'nt work. The nanolux is better than the solistek in that it could run both bulbs at 600 watts each.
Click to expand...
as far as I know ( while doing ballast research when I as buying a month ago) Solis Tek was the only ballast that could split power to two bulbs. at least advertised that way.
 
kingtitan

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
It can only do it with a splitter.
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Correct but the ballast microprocessor is what is doing the power handling from the splitter. If the chip is not programed to do this I have no idea of the outcomes. I don't think its as simple as just splitting the power cable.

This is the difference between Digital (smart) ballasts and just a normal Electronic ballast (no microprocessing)
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
kingtitan said:
Correct but the ballast microprocessor is what is doing the power handling from the splitter. If the chip is not programed to do this I have no idea of the outcomes. I don't think its as simple as just splitting the power cable.

This is the difference between Digital (smart) ballasts and just a normal Electronic ballast (no microprocessing)
Click to expand...
I don't know but I would say the splitter is doing all the processing. I have a dual 315 ballast cheapie from china so I don't think the capability costs a lot.
 
kingtitan

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
I don't know but I would say the splitter is doing all the processing. I have a dual 315 ballast cheapie from china so I don't think the capability costs a lot.
Click to expand...
Just saw your ballast is 1200w, maybe it works for your specific ballast since its listed as 1200w (or in the case of 315w). I don't think it would go too well using one of the iPower/Vivosun 1000w ballast for 90 bucks on amazon will run 2x 600 watt on superlumen (+10-20%) setting. without a processor its just sending pre-determined pulses to the bulb to make sure its staying lit. with microprocessor units like Solis Tek and Phantom, the ballast is actually monitoring the bulbs specs and reacts to it.

Not saying both of us are right or wrong, its the manufacturers that don't explain their units and capabilities in detail, especially all this dimming shit on the ballasts, we all know now that dimming shifts spectrum and it should not be used especially if you fork over the extra $$ for high end bulbs like hortilux. might as well just use cheapos and let them get damaged and replace every grow. Some ballast dim features say you should use the equivalent wattage bulb for the dim setting (1000w at 75% = 600 watt) but if you accidentally change the setting to 100%..boom.
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
kingtitan said:
Just saw your ballast is 1200w, maybe it works for your specific ballast since its listed as 1200w (or in the case of 315w). I don't think it would go too well using one of the iPower/Vivosun 1000w ballast for 90 bucks on amazon will run 2x 600 watt on superlumen (+10-20%) setting. without a processor its just sending pre-determined pulses to the bulb to make sure its staying lit. with microprocessor units like Solis Tek and Phantom, the ballast is actually monitoring the bulbs specs and reacts to it.

Not saying both of us are right or wrong, its the manufacturers that don't explain their units and capabilities in detail, especially all this dimming shit on the ballasts, we all know now that dimming shifts spectrum and it should not be used especially if you fork over the extra $$ for high end bulbs like hortilux. might as well just use cheapos and let them get damaged and replace every grow. Some ballast dim features say you should use the equivalent wattage bulb for the dim setting (1000w at 75% = 600 watt) but if you accidentally change the setting to 100%..boom.
Click to expand...
I'm using the 6/750 gavita bulbs which are supposed to be able to run at virtually the same efficiency and spectrum at 600 as full power 750
 
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