The Ghetto FLIP/FLOP box

just thinking of how to make one, but without all the wiring and money, and effort people put into electrical boxes with relays, switches, plugs, and time delay relays. this is my simplified version AKA ghetto flip flop setup.

this is my ghetto Flip/Flop setup



Supplies

• Ballast
• 2 digital timers (dont get the analog because they arent as good at turning on and off exactly when you need them to)
• two male standard three prong plugs (regular plugs with grounds)
• two female three prong plugs (regular w/ grounds)
• wire splitter
• Butt connectors
• various electrical tools (wire cutters, crimpers)

Assembly
ok so short and sweet. you want to connect two sockets to the same ballast.

cut both cords in the middle. you are going to need to save ONLY one of the END half (the side that plugs into the ballast). because you need the connector on the end to plug it into the ballast.

then wire a male plug to each of the cords you just cut in half. not the ballast half that we are saving for later! Make sure you wire to the ones still connected to the socket's. Make sure to connect + to + ground to ground and - to - .

at this point you should have

• two sockets with wires coming out of them that look like they can plug into a wall outlet. (please do not attempt to do that)
• one end section of cord that connects to the ballast.
• two timers
• and two female plugs w/ grounds
• wire splitter

plug each male plug coming from the socket into a digital timer, then plug the female end into timer. now your getting close to the end.

your gonna wire the female plugs together to make two diffrent plugs one single set of wires. you can do this by either buying a cable splitter at lowes or home depot which sells something just for that or just by twisting them together and crimping them in butt connectors. remember + to + , - to - and dont forget the ground. however you decide to do it when your done, we only need 1 positive, 1 negative, and 1 Ground.

then take that other half of cord we have been saving, from the begining (the one that connects to the ballast). and connect it to the the wires from the combined female plugs. this is easily done with butt connectors or a wire splitter as i said before.

all that is left to do is plug it into the ballast

and example of how to set the timers so that only one is on at a time

Timer A: 12:01 Noon-12:00 Midnight
Timer B: 12:01 Midnight-12:00 Noon

The way it works
basically all your doing is taking the power that comes from the ballast and splitting it into two diffrent sockets, by using the timers installed. you can make sure that only one socket at a time is recieving power and also which socket is on at what time. because without the timers. then you would be trying to power 800 watts of light with 400 watts of power....that is if you were using a 400 watt for your project.

sorry about the half ass one i typed last night, i was so out of it. i had the idea in my head but it came out all wrong....

but dont u need 2 ballests for this set up ?? with relays u can use 1 ballest to light the 2 rooms( at diff times )..

saves on the start up too

i was so scrambled. i didnt know what i was talking about. so i re wrote it, now its much better. please re read it and tell me what you think now.

this i wouldn't be sure of.. y not just use relays, almost the same price as 2 dig timer and much safer