unexplainable ballast situation, can anyone shed some light if you have had this issu

Ok, this is weird and i would not post in growers lounge but I truly dont know where else to post something like this as this is a very unique problem or at least I think it is. I have an Ipower 600w ballast no more than 2 months old. But since the beginning I noticed that sometimes the light wouldnt come on until I opened the side of the tent which is completely mind boggling cause how could the light know the tent is open. At first maybe i though it had something to do with the ventilation but the ventilation is on a different timer and it comes on earlier than the light. At first this wasnt an issue as my lights were turning on at 9am and I was usually up by 930 to open the side of the tent anyway. But now that timer set to come on at 6am and like today I woke up at 915 to see that my light still hadnt turned on yet. And probably wouldnt have turned on unless I opened the ten. Again I dont understand this because how does the light know the tent is being opened specially when the ventilation comes on ahead of time. Any info would helpful please. I grow in a 4x4 tent and the ballast is a Ipower 600w and ipower hortilife super hps bulb. Has anyone ever heard of something like this?

Unplug the ballast and gently pull (just a tad) on the middle hot prong of the lamp socket. Maybe it isn't making good contact with the lamp. If not, I don't know.

Check all your connections and cords. If everything is tight, it's probably a function of the piece of shit Chinese dog shit ballast. Aka I-power

Sorry man. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way

I had a problem with my ballast, the light would sometimes come on and other times it wouldn't. Found out the chord was a the max length so I shortened the lamp chord and it sparks up every time now.

legallyflying said:

Check all your connections and cords. If everything is tight, it's probably a function of the piece of shit Chinese dog shit ballast. Aka I-power

Sorry man. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way

Click to expand...

yeah i once bought one of those really cheap digital ballast from ebay. last time i buy before researching. the thing worked great for 6-9 months. then $150 paperweight. now i have 2 quality magnetic ones. if you want cheap go magnetic. suposedly those super hps hortilux eyes only work best with them so its what i wanted to use.

1) if you are using a timer make sure the timer is rates for more than 600w inductive load or it will not power up the ballast and if it dose i wouldnt recommend running it
2) check for loose wires, splits or streched wire
3) check the bulb connection and check the connections on the IEC cable male and female connections
4) bad ballast or bad bulb

Have you tried a different timer?

legallyflying said:

Check all your connections and cords. If everything is tight, it's probably a function of the piece of shit Chinese dog shit ballast. Aka I-power

Sorry man. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way

Click to expand...

I agree. I had my share of probs with a few electronic ballasts. Sounds like that's what happened here.

if you look close there is a little man in the back corner of your tent, as soon as you open the tent he signals the light fairy to turn on the light! I'm thinking it's a loose connection somewhere and the jiggling around you do kicks it in.....

legallyflying said:

Check all your connections and cords. If everything is tight, it's probably a function of the piece of shit Chinese dog shit ballast. Aka I-power

Sorry man. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way

Click to expand...

vein5 said:

I had a problem with my ballast, the light would sometimes come on and other times it wouldn't. Found out the chord was a the max length so I shortened the lamp chord and it sparks up every time now.

Click to expand...

Hey, you know what...? That makes a lot of sense. The ignition pulse is something very high with electronic ballasts. I think it's around 12,000-15,000 volts, similar to the voltage of a neon ballast. But they can only deliver a minuscule amount of current with that ignition voltage (minuscule amps for that split second on start-up) so if there's too much resistance (too much wire) there will be a need for much more current.

Voltage drop causes that need for more current and in the case of very high voltage and very low amps , that voltage drop will increase current way beyond the capacity of the electronic ignition circuit. So, whatever safety it has in place just won't let that happen.

I had a similar problem with my ballast but usually bad fuses do this.In my case tho i tried to plug the light back in after it was on for 12 hours already but it failed to start because it has to cool before you can use it again.Is the ballast louder than when you first got it? If so then it has to be cool before it will come on. Also don't use power cords over 6 ft cause they will also cause this to happen.

legallyflying said:

Check all your connections and cords. If everything is tight, it's probably a function of the piece of shit Chinese dog shit ballast. Aka I-power

Sorry man. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way

Click to expand...

james2500 said:

if you look close there is a little man in the back corner of your tent, as soon as you open the tent he signals the light fairy to turn on the light! I'm thinking it's a loose connection somewhere and the jiggling around you do kicks it in.....

Click to expand...

Then that little man sprays a teeny weeny bottle of Reverse and gives you hermies.