I have a 1000w MH ballast and it looks as though the previous owner wired it once or twice before. I have not tested it yet and I am considering taking it somewhere to be tested. What I don't understand is the wires coming out of the coils like COM . Then there is the hand drawn specs that came with the ballast. It looks as though the owner had an on/off switch wired some how, because I have the switch that it came with in a ziplock baggie along with some other electrical objects. The ballast case itself was a kind of metal grate, I thought ballast housing was supposed to be solid metal? Anyway, it dosent look terribly bad; maybe someone has a suggestion about referance pics or info on transformers out there. I have the info from the company that made the trans. but it dosent help. Also I might take some pic if that would help to understand what this heavy block looks like. This is my first post so I would also like to say thanks for diyAudio.com for letting us do this thing. Thaks
ballast circuit
The COM wire connects to the neutral wire (white) from your line cord. It also connects to one side of the lamp circuit.
The hot wire (black) from your line cord connects to the switch.
The other side of the switch connects to the ballast power input wire. If you have a multi-tap ballast, there will be two or more of these. You have to connect the one that matches your power source and then individually cap off the others with wire nuts.
But there are some more important questions:
1) What is the input voltage for the ballast? Most are industrial & streetlamp voltages like 277 VAC or 440 VAC. I bet you don't have either of these in your house!
2) Do you have a 1000 Watt MH lamp that is spec'ed for this type of ballast?
3) Do you have a wiring diagram for the ballast, or do you just not understand one you do have?
4) Who is the manufacturer, and what is the exact ballast model number?
The COM wire connects to the neutral wire (white) from your line cord. It also connects to one side of the lamp circuit.
The hot wire (black) from your line cord connects to the switch.
The other side of the switch connects to the ballast power input wire. If you have a multi-tap ballast, there will be two or more of these. You have to connect the one that matches your power source and then individually cap off the others with wire nuts.
But there are some more important questions:
1) What is the input voltage for the ballast? Most are industrial & streetlamp voltages like 277 VAC or 440 VAC. I bet you don't have either of these in your house!
2) Do you have a 1000 Watt MH lamp that is spec'ed for this type of ballast?
3) Do you have a wiring diagram for the ballast, or do you just not understand one you do have?
4) Who is the manufacturer, and what is the exact ballast model number?
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