Rocking CMH 315w &1000w MH/HPS
- Thread starter Sirbgreen
- Start date
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Thought those were discontinued?
The 315W CMH lamps run with their own special ballast, it's the ballast that makes them both more expensive... and better.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
Not that I'm aware of? They are made specifically for pulse start magnetic ballast as a "drop in", no mods, replacement/upgrade.
Sounds like marketing to me.
Philips just wants to make their product line proprietary. In theory, you could buy any square wave ballast or a square wave inverter and run any bulb on square wave.
Considering my ballast cost me $20 dollars a piece and the bulbs were only $52 dollars a piece... It might not be the "new thing" but they are way better than regular MH bulbs by far.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Suppose you could put up a few links to places to get them?
I'm interested in seeing how they stack up against the 860W CDM lamps I'm running now.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=philips allstart
Yep. Amazon has just about everything. Scroll down the page. They even have 860's with mogul socket. Was going to get one but my old 1000watt hps would get too hot in my tents so I went with 2, might go 3, 400/330 watters.
Yep. Amazon has just about everything. Scroll down the page. They even have 860's with mogul socket. Was going to get one but my old 1000watt hps would get too hot in my tents so I went with 2, might go 3, 400/330 watters.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
In order to (nearly) replicate the wattage of the five 860W CDM lamps in my rack, I had to buy a full dozen 315W LEC kits, for 3780W. I haven't installed them yet, because I'm still trying to figure out how to get them all in there!
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
A dozen 315's? Damn!! I like to go with more, lower wattage, lights but damn... you went crazy with it.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I paid less than $200 a kit for lamp and ballast. Turns out that finding compatible square wave ballasts is not trivial and alternatives are not cheap. Philips actually made a better light by making a better ballast- and getting the most out of the economies of scale when building the ballast that's really responsible for why they're supposedly so good.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
From what I've read they're still having issues with going above 400 watts? Something about THD (total harmonic distortion) idk? Square wave seems logical on paper but there are still arguments against it. I'm not that familiar with the technology myself though.
I'm sure the 315's are badass but I just can't justify the price at the moment. $200 ain't bad though. Where can you get these kits?
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Look at the lines in this pic with my 860W CDM lamps running;
That's an interference pattern between the 60Hz of the magnetic ballast and the scanning rate of the chip in my digital phone. What's making the lines? The magnetic ballast runs on a sine wave power curve, so it spends a fair amount of time- in 60ths of a second so we don't see it- running the lamp at zero. It actually IS flickering off!
A square wave ballast spends very little time at zero, so those dark lines in the pic would disappear. This effectively means that the same wattage expended is returning some thirty percent more light.
http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmea860.htm
This link goes to the 860W CDM, but just a bit of surfing will get you to the 315W page.
a senile fungus
Well-Known Member
That's what I read too. Which makes me wonder how they got to the 860w? I think they finagled something to get the higher wattage, but lost something in the process
My 315s kick ass, I will be ordering many more
By the end of next year I'd like to have at least 20 of them. 16 for two 12x6 flower rooms and at least 4 for veg.
I'm almost ready to put some CMH against my Gavita 6/750e DE HPS. I'll harvest everything under both lights and have friend A set me up a double blind smoke test for friend B and me. I think I'll like the CMH better, we'll know by March, lol
I got my CMH from advanced tech lighting. They're offering $200 kits with the Philips ballast.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
From what I understand, the magnetic ballast itself is a forgiving driver, one that naturally tends to damp the harmonics the lamp can set up.That's what I read too. Which makes me wonder how they got to the 860w? I think they finagled something to get the higher wattage, but lost something in the process
My 315s kick ass, I will be ordering many more
By the end of next year I'd like to have at least 20 of them. 16 for two 12x6 flower rooms and at least 4 for veg.
I'm almost ready to put some CMH against my Gavita 6/750e DE HPS. I'll harvest everything under both lights and have friend A set me up a double blind smoke test for friend B and me. I think I'll like the CMH better, we'll know by March, lol
I got my CMH from advanced tech lighting. They're offering $200 kits with the Philips ballast.
There was a company that built digital ballasts for them, but I heard they went out of business fast- seems the lamps couldn't take the output from them.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
I was going to ask if pictures taken under a 315 still have the lines? To me, that would be a real test to see if the square wave really is preventing "flicker"
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
No they don't.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
I thought the 860 uses magnetic ballast? So it would be sine wave also, not square. I thinkThat's what I read too. Which makes me wonder how they got to the 860w? I think they finagled something to get the higher wattage, but lost something in the process
My 315s kick ass, I will be ordering many more
By the end of next year I'd like to have at least 20 of them. 16 for two 12x6 flower rooms and at least 4 for veg.
I'm almost ready to put some CMH against my Gavita 6/750e DE HPS. I'll harvest everything under both lights and have friend A set me up a double blind smoke test for friend B and me. I think I'll like the CMH better, we'll know by March, lol
I got my CMH from advanced tech lighting. They're offering $200 kits with the Philips ballast.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
That's correct. Sine wave, complete with lines- just like the pic above.
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
Cool. So there is some proof to the square wave.
a senile fungus
Well-Known Member
I've been looking at two way relays to flip flop my bulbs. Not too shabby I think
DirtyMcCurdy
Well-Known Member
Yeah. He was wondering how they made the 860's with the wattage restrictions they appear to have with the square wave. I was basically saying they didn't. The 860 is sine wave.