My First Vert
- Thread starter JDMase
- Start date
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Magnetic ballasts?
Maxibright CMH ballasts. Yeah, the lines are quite pronounced arent they
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Not all low frequency ballasts are square wave units. My Philips ballasts ran 315W CMH lamps with no bars in the pictures.
I am suspicious, because square wave ballasts are more expensive. If they were going to cut costs, this is where they'd do it.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Yep. Definitely square wave.
So what does this mean? Less efficiency?
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
I heard the bulbs need to be fired up right the first time they are used or the whole colour spectrum is not what it should be.
Mines the same as JDs, comes with the proper Philips bulb, so I wonder if I upgraded the ballast to a proper square wave if the bulb has already been damaged or if it would look any different. To be honest its my veg light and does a great job but if it could do better I would be willing to upgrade. Do you guys think it would be worth the extra? Am I losing efficiency or altered spectrum by using the ballast I have?
Mines the same as JDs, comes with the proper Philips bulb, so I wonder if I upgraded the ballast to a proper square wave if the bulb has already been damaged or if it would look any different. To be honest its my veg light and does a great job but if it could do better I would be willing to upgrade. Do you guys think it would be worth the extra? Am I losing efficiency or altered spectrum by using the ballast I have?
The box says digital ballast, soft start but nothing about waveform but they are made for CMH so yeah I am also confused.
My temps hit 35c all night last night. Glad the summer is making way for winter. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to get an AC.
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
Ouch. bet you were a bit deflated. I hate setting new thing up to find there's an issue. Also with a vert set up theres no light line to put the thermometer above ey. Maybe time for a bigger extractor? What yours current one ?
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
So ive got the rhino thermostatic 5" fan, it has a probe which ive tucked well out of direct light so my actual thermostat is always a few degrees higher due to it being in the way of the light. But even when turning the fan up to 30c (Max) it was still on 100%, so I can only assume it's above 30 but not higher than 35. Not so bad.
Usually when my temps are 30c on the digital thermometer my fan will reduce power when set to around 27-28c. Im not sure how many degrees an extra 315w would add, but a a precaution ive turned up my floor fan to the higher setting.
The new bulb holder I ended up getting is a big old thing. Meant to have a parabolic reflector attached to it. So it could be that it's blocking the air flow from the floor up to the extraction.
It's all fun and games.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Square wave ballasts are the whole reason why 315W CMH lamps are as efficient as they are. Low frequency by itself isn't good enough. The difference is as much as 30%.
Ive sent an email to maxi grow - the people that make the ballasts, so they can clarify for us. These ballasts are the only CMH ive seen in the majority of grow shops here so we will see. Ive not found anything online talking about it.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Philips makes a true square wave ballast for the 315W lamp.
Do they? I wasn't aware of that, at least I hvent seen them locally.
Here's the response I got from maxigrow:
"The Maxibright Daylight 315W Ballast (blue anodised case) is a square wave digital ballast, designed to optimally run the 315W CMH lamps.
I lines that you see on the camera could not prove if it is a magnetic or digital ballast. It would be technically very difficult to make a magnetic ballast that runs the lamp at the correct frequency and square wave.
Thanks
Bill."