RolledUhhp
Active Member
I picked up a cheap kit to get started, and start dialing in my space, with some bagseed while the good beans are in the mail.
I ordered this Vivosun kit from ebay and have it hooked to it's own circuit in the grow room. It's running off it's own 20amp breaker, which should be more than enough to run two of these kits.
It's a switchable ballast, from 400w, 600w, 1000w, and a "Super Lumens" setting.
The HPS bulb warms up in under 10 seconds, and burns bright and strong. The MH starts to warm up, get's a nice blue glow going, then browns out and shuts off in under 10 seconds. The ballast seems to stay on, fans running, and with the first bulb I left it run for about 5 minutes to see if anything changed - it didn't.
From what I've been reading, this is the opposite of what usually happens. My understanding is that a HPS bulb takes more juice to ignite, so if that is running smoothly, I don't see (from my uneducated PoV) how this could be anything but bad luck on two bulbs... It seems like it WANTS to kick on though, so I'm stumped.
I haven't done any hot restarts, minimum 15 minutes between re-firing, usually around 30 minutes, and the bulb is cucumber cool.
I checked the screws inside the socket, and they were all snug.
I managed to squeeze a finger in the socket, and made sure the tab wasn't pushed down too far or anything. I moved it a ball hair, and notice a bit of a tighter fit with both bulbs, but no change in results.
Vivosun's ebay store has been helpful so far (even though there have been 3 or 4 hiccups with the order so far) and they had another bulb shipped the day after I sent pics and video of what was happening. I've emailed them again, and offered to return both MH bulbs (if they will agree to pay shipping) so they know I'm not trying to scam bulbs. The videos I just took are of the MH failing, and the HPS starting and shining from the same ballast, same everything.
Any ideas on what this could be?
The rest of my short term budget is earmarked for getting my airflow where it needs to be, so I'd like to avoid having to grab another light to get me by while I process this return. The HPS seems to be doing a good job, and I have a blurple that is blowing my mind for how well it's doing. The ladies are LOVING that thing!
My goal is to start gathering materials for an LED strip fixture I'd like to build, but I'd still like to keep this ballast running in the room.
Sorry for the novel, thanks for the advice so far! I haven't grown in several years, and never anything this ambitious, but I don't know how I managed to sleep on this place for so long. I'm a long time shroomery/growery/GC member, and I've been spending hours here pouring through threads, it's nice to have reading to catch up on!
Here's a quick clip of the light, I missed the first half a second, but it starts as bright as it does in the clip, for all intents and purposes the clip shows the full sequence.
I ordered this Vivosun kit from ebay and have it hooked to it's own circuit in the grow room. It's running off it's own 20amp breaker, which should be more than enough to run two of these kits.
It's a switchable ballast, from 400w, 600w, 1000w, and a "Super Lumens" setting.
The HPS bulb warms up in under 10 seconds, and burns bright and strong. The MH starts to warm up, get's a nice blue glow going, then browns out and shuts off in under 10 seconds. The ballast seems to stay on, fans running, and with the first bulb I left it run for about 5 minutes to see if anything changed - it didn't.
From what I've been reading, this is the opposite of what usually happens. My understanding is that a HPS bulb takes more juice to ignite, so if that is running smoothly, I don't see (from my uneducated PoV) how this could be anything but bad luck on two bulbs... It seems like it WANTS to kick on though, so I'm stumped.
I haven't done any hot restarts, minimum 15 minutes between re-firing, usually around 30 minutes, and the bulb is cucumber cool.
I checked the screws inside the socket, and they were all snug.
I managed to squeeze a finger in the socket, and made sure the tab wasn't pushed down too far or anything. I moved it a ball hair, and notice a bit of a tighter fit with both bulbs, but no change in results.
Vivosun's ebay store has been helpful so far (even though there have been 3 or 4 hiccups with the order so far) and they had another bulb shipped the day after I sent pics and video of what was happening. I've emailed them again, and offered to return both MH bulbs (if they will agree to pay shipping) so they know I'm not trying to scam bulbs. The videos I just took are of the MH failing, and the HPS starting and shining from the same ballast, same everything.
Any ideas on what this could be?
The rest of my short term budget is earmarked for getting my airflow where it needs to be, so I'd like to avoid having to grab another light to get me by while I process this return. The HPS seems to be doing a good job, and I have a blurple that is blowing my mind for how well it's doing. The ladies are LOVING that thing!
My goal is to start gathering materials for an LED strip fixture I'd like to build, but I'd still like to keep this ballast running in the room.
Sorry for the novel, thanks for the advice so far! I haven't grown in several years, and never anything this ambitious, but I don't know how I managed to sleep on this place for so long. I'm a long time shroomery/growery/GC member, and I've been spending hours here pouring through threads, it's nice to have reading to catch up on!
Here's a quick clip of the light, I missed the first half a second, but it starts as bright as it does in the clip, for all intents and purposes the clip shows the full sequence.
