balast fucking up my cable????

i have a 600 watt light n balast. since i pluged it in its fucking up my att u verse boxes and modem. is this possable????

Is it a magnetic ballast ? If so, then yes it could have some interference with the modem and boxes. Is the ballast close to either the box or the modem ?

change your lights out time to fit your tv time

yeah it happens to me as well,its where your grow is plugged into the same circuit/ring main, only option im aware of is to have a new ring main put in just for your grow that will cut the noise/intereference out

Mag ballasts don't interfere with electronics. It is stuff with electronic ballasts that operate on a high frequency. Sorta like having a cell phone next to a set of computer speakers, there is a little "chirp" before a call comes in as the frequency is picked up by the speakers.

Digital Ballasts are known to mess with Hanna Digital pH/EC meters as well.

Snow Crash said:

Mag ballasts don't interfere with electronics. It is stuff with electronic ballasts that operate on a high frequency. Sorta like having a cell phone next to a set of computer speakers, there is a little "chirp" before a call comes in as the frequency is picked up by the speakers.

Digital Ballasts are known to mess with Hanna Digital pH/EC meters as well.

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well in my house it does, running a 400hps n a 600hps and where everything is on the same ring main as its a flat there is a constant buzzing thru my pc speakers/babay monitor and it also affects our cable box as well,

ok so what about grounding the unit? i was reading somewhere saying to run a ground from the light reflector to the balast. what do u think about that?

snoopydup said:

ok so what about grounding the unit? i was reading somewhere saying to run a ground from the light reflector to the balast. what do u think about that?

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cant hurt to try and see if it helps

or alternatively normally each seperate floor of a house will usually have its own ring main, upstairs and downstairs, if your cable box is plugged in downstairs then just power your grow from the upstairs plugs,may mean running an extension lead or similiar though

moving is not an option for the cable box/modem or seperate outlet source.. Its an electronic balast also. im gona ground it and see and try a couple other things.. if nothing works im gona have to move set up. That should be pretty easy if i got to do it. Lucky i ran a dry run as soon as i got the light to check for heat and issues before i started loading the tent with all the pots and shit...

ok so i tried all the outlets in my place and as soon as i plug the light in the t.v well cable starts breaking pixels. so does anyone know the actual cause of this? Im tring to solve the problem but i cant seem to. any help???? the ballast has been moved to the other end of the house even and it still does this. my cable is through att u verse. does anybody have this problem using comcast??? Im thinking of switching companys if i can find the root cause.. anything will help........

dude, as someone who worked for a cable company and fielded these calls daily, i can tell you that the only option is (usually) to remove the source of interference or jimmy rig some kind of rf sheild and put it near your equipment (you can buy these but they're overpriced). switching companies has nothing to do with it. sort of like when you vaccuum and get all the lines. there are different types of interference. plixilating is actually different from a hum bar, which is what you would expect from rf interference. hum is when you get that rolling line up your screen. i would make a small wager that your cable wiring goes through some sort of house amp which is getting fucked with when you plug in the ballast. u-verse requires a lot of juice, so odds are good that they installed an amp to regulate the power (transmission not electricity). find out if you have an amp. if not there are other things we can look at.

The one thing i noticed is that the more connections between your ballast and the ring main the louder the noise gets, i.e. if you have your ballast plugged into an 4-way plug which is plugged into an extension lead which is plugged into the wall then the noise is louder than if your ballast were just plugged straight into the wall.
And cheap timers on your ballast amplify the noise also

robert 14617 said:

Grounding for Electronic Systems some good info

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excellent. while the notion that any "tech" would EVER install such a sensitive cable system WHITHOUT proper grounding completely appalls me, having worked in the business i can sadly say it happens all the time. if not a bad amp or ballast, the only other real option is improper grounding. you can ground it yourself but if it was installed that way my ass would be on the phone demanding a refund for the install and credit for the down time. that's fucking bullshit.

nice advice guys. i was also thinking about an amp for the cable they may have hooked up. i didnt wanna go and check the attic. im sure there is. so i solved the problem by moving to the garage. no interuption when i plug into there so im going to go with that. luckly i havent really set up the set up as of yet just the tent and light to see the heat and stuff... so my weather right now is 40s out going to be hitting low 50s through the month of april veg time. the 60s plus come may and june. so right now my light is gona keep the little buggers warm for the next month or hopefll i can get away with going 30 days into my flowering before ill have to add an ac unit in the area to keep cool the last month of flowering. So guys keep this in mind wen starting your project because i have read a shit load over the last 3 months and no where did i see and information on this could happen. probly dosent happen to a whole lot of people but it does happen. thank you guys for the info. i though my whole project was shot.