First off I claim no responsibility for you nuking your arse, burning your house down or exploding a bulb or electrocuting your hamster with insanely high voltage/current combos. Capacitors can store a charge and release large amounts of current very quickly. Ballasts have effectively 2 different capacitors in them and a transformer. All of these are capable of delivering a severe, possibly fatal, shock, some while plugged in, others maybe not. Don't screw with things you're not smart enough for. Know thyself and be honest with yourself. If you can't do this you can't do this. Find a friend that's not so electro-mechanically retarded to help. I had an electrical engineer help me and I knew effectively what I was doing.
First thing first, DO NOT PLUG ANYTHING IN UNTIL YOU ARE FINISHED. PERIOD. POLKA DOT.
So, you'll need a few parts. You'll need a ballast kit from 1000Bulbs.com. Find a 400W ballast that's suitable. It'll specify a Mogul socket and be designed to work with the length of socket whip you plan to use. Make sure that it's correct for the voltage in your country if applicable. The kit with the bulb (not included in the kit, add it to your cart) costs on average about 90 bucks.
Now you have a ballast kit and a bulb. Yay! Now you'll need to make a visit to your local hydroponics shop and find a remote Mogul socket fixture and cord. These are 20 bucks or thereabouts. Sometimes less.
Go to Lowe's or Home Despot or wherever and buy a 10 dollar standard U.S. Mail steel mailbox. Should cost about 10 bucks. Get some butt connectors for 12-16awg wire (they're probably going to be yellow). Get a 10' or 15' HEAVY DUTY (14ga minimum wires) extension cord or "replacement cord". They're about 10 bucks. You'll need 2x little metal wire holder dealies. They're in the electrical section. They're meant to screw into junction boxes and hold round electrical cords secure so they don't pull out. Splain' to the dude in the aisle and he'll hook you up. They cost 36 cents each. You'll need 1 circular crimp connector (see pics below for more detail).
So far you're into this for about 145 bucks.
You'll need some tools:
Diagonal Cutter
Wire stripper/crimper tool
Electric 3/8" Drill
Uni-Bit
Phillips and Slotted Screwdrivers
Electrical Tape
Here's all the stuff. Let's get to prep.
Let's start by putting in the wire holder where the flag was going to go. It's a handy hole, less drilling. Use the unibit. It'll go all the way through.
Now put the Cord retainer in and use the lock ring on the back side to secure it. Do the same on the other side. That part is done.
Now flip the mailbox over and grab your ballast and the mounting rails and pick how deep you want to mount the transformer. It's heavy as HELL. Seriously, it's like 25lbs all by itself and it's fairly small. As far back in as you mount it you have to lift it in and onto the rails. Determine how far you're capable of doing so and do so. Mark your drill holes for the bracket through the bottom of the mailbox, drill and verify that the holes will fit with the transformer in place.
See. Nice pretty holes all pre-drilled.
Now chop off the female end of the extension cord if there was one. If you got a replacement cable you won't have to cut anything. This is now called the POWER CABLE. Thread the POWER CABLE through the retainer and leave about 9-10" of play to work with. Strip back the outer shell 3" and strip the insulator off 1/2 of each wire.
Now chop the end off the end of the remote ballast cord. These are a funky proprietary pinout that we don't need to richard with. Strip back the black outer shell and strip the insulators just like above. This is the FIXTURE CABLE.
Now take a minute and really look at your wiring diagram on the transformer. It says how to do this and the ballast you bought from 1000bulbs.com was pre-wired almost completely so this is really hard to fcuk up. It'll show a common white, a red lamp a white lamp (which connects to white common) and a bunch of others. I'm going to make this easier. PAY A_FARKING_TENTION_DAMMIT. This is where mistakes will blow stuff up and maybe hurt you.
Coming off the transformer are up to 7 free wires. If you're using 110V standard U.S. household juice, then these 3 wires shown are useless. They're marked 277, 240 and 208. These are for alternate voltages you're not likely to use. Clip off the ends and use electrical tape to insulate them from shorts individually and then all together in a bundle.
These are the important wires.
Take the two white wires coming from the transformer and twist them together. Take the white wires from the FIXTURE CABLE and the POWER CABLE and twist them together. Use a butt connector to bond the cable side and the transformer side of the white wires. All the white wires join.
I BOO-BOO'd here myself. My double check before light-off found it. Luckily. See mistakes are easy if you're not paying attention.
Take the two green wires coming from the POWER CABLE and the FIXTURE CABLE and bond them together with a circle crimp connector as seen below.
NOTE: DO NOT MIMIC THE BLACK/ORANGE CONNECTION IN THIS PIC. It's photographic evidence of my earlier booboo and this is where I found it. It seemed out of place. Imagine that you probably wouldn't have detected the error. It would have been bad.
Connect the Red wire to the Black wire coming from the FIXTURE CABLE.
Connect the Orange wire to the Black wire coming from the POWER CABLE.
Sand off some part of the mailbox where there's a hole and use a screw and nut you have laying around to connect the GREEN bonded pair to the side of the mailbox somewhere. Make sure you expose metal. This is your safety ground.
Wiring is now complete. Yep. It's DONE beyotch!
Now comes the PITA part. take the bolts from the ballast kit and shove them through the bottom of the mailbox so the ends are inside near the round part. Take the bottom brackets and put them into place indexed on the bolts.
Take the transformer and shove that heavy bastard back in there and then stick the top brackets on 1 at a time and screw them down with the supplied nuts and washers. You'll need to do the top brackets one at a time. It's tight in there. Be careful or you'll be getting a tetanus shot. When you're done mounting the transformer then shove the capacitor and ignitor (cylindrical thingy's) into the case, keeping them clear of the transformer so they don't get all heat soaked from it. Close the door man, you're done.
Mount your new remote ballast wherever you want. It's going to switch on as soon as you plug it in. I suggest plugging into an isolated circuit and test lighting it with appropriate fire response gear handy before you get all cocky and just stuff it in your grow room.
FYI, I got 1 bad bulb in my several shipments from 1000bulbs. If the bulb looks like it's trying to light, it is trying but it's blown. Replace it. If it doesn't light at all unplug it IMMEDIATELY and re-check your work against the wiring diagram.
I picked the mailbox as a can for it because the size of the thing is great for heat dissipation. It won't be super hot and fry your capacitors or melt your wires.
DO NOT BLAME ME FOR YOUR SCREWUPS. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Here's Mine:
First thing first, DO NOT PLUG ANYTHING IN UNTIL YOU ARE FINISHED. PERIOD. POLKA DOT.
So, you'll need a few parts. You'll need a ballast kit from 1000Bulbs.com. Find a 400W ballast that's suitable. It'll specify a Mogul socket and be designed to work with the length of socket whip you plan to use. Make sure that it's correct for the voltage in your country if applicable. The kit with the bulb (not included in the kit, add it to your cart) costs on average about 90 bucks.
Now you have a ballast kit and a bulb. Yay! Now you'll need to make a visit to your local hydroponics shop and find a remote Mogul socket fixture and cord. These are 20 bucks or thereabouts. Sometimes less.
Go to Lowe's or Home Despot or wherever and buy a 10 dollar standard U.S. Mail steel mailbox. Should cost about 10 bucks. Get some butt connectors for 12-16awg wire (they're probably going to be yellow). Get a 10' or 15' HEAVY DUTY (14ga minimum wires) extension cord or "replacement cord". They're about 10 bucks. You'll need 2x little metal wire holder dealies. They're in the electrical section. They're meant to screw into junction boxes and hold round electrical cords secure so they don't pull out. Splain' to the dude in the aisle and he'll hook you up. They cost 36 cents each. You'll need 1 circular crimp connector (see pics below for more detail).
So far you're into this for about 145 bucks.
You'll need some tools:
Diagonal Cutter
Wire stripper/crimper tool
Electric 3/8" Drill
Uni-Bit
Phillips and Slotted Screwdrivers
Electrical Tape
Here's all the stuff. Let's get to prep.
Let's start by putting in the wire holder where the flag was going to go. It's a handy hole, less drilling. Use the unibit. It'll go all the way through.
Now put the Cord retainer in and use the lock ring on the back side to secure it. Do the same on the other side. That part is done.
Now flip the mailbox over and grab your ballast and the mounting rails and pick how deep you want to mount the transformer. It's heavy as HELL. Seriously, it's like 25lbs all by itself and it's fairly small. As far back in as you mount it you have to lift it in and onto the rails. Determine how far you're capable of doing so and do so. Mark your drill holes for the bracket through the bottom of the mailbox, drill and verify that the holes will fit with the transformer in place.
See. Nice pretty holes all pre-drilled.
Now chop off the female end of the extension cord if there was one. If you got a replacement cable you won't have to cut anything. This is now called the POWER CABLE. Thread the POWER CABLE through the retainer and leave about 9-10" of play to work with. Strip back the outer shell 3" and strip the insulator off 1/2 of each wire.
Now chop the end off the end of the remote ballast cord. These are a funky proprietary pinout that we don't need to richard with. Strip back the black outer shell and strip the insulators just like above. This is the FIXTURE CABLE.
Now take a minute and really look at your wiring diagram on the transformer. It says how to do this and the ballast you bought from 1000bulbs.com was pre-wired almost completely so this is really hard to fcuk up. It'll show a common white, a red lamp a white lamp (which connects to white common) and a bunch of others. I'm going to make this easier. PAY A_FARKING_TENTION_DAMMIT. This is where mistakes will blow stuff up and maybe hurt you.
Coming off the transformer are up to 7 free wires. If you're using 110V standard U.S. household juice, then these 3 wires shown are useless. They're marked 277, 240 and 208. These are for alternate voltages you're not likely to use. Clip off the ends and use electrical tape to insulate them from shorts individually and then all together in a bundle.
These are the important wires.
Take the two white wires coming from the transformer and twist them together. Take the white wires from the FIXTURE CABLE and the POWER CABLE and twist them together. Use a butt connector to bond the cable side and the transformer side of the white wires. All the white wires join.
I BOO-BOO'd here myself. My double check before light-off found it. Luckily. See mistakes are easy if you're not paying attention.
Take the two green wires coming from the POWER CABLE and the FIXTURE CABLE and bond them together with a circle crimp connector as seen below.
NOTE: DO NOT MIMIC THE BLACK/ORANGE CONNECTION IN THIS PIC. It's photographic evidence of my earlier booboo and this is where I found it. It seemed out of place. Imagine that you probably wouldn't have detected the error. It would have been bad.
Connect the Red wire to the Black wire coming from the FIXTURE CABLE.
Connect the Orange wire to the Black wire coming from the POWER CABLE.
Sand off some part of the mailbox where there's a hole and use a screw and nut you have laying around to connect the GREEN bonded pair to the side of the mailbox somewhere. Make sure you expose metal. This is your safety ground.
Wiring is now complete. Yep. It's DONE beyotch!
Now comes the PITA part. take the bolts from the ballast kit and shove them through the bottom of the mailbox so the ends are inside near the round part. Take the bottom brackets and put them into place indexed on the bolts.
Take the transformer and shove that heavy bastard back in there and then stick the top brackets on 1 at a time and screw them down with the supplied nuts and washers. You'll need to do the top brackets one at a time. It's tight in there. Be careful or you'll be getting a tetanus shot. When you're done mounting the transformer then shove the capacitor and ignitor (cylindrical thingy's) into the case, keeping them clear of the transformer so they don't get all heat soaked from it. Close the door man, you're done.
Mount your new remote ballast wherever you want. It's going to switch on as soon as you plug it in. I suggest plugging into an isolated circuit and test lighting it with appropriate fire response gear handy before you get all cocky and just stuff it in your grow room.
FYI, I got 1 bad bulb in my several shipments from 1000bulbs. If the bulb looks like it's trying to light, it is trying but it's blown. Replace it. If it doesn't light at all unplug it IMMEDIATELY and re-check your work against the wiring diagram.
I picked the mailbox as a can for it because the size of the thing is great for heat dissipation. It won't be super hot and fry your capacitors or melt your wires.
DO NOT BLAME ME FOR YOUR SCREWUPS. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Here's Mine:
