How to hardwire a MLC?

Jumfrey13

Jumfrey13

Active Member
I have been looking around for a step by step guide to hardwiring a wire to a Master Lighting Controller. I think i know what to do but i just want to be safe so i don't fry my equipment. I have a 40 amp/240v wire leading outside my flower room and i have a 8x MLC Helios 12. I think i just need to strip the wire with my electricians pliers and put the wire through the input and tie the black to negative and white to positive and ground to another spot. I just wanted to see a step by step instruction with pics or a video so that i dont screw it up. I've already learned my lesson with electricity when i fried a 14" can max fan by plugging it into a 240v. I saw the vacant outlet on a power strip and it just slipped my mind. No more electrical mishaps!!
 
jijiandfarmgang

jijiandfarmgang

Well-Known Member
Jumfrey13 said:
I have been looking around for a step by step guide to hardwiring a wire to a Master Lighting Controller. I think i know what to do but i just want to be safe so i don't fry my equipment. I have a 40 amp/240v wire leading outside my flower room and i have a 8x MLC Helios 12. I think i just need to strip the wire with my electricians pliers and put the wire through the input and tie the black to negative and white to positive and ground to another spot. I just wanted to see a step by step instruction with pics or a video so that i dont screw it up. I've already learned my lesson with electricity when i fried a 14" can max fan by plugging it into a 240v. I saw the vacant outlet on a power strip and it just slipped my mind. No more electrical mishaps!!
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Be careful. 40 amp isn't enough for say 8-1000 lamps. Also black is hot. I've never seen that box, but I'm assuming its a 3 wire setup. Black would then be hot, as well with white, then bare wire would be ground. In the box and in the electrical panel, the white wire is supposed to be taped with red tape so it doesn't get confused for a neutral wire.

And I'm not an electrician so take that fwiw, and cant recommend you do it yourself.

- Jiji
 
fabizpwn

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Black an red are hot, white is neutral, the Helios 12 doesn't have a spot for ground. Make sure white goes in the middle and your red an black go left and right of the middle white neutral wire
 
fabizpwn

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
If your wire only had black white and ground you have the wrong wire. It can work but is not right.
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
jijiandfarmgang said:
Be careful. 40 amp isn't enough for say 8-1000 lamps. Also black is hot. I've never seen that box, but I'm assuming its a 3 wire setup. Black would then be hot, as well with white, then bare wire would be ground. In the box and in the electrical panel, the white wire is supposed to be taped with red tape so it doesn't get confused for a neutral wire.

And I'm not an electrician so take that fwiw, and cant recommend you do it yourself.

- Jiji
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240x40=9600w-15% headroom=8160w. Assuming the ballast's doesnt spike past 10% during startup or 5% during idle it will probably be fine with the exception of some warm wires lol
 
fabizpwn

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
SPLFreak808 said:
240x40=9600w-15% headroom=8160w. Assuming the ballast's doesnt spike past 10% during startup or 5% during idle it will probably be fine with the exception of some warm wires lol
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Assuming it's 8 gauge wire as long as the distance isn't something rediculous you should be golden, anything over 30' i would consider something larger I run my Helios 12 on 8 gauge about a 20' run of wire
 
jijiandfarmgang

jijiandfarmgang

Well-Known Member
fabizpwn said:
Black an red are hot, white is neutral, the Helios 12 doesn't have a spot for ground. Make sure white goes in the middle and your red an black go left and right of the middle white neutral wire
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Im pretty sure it doesn't have a spot for neutral, only ground. The neutral alternates between phases on the two hot wires.

fabizpwn said:
If your wire only had black white and ground you have the wrong wire. It can work but is not right.
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The wire is ok, just has to be taped.

SPLFreak808 said:
240x40=9600w-15% headroom=8160w. Assuming the ballast's doesnt spike past 10% during startup or 5% during idle it will probably be fine with the exception of some warm wires lol
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I kind of agree, I don't think he will be tripping breakers, but if he is running 8 1ks it will pull a little bit more than 8160 watts.

- Jiji
 
fabizpwn

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Neutral off the pole is just another ground. No power runs through the neutral wire. The bare ground wire is just another backup to the neutral wire in case of neutral wire failure. Both bare copper/green will connect to a ground bar same as a white wire will on the opposite side of the panel. Not to say you can't make a white wire hot but it would never pass any kind of inspection just by adding red tape to it. There is a reason why panels are wired with double ground faults 1 at the pole and 1 in the ground. Now if the wire he has Is all I had, damn right I would make it a 220v wire.
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
jijiandfarmgang said:
Im pretty sure it doesn't have a spot for neutral, only ground. The neutral alternates between phases on the two hot wires.



The wire is ok, just has to be taped.



I kind of agree, I don't think he will be tripping breakers, but if he is running 8 1ks it will pull a little bit more than 8160 watts.

- Jiji
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hes living right on the edge of his line maximum current, digital ballast drawing 1050 each should be fine but not optimal like you saidm, the line will get a bit warm. If its all mag ballast, which i dont think use "soft start" then yeah, might/could pop the breaker during strike.
 
Jumfrey13

Jumfrey13

Active Member
Thanks for the responses. I just stripped the Romex covering, separated the three wires and screwed them in. Gave it a ten min test run and it worked fine. Lights turn on in 30 min. Everything should work out fine.
 
Jumfrey13

Jumfrey13

Active Member
I believe I'm running about 15 feet of 10 guage. This is the second mlc8x I put up in my flower room. I'm using C.A.P. MLC8X to run 8 Advanced Platinum Series 600w (348w actual). Helios 12 is only running 4 1000s and I would like to add one 600 hanging socket to. I already have one 600w hooked up to a 120v circuit. The two hanging sockets go between 2 pairs of led panels.
 
S

Stevie51

Active Member
S

Stevie51

Active Member
fabizpwn said:
Neutral off the pole is just another ground. No power runs through the neutral wire. The bare ground wire is just another backup to the neutral wire in case of neutral wire failure. Both bare copper/green will connect to a ground bar same as a white wire will on the opposite side of the panel. Not to say you can't make a white wire hot but it would never pass any kind of inspection just by adding red tape to it. There is a reason why panels are wired with double ground faults 1 at the pole and 1 in the ground. Now if the wire he has Is all I had, damn right I would make it a 220v wire.
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Saying "neutral off the pole is just another ground" is not taking into consideration that the neutral is carrying the unbalance current to and from the center-tap of the transformer. Saying "no power run through the neutral wire" when spoken out of context is a false statement. Saying "the bare ground wire is just another backup to the neutral wire in case of neutral wire failure" is a false statement. Saying "both bare copper/green will connect to a ground bar same as a white wire" is a violation of NEC. See post #25 in this link for explanation: https://www.rollitup.org/p/10964729/
 
Jumfrey13

Jumfrey13

Active Member
I'm confused as to what that third wire I hooked up to the MLC is. Is it a ground or is it a neutral? Whatever but is, its working
 
fabizpwn

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Its ground, I run the white wire as ground but Stevie is right. The wire I ran for my controller is 3 wire (red, black, white, ground) he is right though the white wire carries a very small current. It all depends on how your wire is connected in your panel. Your white wire will need to be hot
 
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