WARNING! Digital/ Electronic ballasts can get you busted! The A.M. radio test!

stumpjumper said:

Fuck `em, I'm legal in a legal state... I like my digi ballast.. It's a cheap one too..


However you have peaked my interest and I'll do the AM test to see what I'm putting out, I have one of those China ballasts too...


Good post though, I know a lot of us here aren't legal in a legal state...

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Even if you are legal the ballasts can still interfere with your cable causing slowed internet, lag on your remote, problems with ordering PPV or on demand, etc.

And for the record I liked my digital ballasts too, but I like my freedom a little more. If anyone was wondering I did decide to order 2 magnetic 600w ballasts and I will just use the cfls I bought to veg and to supplement light during flowering.

you definitely dont want cable lines near any ballasts. ballasts can be shielded by metal(go ahead put a radio next to a magnetic ballast for a hid. actually while your at it hold it in front of your tv and watch the pretty colors) magnetic ballasts tend to have thicker metal thus shielding more of its magnetic field. digital ballasts have less heavier component and therefore do not need a thick metal. both ballasts digital and magnetic cause interference and should be kept away from other electronics

Gee its amazing alot of people use a digital one and have not had this issue.
Seems like a blanket statement too me that digital ballasts does this(and you really think they all do this)
And ballast was next to cable lines and computer and No such thing happened...

I turned on my F.M radio it was clear I turned on my A.M radio and I could almost hear my digital ballast being emitted out of it its a small alarm clock by my bed and the grow is very near but when I took it to a whole different room the interference was worse honestly however it's only a 150W HPS I used to run a 400w and never had this problem and cable was in the 400Ws room at the time. Very eye opening though but radio interference with a cable company seems to be more of a civil problem not a criminal problem obviously no one wants law enforcement in their homes invading privacy but I highly doubt any judge would sign a warrant based off RF interference.

alphawolf.hack said:

you definitely dont want cable lines near any ballasts. ballasts can be shielded by metal(go ahead put a radio next to a magnetic ballast for a hid. actually while your at it hold it in front of your tv and watch the pretty colors) magnetic ballasts tend to have thicker metal thus shielding more of its magnetic field. digital ballasts have less heavier component and therefore do not need a thick metal. both ballasts digital and magnetic cause interference and should be kept away from other electronics

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Interesting. I just thought that only digital ballasts interfere, but from what you are saying the magnetic ones do as well but their thick metal frames work as a shield. I guess I will do the am radio test on my oldschool ballasts as well.

Again, any electronic device can put out stray rf, espacially if it is failing. Any devices can send and recieve rf interference, and it's even printed on most all devices that send or recieve.

so this applies to cable wires? what if your whole block has FiOS lol

OK guys, I did the test on my magnetic ballasts and here are my results. Right when I fire them up, the radio gets a small amount of static. This static lasts a few seconds and then poof, no interuption. This was from about 3 feet away. It looks like I'm good to grow!

worked for a cable company for a few years what he saw on the graph is called ingress and it means you had a loose connector or cable or a gash in a cable...basically that allows other signal besides cable signal into the lines and can cause problems...I can tell you rest assured there is no way on earth that your ballast caused the ingress and no way you would get caught up for this!!! bet u freaked out though i woulda been paranoid as hell lol

my electric ballasts interfere with my wireless keyboard in the room next door. My keyboard will not control the tv until after midnite when the ballasts switch off. So I know that radio interference u speak of is no joke.

Good info. A while back I had problems with my DSL line. I had many techs come out and none of them could find the problem. It seemed to kick on around a certain time at night into the next day severely affecting the line noise. They ran all new line, miles of it! And it still did not fix the problem. I did some research and found that some HID lights near tele lines can cause interference, so I assumed some large light was kicking on at night, I did follow the lines and could not find anything visible that might have been doing it. After reading this I am sure suspicious that it's possible somebody was growing in a house along those phone lines! Very interesting!

I know there is truth to this because I can't even run treadmill in the house unless it goes through multiple ground filters or it kicks off the DSL. The techs didn't believe that until I showed them haha!

Good Read, thanks

I have two magnetic ballasts, Dish TV and am legal to grow so no worries... But interesting read. Think I'll go check on the ladies.

I tell the cable guy disconnect from my house and test. If the problem is coming from my house I fix it. Nobody comes in my house uninvited correction nobody leaves my house if they come in uninvited.

i have a phantom 400 digital and haven't had a problem i also live in a condo so i share a wall with the neighbor but then agin from what i can tell satellite is the premiere choice around here

old mag ballasts will have interference as well as shitty,cheap digital ballasts. you have to make sure your wiring is done right #1 and use quality equipment or you will have rf leaks all over the place.i run 8 digitals and 4 mags 15 feet from my neighbor and he said he has never had a problem with my grow.i'm legal and my neighbor is cool.long story short,cheap shit can get you busted,ground your stuff well,and buy good eguipment.

anyone have this problem with the newer lumatek dimmable ballasts???? cuz i just ordered one then read this thread lol

omar924 said:

anyone have this problem with the newer lumatek dimmable ballasts???? cuz i just ordered one then read this thread lol

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It is less likely to be a big problem with a newer name brand ballast but you never know until you actually run the test.

Thanks for this post man.. you saved me money on a digital ballast.. i atleast know how to 'TEST IT' now and to look for ones with RF shields only.

thanks!! you could have saved someone jail in this situtaion.

omar924 said:

anyone have this problem with the newer lumatek dimmable ballasts???? cuz i just ordered one then read this thread lol

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lumatek is a good brand.. find out if it has the RF SHIELD.

also do the test the guy said 'AM RADIO TEST' and see if you get it.. then keep your eyes out for a few days when its running. go to your neighbours and ask them.. do you have problems with internet or phone tv? etc.. (make it look like you have bad internet or something) if they say no then all is good!