anybody know anything about bulb flickering?

[JNG567]

EVC 250 watt electronic balast, hamiton 14 k bulb. why is it flickering??

[mbort]

Nick,

Sounds like a loose connection or potentially a bad bulb. But most likely a loose connection, either bulb is not seated in socket or wire is making poor connection

How long has it been flickering? And has it done it since you first hooked up the bulb?

[mbort]

other potential (but unlikely) possibility is a bad ballast.

[JNG567]

hmmmm its been flickering for a couple weeks but its seems worse now. I will check all connections.

[JNG567]

its got those quick connects and all seem fine

[JNG567]

oh and yea it has kinda done it sinse I hooked up the bulb

[mbort]

very possibly a bad bulb or ballast. I would borrow a bulb from someone else (that they know works fine) and try it out, if it also flickers then its probably a bad ballast. If it doesn't, signs point towards bad bulb.

[JNG567]

well I took the bulb out and put it back in and it was better all day?

[JNG567]

hey do you have a bulb I can try to see if its the ballast?

[manderx]

i don't know of anyone in bburg with a 250w SE setup (everyone seems to be DE). jeremy at something fishy (the roanoke store) might have some in his bulb pile, but he's out of town for the week. i'll try to grab you one next week, i'll see him at the roanoke club meeting.

[JNG567]

alright cool I appreciate it matt

[mbort]

Sorry .. I don't have a bulb, and like Matt said, not sure of anyone in Bburg that uses 250 SE (I used to, but went to DE). Its strange that the bulb stopped flickering after taking it out and putting it back .. sure sounds like a connection problem with the bulb in the socket (i.e. not seated in the socket)

[JNG567]

well it still flickers

[manderx]

how is the ballast wired to the socket? while i don't have a bulb to throw in there, it might be easy enough to swap in one of my icecap ballasts.

[JNG567]

its those quick connection plug things. I contacted justin at diyreef.com and he informed me both buld and ballast are still covered by warranty so I just need to figure out what the problem is. Thanks for the help matt

[manderx]

ok, bring your lights to the meeting and we'll figure it out afterwards at my place. i just hope it's the same quick disconnect as mine. i have both the PFO and SLS quick connects, i imagine DIYreef uses one of those.

[manderx]

or you could show up at my place at 6:30 or so if you want to try it before the meeting.

[JNG567]

ok, I actaually messed with the wires where it is grounded and Im not seeing any flickering today. Im going to see what it does now. do you think it could possible have not been grounded good enough??

[mbort]

Hey Nick .. remember when I asked you up front about loose connections (?) :)

Hopefully this is your problem, but at least it sounds as though if the bulb or ballast are bad, they are going to replace it for you under warranty.

[JNG567]

yea must have been that ground wire not being connected good enough, the light even looks brighter now????

[JNG567]

well its back at it again, ha