grounding my new blueline electronic mh ballast?

[Halifax_Bluenoser]

i just got my new 250 watt blueline electronic ballast. i'm not certain on how to ground it. there are 3 wires coming from the ballast. the white and black go to the mh lamp socket (there are only2 wires coming from the lamp socket). the third wire is green and yellow, the grounding wire. where should i connect it? your advice would be very much appreciated.

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Dan MacLellan

Nova Scotia- Canada's Ocean Playground!

[Halifax_Bluenoser]

the problem is perplexing....

i had 4 vho's connected to an icecap 660.
also 3 - 175 watt mh lamps with coil ballasts. these were working fine for 6 months. all lights are operated by x10 controllers.

i am simply replacing the middle 175 watt mh coil ballast with a blueline 250 watt electronic ballast and iwasaki 6500 lamp.

the blueline has a three prong plug so i assume the ballast itself is grounded. on the output side of the ballast are three wires. a black, a white and a green/yellow wire. the black and white get wired to the lamp socket. the green/yellow is the ground. i wired it to the lamp reflector. here's what happens.

if i plug in the blueline ONLY- it works fine- the lamp lights. but nothing else will light, in fact the x10 modules don't work either.

as soon as i unplug the blueline ballast- all the other lights and x10 modules work fine again. these lights are also grounded to my reflectors. the coil ballast cases are also grounded to the power supply wall plugs.

I'm stumped- any ideas out there???

Thanks


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Dan MacLellan

Nova Scotia- Canada's Ocean Playground!

[Doug]

Hi Dan,

There was a post about this problem before but I cannot remember where I saw it. The Blueline causes a lot of interference with X10's but I also heard that someone was making a filter to resolve the problems.

I will search for the info and put it here as soon as I find it.

Here is the link Dan. I hope this helps.
http://www.reefcentral.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001669.html

Doug

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Doug's Reef and Fish Page (http://38.222.244.200/dougw)

[This message has been edited by Doug (edited 03-11-2000).]

[Halifax_Bluenoser]

thanks doug.
you were right. the x10's were not functioning as soon as i turned on the blueline ballast. as long as the ballast is on- none of my x10's work. i had to unplug them all. bummer. so much for automation. now i'll have to try and acquire a filter. either that or exchange my blueline for a different brand ballast. geesh - for a simple upgrade of 1 light i have to take 2 steps backwards.

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Dan MacLellan

Nova Scotia- Canada's Ocean Playground!