Help needed with VHO & Icecap installation

[NewbieDeb]

We're having much difficulty getting our VHO with Icecap ballast working and need help.

2, 60" VHO Super Actinic with 660 Icecap ballast.

One bulb flashes on then goes off.

Tested continuity and all connections wiht Ohm meter and all connections are within specifications.

Thought it was a bad bulb, so got new bulb. Didn't fix it.

Sent ballast back to Icecap for testing and they said it was fine.

Reconnected, retested all connections before firing, all test good. Turned on power, SAME PROBLEM!!!!

HELP PLEASE!

[Johnnyfishkiller]

Deb, I still have a ballast in my trunk if you still want it. If nothing else you can at least rule out the ballast as the problem.

Isn't an IceCap supposed to be plug and play?

[NewbieDeb]

Originally posted by Johnnyfishkiller
Deb, I still have a ballast in my trunk if you still want it. If nothing else you can at least rule out the ballast as the problem.

Isn't an IceCap supposed to be plug and play?

That's what I thougth too. We wondered if it was and interferance problem between the MH and the VHO.

The only info we get from Icecap, is that it has to be a continuity problem. That the connection between the socket and lamp are bad or a wiring problem.

But ya know, my hubby does this stuff for a living.... Checking equipment for what's wrong when stuff fails IN A HOSPITAL. He's been doing this job for over 25 years and KNOWS how to do wiring and check to see where problems are. He know's his stuff and is COMPLETLY STUMPED!!!

[Johnnyfishkiller]

Originally posted by NewbieDeb
That's what I thougth too. We wondered if it was and interferance problem between the MH and the VHO.

The only info we get from Icecap, is that it has to be a continuity problem. That the connection between the socket and lamp are bad or a wiring problem.

But ya know, my hubby does this stuff for a living.... Checking equipment for what's wrong when stuff fails IN A HOSPITAL. He's been doing this job for over 25 years and KNOWS how to do wiring and check to see where problems are. He know's his stuff and is COMPLETLY STUMPED!!!

I wouldn't think that the MH would ineterfere. Surely IceCap planned for that.

The fact that hubby knows his stuff would make me even more suspicious of the ballast. He knows how to wire it up and check the connections but he can't see inside the ballast. I do have an oscilliscope to look at the output of the ballast if he wants to. He'll have to bring it to my shop though.

[july865]

try the wiring to the sockets. i had the same problem with my new ARO's. i wired 2 VHO 36"x96w. one bulb fired well, the other flickered. i called hellolights and they send another bulb. still wasnt the problem, checked the wiring and all that. their diagrams are not very spacific or detailed. and i too deal with electrical stuff all day long. it cant hurt anything.

[NewbieDeb]

Well, he just went to his shop at the hospital, and picked up flourecent bulb checker from Maintance. It looks like the replacement bulb we recieved is bad too, as it fails to light with the tester. So out of the 3 bulbs we recieved, 2 were bad and only ONE good. The one good bulb, lights like it's susposed to with the Discharge Lamp Tester but the First bad one fails to glow at all, and the replacement for that bad bulb lights only 1 inch around the probe - where it should light 3/4 of the tube (just like the "good" bulb does.

So, for now, I think we figured it out. TIME FOR A BATTLE TO GET THE REPLACEMENT BULB RELPACED!

[NewbieDeb]

Found the trouble. ANOTHER bad bulb. Can you belive the replacement bulb they sent was bad too! I went to a not so local LFS and bought a bulb (not the exact one I wanted, but)
IT WORKED. Fired right up.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

Now to see what the company that we got them from is going to do about it.