I have a 660 which I moved from my previous residence all wired the same and was working fine, I pluged it in at my new house and it comes on for a second and goes out everytime??? I took it to my lfs and pluged it into there harness and it works fine, they had the same problem at a customes house and brought both of the ballasts they had tried and both worked on the harness at the lfs???? they tried new harness endcaps and bulbs at the customers house and none worked, wondering if someone has seen this before?? possibly an electrical outlet problem?? and ideas ??? I will test further
Icecap 660 questions????/problem
- Thread starter WA coral
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matts125
Well-known member
I had this happen once, just to realize a wire had be crossed. are you sure its wired right?
Matt
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Loose bulbs will also do that
Scooterman
Well-known member
Have you tested the outlets, are they grounded?
These harness are plug in, the end cap connections may not be made up properly, check your connections, do it on the floor first before installing if necessary.
These harness are plug in, the end cap connections may not be made up properly, check your connections, do it on the floor first before installing if necessary.
Well I brought home a new harness and made it up on the floor with one new bulb and same thing happens on for a second and off so I am going to wire my whole setup in at the lfs where the ballast has worked fine with their harness and see what happens if it works I have a home problem if not I have another bad bulb or end cap, so much trouble for some vhos
roscoe
Well-known member
Yeah I had that same problem. It kept on going off and the last time I plugged it in, luckily I was a good distance away from the ballast cuz that thing shorted out and basically blew up and it spitted out all this very hot liqiud everywhere I could've gotten burned really bad if I was closer so be careful and test it from a good distance.
Sweet sounds like I am on my way to severe burns, I have pluged that thing in so many different ways tring to test it with different bulbs harnesses and end caps and plugs with the same result. there is only one place in the world that it works and that is at my lfs with their setup I just unplug their ballast and plug mine into their whloe setup and it works great any other place it wont work any how any way I even went to the lfs today and wired and brand new harness end caps and bulbs all to my ballast and it wouldnt work???? but still works on their reef tank lighting already wired
roscoe
Well-known member
I say trade it with your lfs if they are willing to and try out a new ballast at your home and see what happens. I would'nt risk the chance of that thing spewing hot liquid all over you, you might end up looking like a burnt victim lol (not that would be funny) but better safe than sorry.
Scooterman
Well-known member
So your saying your ballast works on their set-up Or you tried your ballast & wiring harness on one of their outlets?
If your ballast works but not your harness & your harness is all new then you most probably have a wire crossed on your harness. If you want me to help I will need you to take close up pics. of your connections, end cap connections so I can see how exactly it is wired. I bet your simply not wiring it right. How many lamps are you using? Each combination, either 2, 3, or 4 can be used with this ballast but each situation is wired differently.:idea:
My ballast works only with the setup at the lfs no where else. the maitnence guys there are having the same problem as me at a customers house and we have been trouble shooting this for a week with icecap and an electrician with no sucess. I have had a total of 4 660 ballasts side by side using 4 different harnesses 4 sets of bulbs with 4 sets of endcaps in 2 different configureations (4 bulb and 3 bulb) all 4 ballasts work on the harness bulbs and endcaps that are wired into one of their fish tanks. But none of the 4 of them will work anywhere else, so one of the setups is mine which has been wired for over a year permenantly into my hood( working great) and just after we moved I starting having this problem, one of the other setups is a customers and has been running great for 3 years plus and just started having this problem but nothing has changed in his situation and the last setup is a brand new harness ballast endcaps and bulbs which we are having the same problem with and any combonation of these systems will not work we are following the rcomended wiring diagram for all of these setups including copying the setup at the lfs with no sucess...... I have found one new thing and that is with my ballast and just the harness( not connected to anything), when I plug it into power you can hear the ballast come on and go off just the same as when bulbs and endcaps are connected also the same thing happens with a brand new harness fresh from the factory ( all wires seperated, none touching) and you can see a little tarnish on the pins for connecting the harness to the ballast only on the hot and neutral leads where there seems to be a short but this happens with a new harness, my harness and a third 3 bulb harness, it only works on the on at the lfs. if you have any diagrams I dont that may be helpful that would be great but I cant explain the ballast going on and turning off when only connected to any of the 3 harnesses only I am going to check power sorrces today to see if there is even a slight difference I think that possibly my ballast and the others are getting weak
Scooterman
Well-known member
Grounding, If you went through all that, I would check your house ground, you can get it tested or buy a cheapy at a home center. You can meter it buy comparing the line with neutral voltage & comparing line with ground, in theory they should be the exact same voltage but at least very close to each other, I checked mine last night
It was 1.21 VAC difference.
It was 1.21 VAC difference.dtupperjr
New member
Any update? Having same issue with a pair of 430's. Wiring worked and then didn't and nothing has changed. Contiunity tests fine.
ecobalance
lifetaper
Icecap
This ballast is designed to flash all working bulbs when first turned on as a bulb check,and will let you know one of the bulbs is burnt.It won't work at all if one bulb is bad.
This ballast is designed to flash all working bulbs when first turned on as a bulb check,and will let you know one of the bulbs is burnt.It won't work at all if one bulb is bad.
dtupperjr
New member
I follow you on the bad bulb situation and the electrical outlet checks good. I do believe the problem could have started with a bad bulb but that isn't the problem now. I believe both ballasts have gone bad and am sending in for repair. Prior to this they worked flawlessly, and then kinda buggy like the originator of this thread posted. I could swap ballasts and have them work but not work with their 'original' wire harness. I literally could interchange 2 430's and they would work with eachothers harness, but not their own. I suppose this could only be that a wire has a short and when I move it around it works but again everything seems to check out.
Thanks
Thanks
