Jiddy Needs LIGHTING help

[Jiddy]

:idea: The pictures listed below is the DIY canopy and lights i got from "guy" used. When i went to his house to check it out they all worked fine. Well as i was loadin it up in my truck he mentions that one of the bulbs quit workin, i really didnt pay attention to it, i just figured it burnt out. They are in groups of two and operate separtly. Well when i went to plug them in, lights 1&2 didnt work and 3&4 worked fine. In fact when i went to plug in 1&2 a "bolt" went from my outlet to the power cord, so i figure maybe its just a bad bulb. I swith 1-2 with 3-4. Well 3-4 didnt work and when i turned on 1-2 (the know good bulbs) 3 powered on for a second and then went out. Now none of the bulbs work. :idea:

-Jidz

PS this never happend in my FW tank

 

[mojoreef]

Oh man Jiddy does electrical....lol. I am not sure so I will let the more electrically minded step up


Mike

 

[Jiddy]

Man, i hope this doesnt require a multimeter, lol

 

[oldsaint]

Are the bulbs seated properly in the sockets. From the pics it looks like they are all twisted and possibly not making contact with the metal in the end caps.

 

[Ohgee]

Have to agree with Old Saint ..... check to be sure they are seated well in the sockets before going any further.
If that fails to fix the problem goto home depot and get a cheap volt alert pen. It's a small tester that is about the size of a large felt pen and all you do is lay ti against teh wire and if AC voltage is present it will light up. The one I use professionally costs about $20 but I use it alot even at home. Once you have one they come in handy.

From the looks of the salt creep the connector at the balast might be shorted out. You could try and clean it up and look for messed up pins. Sometimes an old tooth brush works great to clean it up. Just be sure the power is disconnected before you mess with it. Trust me ballast output voltage can hurt!!!!

Good luck and let me know what you find, maybe I can walk you through a more thorough test.

Duane

 

[Jiddy]

Well i aligned 1-2 and they work now, again, so its back to the original problem of 3-4, ill check it for a short this weekend, thanks for the hiz-elp

 

[snobanker]

Check where the fixture wire is attached to the sockets. Some of them are just press fit and may have worked loose. Just something else to check.

 

[oldsaint]

Not sure about VHO but on my T-5s if one light is out the whole set will not work. When you plug it in the bad bulb never comes on and the good bulb lights up for a second and then shuts down. HTH

 

[Jiddy]

Ill chck that out tonite, thanks for the helps guys, and OLDSAINT your from the SAC days?

 

[oldsaint]

Yes the good old SAC days. I was an electrician on the B-52 and the KC-135. Although the 135 hardly ever broke so I mainly worked on the B-52. It's an old bird.

 

[big t]

The 135 is a great old jet. They still hardly break. I work the C-17's now and I can tell ya the electricians hade life on that bird.

I am not sure about that icecap but on the vho ballast I used to run it was like oldsaint said, if 1 burns out they all crap out. Then you have to rewire it to run it in test mode which was a real pain. You might want to give ice cap a call or look at their site to see if you can find any info there. I know that if your ballast did burn up they will rebuild if for a reasonable price.

 

[Boomer]

One bulb should not shut down a fixture unless they are wired in series and not parallel. Those bulbs are twisted as oldsaint said it is not a maybe. Those are bulbs with a built in reflector. You can see the line in bulbs 1 & 3, which are mounted sideways and bulb 2 is upsidedown. Only 4 is where it should be.The clear side faces the water and the white side the back of the canopy.

Yes, get a VOM to check it (multimeter) and call Icecap and Ultraviolet Resources

 

[Scooterman]

When I went to his house to check it out they all worked fine. Well as I was loading it up in my truck he mentions that one of the bulbs quit working,

Moving electrical equipment after it has been used for some time can lead to problems as soon as you decide to move it....

They are in groups of two and operate separately.

Yep, these can be wired 2, 3 or 4 lamps, so depending on that will determine how they will be wired, this is called load sharing to keep it simple.

In fact when I went to plug in 1&2 a "bolt" went from my outlet to the power cord, so I figure maybe its just a bad bulb.

Bolt? as in arc maybe?

I switch 1-2 with 3-4. Well 3-4 didn't work and when I turned on 1-2 (the know good bulbs) 3 powered on for a second and then went out. Now none of the bulbs work

cool you helped diagnose the problem here by figuring out all the lamps are actually good.
To keep it simple, the way these connectors are made, the wires from the ballast are solid & are compression fit into the sockets. Likely one of these are loose or broken, check each one at the end cap thoroughly, a tester here can be used to check conductivity, make sure everything is disconnected before trying anything, it isn't necessary to check voltages on wiring and is avoided unless necessary, if wired properly there won't be a need but at times it may be the case where you would need to test live wiring. The actual wiring harness is also suspect because the ballast was mounted in the hood with all that moisture, salt water and wires cause fires, remember that. Not a good combination wiring will oxidize, remove the connector and check each pin to make sure they are clean and copper colored & not corroded or broken. If after all this fails, you may actually have ballast problems but this would need to be taken up with the manufacturer, one thing for sure, move the ballast away from the water surface, it isn't safe, when you look at the sealed end caps there is a reason they are built with two rubber o-rings, keeping moisture out, if these o-ring are rotten you need replacement of either them or the end caps, don't play with this, if you have any doubts read all of the Yieaks Fire threads, this is the most common cause of hood fires due to improper wiring on the end caps, o-rings etc.

 

[Jiddy]

Thanks everyone for the help, i TS'd it down to one of the ballast. Its a ICECAP 430, so ill be contactin the company somehow! Thanks everyone

-Jidz

 

[snobanker]

I know this is partially off topic, but I went in the AF in 1982. I guess that was kind of the "Old days" too......

 

[Jiddy]

Well since i figured the lightin problem out (knock on wood) you can steal my thread Stan, lol, what was your job? Did you only stayin in for four?

 

[Boomer]

AF in 1982

Meaning, compaired to me, you are still as snot-nosed kid . Try 1971, USA :lol:

 

[oldsaint]

Try 1971

71 was that the Army Air Corp back then.

 

[snobanker]

Lol Boomer and Oldsaint .......

Jiddy I was active for a little over 6 years then spent 14 more in the reserves. I was trained to be a 542X1 Exterior powerline Specialist (Iknow all that AFSC stuff has changed but it was hard to forget the old numbers )...basically I climbed wood poles and played with big volts for fun. I also worked on the airfield lighting...OK , Thats what we were supposed to do, but I spent most my time out in the field playing Army since I was Prime Beef and Red Horse the whole time. I flew on a gizillion C130's and C141's and never got to stay in a hotel. We flew all over and built dirt runways in the middle of BFE and then dug holes around them so we could point guns at stuff and keep the big bad red menace away from them lol. Oh and as a homage to what I have to believe "Boomer" did...we got to blow a lot of stuff up too so those same red menaces couldn't have our stuff if they got to close. Spent 2 years at Hahn AB in (W) Germany and 4 at no hope Pope in NC. I owned one of those blue suits but after basic I never really wore it again . I got out as a Master in 2003

 

[Scooterman]

Are we posting war resumes or talking about lighting here?