$3.00 NanoCube ballast

[halfpint]

You read the title correctly. $3.00 for a replacement JBJ NanoCube ballast. Here's how to do it:

 

Go to Wal*Mart or Lowes or Home Depot and get a three pack of 26Watt power compact fluorescent screw-in bulbs. The three pack costs $9.00 where i live. when you get home, take one of the bulbs out of the package and cover the bulb in two paper towels. put it in a trash can and smash the bulb with something heavy. i used an iron rod that was long enough to keep me out of harm's way. Be careful when smashing them because they are pressurised and will "explode" when broken. that is the purpose of the paper towels. Next, take your bulb base out of the trash, being careful not to get cut on the glass pieces sticking out of the bulb's base. while holding the top of the bulb with a towel, lightly crunch the metal part of the base of the bulb as to crack the plastic behind the metal. be careful because there is a diode, capacitor, or something like that inside the base. if you crunch it enough, the metal should slide off. now comes the tricky part. carefully break away the plastic with needle-nosed pliars or wire cutters until the bottom half of the base can be easily seperated from the top. once you hace removed the bottom half of the base, you will now be looking at a circuit board with some parts on it. check it over carefully to be sure you didn't cut or damge any of the parts. with that done, you will notice two pairs of thin metal posts on alternate edges of the circuit board. there will be a small copper wire wrapped around each of these posts. unwrap the wires and the ballast/circuitboard should now be free from the remailing piece of circuit board. CAREFULLY and LIGHTLY put one of the edges of the ballast in a vice. use a lodering iron to remove the four wire-posts that you removed the wires from. then solder the new ballast wires in the same holes. Also, solder the piwer supply in. be sure you do not reverse the black and white wires. you will see a "A1", "A2", "A3", and "A4" by each of the holes that the bulb's plug wires are soldered into. you will need to plug the wires into the bulb in the order i listed the numbers. otherwise, the bulb will not fire. to be sure that the underside of the circuit board does not get shorted out on any metal it might touch, you can cut a small piece of wood and Zip-Tie it to the piece of wood. heck, you could even make a cool looking ballast case out of wood. just be sure to put some vents in the box. plug it all in and it should work. the new ballst should last a long time since the bulbs are guaranteed to work for 5 years.

 

 

good luck.

[g0tfish]

cool! u got any pics of the finshed product or somtin?

[Seldon]

ive done it and it works great. Ill post some pics when i find them.

 

seldon

[halfpint]

I've got pictures of it finished. my hands were greasy when i was doing it so i was unable to take pictures while i was doing it. i have pictures of the finished product that i will post soon.

 

I enclosed the ballasts in an old computer's power unit box. i put a 3-position toggle switch in it so i could controll how many lights i have on at a time. it all works great and if any problems arise, i will let you guys know.

[Simms142]

You do know those bulbs contain Mercury right? YOu can also take the bulb apart, takes more time but no broken glass and cut the bulb off and dispose of it if you have a local place to recycle it. Hardware stores are starting to have them...

[Vnnie]

I posted this same idea a couple weeks ago with pictures. Check out this thread:

Replacement for Nano Cube Ballast

[halfpint]

Yah, i know that it has mercury in it. i don't plan on putting the pieces in my mouth or breathing the vapors from the broken bulbs. thanks for the heads up though.

[TheCoralReef731]

Sounds cool.

[jane of baden]

hey, do you think I could use these on a retrofit pendant im making? or are they just nanocube-compatible?

[halfpint]

They will work with any compact fluorescent bulb. just as long as the wattage of the bulb is as close to the ballast's rating without exceeding it. for example: i used 26 watt ballasts. the bulb in a nanocube is a 24watt. i would not be safe using a 28 or 30 watt bulb without risking shorter bulb life or the bulbs not firing at all. you would not want to use a bulb on a ballast that was too low of wattage. for example: on the 26watt ballast, you would not want to use a 20 or 14Watt bulb on it because it will burn your bulbs up quicker, or (hypothetically speaking) may even rupture the bulb. so the answer is yes, you can use it on tanks other than a nanocube. just be sure to insulate the bottom of the ballast on something non-conductive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE ON BALLAST:

the bulbs have not shown any signs of blackening at the ends and are still just as bright as when i first fired them up. the tank is also running at a LOWER temperature than when it was running one bulb. which is weird. i didn't have any ballasts in the hood before and neither do i have any in there now. the tank is healthy, the Xenia is overgrown and breeding like rabbits. the mushrooms are larger than ever and the toadstool is bright, colorful, and open every day, all day. the maroon clown and blood shrimp are happy and still growing. the shrimp is stil molting about once a month. everything seams good.

[Surfzup2k4]

Why bother breaking the bumb??? just take a flat head screwdriver and pop the top of the plastic ballast off.

[halfpint]

I would rather have it break in a controlled environment (The trash can) than have it break in my hands while i'm taking the stupid thing apart. I've had a fluorescent bulb break on me before and they do "explode" when broken.

[Casabubu]

would this method work with this bulb?

 

http://hellolights.com/13watts.html

 

It says "This bulb has an internal starter that is designed to be operated on a simple "choke" magnetic ballast. Electronic ballasts will not work with this lamp or any 9W or 13W lamps which have internal starters, regardless of manufacture."

[Vnnie]

I tried wiring two 13 watt bulbs to one of these 26watt ballasts just for the heck of it and the bulbs did NOT fire. Home Depot and Lowes carry magnetic ballasts that work with the 13 watt bulbs and they only cost $4.

[Lingwendil]

I've done the same thing with screw-ins from the dollar store. Why did you break the bulbs? I did this about a year ago for a dual ballasted, dual 15w NO setup, all you have to do is gently pry the lamp base apart at the seam, resolder the wires you will use, and add a power plug. The lower temperature is probably because they were made to run with smaller bulbs, and use less power per watt?

 

 

BTW, 9w and 13w PC bulbs with internal starters do not work stock with any electronic ballasts. The base would need to be opened, and the starter removed. Once the starter is removed they have four leads just like the larger PC's.

[Auryn]

I read this and Vnnies thread.

would this method work to add a 20W 50/50 pc bulb to an existing cube hood and light?

so it would bring my wattage up to 44?

[Vnnie]

Yes, it would work to add a 20W bulb but try to find a ballast that is very close to 20W. A 26W ballast might be a bit much for a 20W bulb. The bulb probably would, but may not even fire and if it did you would shorten the life of the bulb and risk starting a fire. Good luck!

[halfpint]

I have seen 20W screw-ins. I most definately would not use 20W bulbs on a 26W ballast.

 

Lingwendil, I broke the bulbs because i was afraid of them breaking in my hands. If I would have known that the bases were that easy to take apart the base, i would have gone that route.

 

 

 

Ditto on the 13 Watt bulb, Casabubu. All you would need is a $4.00 Ballast from Home Depot for each bulb.

[halfpint]

UPDATE:

 

Both bulbs are running fine and I plan on getting some pictures on here soon. I don't have any pictures taken so I would have to take the cover off my ballast box. The tank is happy and the temp is great. My next step I am concidering is rigging some moon lights. DIY all the way! I just noticed that this thing has over 1,000 people that have read it. I have a PICO tank in the planning phase. It will be acrylic and I will most likely make the tank my self.

 

PS. Lingwendil, through experimentation, I and another nano-reef member have confirmed that there is a way to safely use a 2-pin bulb on a 4-wire ballast (in the case of the screw-in replacement). I will not disclose this informaiton because it is in the testing phase and is not 100% confirmed to be reliable or fire-safe. So far, though it has not heated up more than usual.

[halfpint]

I have pictures of my setup! Here they are.

 

That's the left side. You can see the nice three position switch so i can controll my light output easily.

 

There is the right side. You can see where I cut the vynal covering off my tank so I can monitor the sump water level without lifting the hood.

 

 

After reading the Warning label on the ballast box, I proceded to open it up. lol.

 

That's the label.

 

That's the ballast's guts. The ballast barely visible on the bottom of the pic is the 9Watt ballast for the fuge light. The black power plug barely visible under the bird's nest of wires is the power plug for the fan. The ballasts I recently installed are to the left.

 

Here's a better view of the new ballasts mounted on the wood plank. I didn't move the wires out of the way because it was plugged in and turned on and I did not want to get shocked.

 

 

I felt next to no heat coming from the new ballasts. they had been running since 8 this morning and i took these pictures at 5:30 this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

If anyone else has done this mod, post pictures so we all can see your ideas.

 

 

 

~Jake

[Raskal311]

so any updates no how well the ballast work? Is the bulbs lasting pretty well ?

[stoney waters]

BTW, 9w and 13w PC bulbs with internal starters do not work stock with any electronic ballasts. The base would need to be opened, and the starter removed. Once the starter is removed they have four leads just like the larger PC's.

 

I was able to get a 13w 2 pin bulb to fire and run on a 13w compact fluorescent ballast. I use it in a DIY fixture as a behind the glass fuge light. At first I ran it for 72 straight hours. Since then it has been running 12 hours a day for the last week. There has been no heating of the ballast and the bulb seems to be working fine.

 

[d0cdave]

Looks good. So how'd ya do it? What ballast did you use? This would be an excellent alternative to those hot magnetic ballasts in Eclipse hoods.

[halfpint]

read the original post i did in the thread its the step-by-step instructions.

 

 

Stoney, that looks real good.

 

 

raskal311, the ballast is working fine. running cool and the bulbs are bright and the tank's inhabitants are happy. click my signiture graphic to see a recent FTS.

[d0cdave]

read the original post i did in the thread its the step-by-step instructions.

 

Ahh.. my bad. I thought there was something different being done with 2-wire bulbs vs regular 4-wire bulbs.

 

Time to play.

 

BTW: Mercury can be absorbed through the skin. When you break these bulbs, the mercury vapor in the bulbs will solidify instantaneously into drops and can get everywhere. Dont break the bulbs boys and girls... you dont need the long term effects of mercury poisoning.