DIY Cheap PC ballast

[coolwaters]

i saw a thread somewhere before about a bio cube (or aquapod) that had a blown PC ballast.

 

the owner took a normal screw-in PC bulb (the one with the built in ballast) and took it apart.

 

since i cant find the thread again it tried it myself since my 13w mag ballast broke..

 

i'l have to up load the pics later...but u get the concept right?

 

 

alright so far i took part a 13 watt bulb for the ballast (please recycle the glass part of the bulb since it has mercury inside it) and it seems that its running only at half of wat i wanted it to.

 

the thing im noticing about the screw-in PC bulbs is that there are 4 output leads but the bulb only has 2...

 

*there should be leads connecting to the bulb and it should say 1, 2, 3, 4 or B1,B2, A1, A2 or something like that.

 

for the 1,2,3,4

1 goes with 3

and

2 goes with 4.

 

i dont want to connect 1 and 2 together along with 3 and 4... light have a negative effect.

[yankeesrebelson]

I have done this mod with great success with a 4 pin PC lamp. I used a 26 watt screw in ballast for one of my 24 watt lights. It might be worth it to just try different combos and if they fail, buy a equally sized bulb with the 4 straight pin configuration. That's what i would do

[stoney waters]

Everything you need to know here.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=65684&st=0

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=63992&st=0

[coolwaters]

so if a bulb only has 2 pins i should get a cfl bulb with twice that? (26w)