Reefer_Buddha Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 yes and no. It is just the fixture but remember that it was made to dissipate heat for its rated bulb. Id wonder how hot it would get with a 175w mh in it. Link to comment
Vincerama Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Interesting. The pendants are all metal, so it would get pretty hot. If the housing acted as a heat sink, then wouldn't heat dissapation become a matter of keeping the whole unit cool? I mean there seems to be very little internal air circulation, and if you wanted more, you can drill holes in the pendant housing. Also, these pendants are made for 300 and 500 W halogen lamps, which are incandescent (they have a filament...?) so I THINK they would generate more heat than a halide (which is exciting a gas with an arc). So would a 175W or 250W MH generate more heat than a 300W or 500W halogen? If the MH is brighter (I'm not sure if MH is brighter than halogen) then wouldn't that mean that most of the power is converted to light rather than heat? Anyway, those are my thoughts on that. Oh, and the pendants don't have the greatest reflectors, so you might want a pricey pendant just for the reflector. On the other hand, if you can find nice reflector material, it seems pretty easy to retrofit the halogen pendants with it. V Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 .... could have one of those lil personal fans blowing at the entire fixture itself??! i think it would be ok but maybe hook it up the way it comes and test the unit for heat w/ a laser temp gun... check it all around at different areas. THEN, swap out to the 175w and check the temps again. that way you could tell if it'll last long term....just my 2 cents. drillin the reflector as we speak:P DA TWINSSSS!!! Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 i dont get mine until tuesday Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 Vincerama, You guys are right with regards to the heat. You can see the regent I used for my 70watter a page or so back, but now that I have the lil' firecracker in use, I gotta admit...you dont really have to drill these things. I mean, as long as circulation is good on the outside at least, as is this fixture sheds so much heat through the Aluminium housing that I can actually hold my hand on the fixture for a while and all it does is warm it up (after that I do have to remove it, as the Al might move heat pretty fast, but not so with my hand!). This is actually a good sign, that I can hold my hand on the fixture for a while...yet after a while I do have to remove it. Thermaldynamics would say that these fixtures move alot of heat because of this! Oh, and I just ordered a new bulb. A TUNZE 15,000K 70wattDE. Ill post pics of it in action when I get it. Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 where do you get tunze bulbs? Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 I took the PC power supply idea and took it one step futher by adding some quick disco's similar to icecaps You first start off by removing the old components from the power supply making sure to keep the white "molex" connectors they make perfect quick disco's These things already come grounded so rewiring for proper grounds was a snap The Aromat ballast comes with a rather large mounting base that will work double-fold as both mount and ground for your ballast All you do is run the power wire in series to utilize the on off switch on the powersupply and run a seperate wire for the fan and your all set Thats all you need fan, light and on/off switch work fantastic... Thanks for the ideas fellas Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 I am negotiating for more Tunze 15,000K 70watters at a lower price right now. I will let you know...but for now, it is a secret (ok, a buddy of mine at TUNZE USA...normally the bulb isnt sent to the US here...but Im trying to change that...and they happened to have a few on the shelf). Well see. If these dont work out, I might try to bulk buy the Aqualine 13,000Ks at a discount (cant imagine the 20,000s woud be worth it, as at that high a K rating the PAR gets cut in half) Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 gerard, nice pics thanks for the pictorial, i always wondered how ppl did that with the old power supplys Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 gerard, nice pics thanks for the pictorial, i always wondered how ppl did that with the old power supplys The quick connects "aka" the old molex connectors make for a perfect wire harnesses. Once again thanks for this DIY guys this thing is awesome. Only mistake I made was forgetting to put the glass back on the enclosure and I ended up nuking some Zoa's with UV lighting but they look like they will recover doooh! LOL Wetworx I love your new avatar! Link to comment
Vincerama Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 WRT that black mouinting plate on the Aromat ballasts, I found that it is simply a plate that is screwed on, feel free to remove it so that you can get more space to stick the ballast into the power supply. It's easier to just screw/bolt the ballast directly to the powersupply case (after drilling holes, of course!) As for heat, I did drill holes in my regent pendant. (It already had some, but I wanted more)...I don't think it's necessary. I have brushed up against my pendant many times while fiddling around and it is not hot enough to burn you (Hey, don't try it!) on casual contact. I think the open pendant configuration helps alot. Mine is hanging from a crappy, crappy, crappy wooden "gallows" that I made just to retrofit it on my DIY canopy, which I built with a removable lid. I can see that a montipora digitata that I had under my 72W of PC 50/50 is starting to change colour from brown to pink! Now, I don't know if it is good or bad yet (ie; is it turning pink or is it bleaching?) but the MH does make a difference (from 72W PC to 70W MH). I also noticed that a monti cap turned white... V Link to comment
theclearblue Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Vincerama - would you mind posting some pics of your wooden gallows? I'm trying to figure out how I can set something up to mount a pendant temporarily. I was thinking something like a sawhorse on a large scale or two metal pot hangers on pedastals, I saw someone had used these to hold a fixture above a tank. Link to comment
Vincerama Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 The gallows... You can see that it's actually resting on the top of my original hood, rather than the tank rim. Of course I could have put it on the rim as well, but I wanted to block some of the light coming out sideways from the bottom of the pendant. V Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 I actually tried it both ways but I found that the black plate actually helps to dissipate the heat... Link to comment
Chyendra Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 So, are all of the 300watt halogen pendents made of metal? i thought they looked like plastic the way they were drilled, but when i went to home depot and walmart to look for one, all the 300 watt pendents were made of some sort of metal. Are there 300 watt halogen pendents made if plastic? or am I going to have to figure out how to mount a metal one in my hood? thanks EDIT: now that i'm reading more, i'm starting to think that the 70watt ushio bulb doesn't even fit into this fixture like i was originally told. Does it fit? Or is there a very easy way to make it fit? Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 no you more than likely have to grind away at the ceramic to make it fit. Addtionally the Regent based lights are most certianly metal. Link to comment
DSparks Posted February 28, 2004 Share Posted February 28, 2004 Wetworx, I'd be interested in one of the Aqualine AB 10,000K's. PM me if you do end up going that route. Link to comment
Vincerama Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 The one I use is made of metal, as would any housing for a 300W bulb! It's made of aluminum, which is a very soft metal and drills very easily. If you read the entire thread (ugh!) you will see the whole discussion on which pendants will work. I had to grind away the ceramic lamp holder with a dremel. It's all in the thread.... V Link to comment
ccny Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 pardon my newbness and general lack of electrical knowledge but, where do the two blue wires in the ballast attach to. doesn't the lamp assembly only have one black wire? Link to comment
Vincerama Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 The ballast I have has 4 wires (maybe 5). Green = "earth ground" Black = hot White = neutral 2 blue wires = the lampholder leads, ie; the bulb connections The lamp assembly housed a halogen lamp, which is incandescent, so it just took ac current through it without a ballast. My pendant had 3 wires. black, white, bare copper. In "halogen mode" it's easy, just hook the wires up according to their matching coloured wires (with the bare copper wire going to "earth ground") from the wall/light switch. The black and white wires from the pendant are just the wires to the ends of the lamp holders, ie; the ends of the bulb. These then, are connected to the blue wires of your ballast. Your ballast, in turn connects to the house wiring via a plug. The wiring diagram should be printed on the ballast itself. V Link to comment
ccny Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 thanks!! this is too cool. sounds like a whole bunch of people are out to do this. maybe this should be a powerbuy project or something. don't know if that could be done before everyone gets their fill on ebay or one of the lighting web sites tho. Link to comment
Seanano Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 well i've recently completed this w/ a WPI and CA 70watt MH bulb wow, what a difference..... however the light is either hesitant or flickers before it turns on. is this normal of MH's? everything is with in spec as far as i can tell, how ever....... the plug cord is 16 gage compared to the 18 gage to which that of the rest of the wire is.... could this be my problem? Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 the gas inside the bulb must ignite first so it will take about 30seconds for it to get to full brightness. Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Also make sure you give the bulb a good 3-4 hours of burn in when you first flick it on... Link to comment
Seanano Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 well now the beast aint even coming on... i'm kinda thinkin my connection on one of my wires might not be good as i touch one of them i get a slight buzzin sound and i can feel the current in my fingers a bit. Link to comment
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