evilc66 Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 First one is definitely Odyssea. Second one I'm 95% sure is also. Chances are it uses the same ballasts anyway. The end cap arrangement is a little different, but everything else looks the same. If you can find that first one again for that price, thats a smoking deal. If you can't, check out the shipping prices at Aquatraders because they have the fixture cheaper than the second link. Link to comment
Kraylen Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 nice man... good looking out... I can assume the same mods x2 as listed in this thread to kick ass for me yeah? Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I ordered my light today , but the mosfets are on back order until the 21st of January. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 30, 2008 Author Share Posted December 30, 2008 Try here http://www.newark.com/fairchild-semiconduc...equestid=108728 They have 89 in stock. SDT, did you ever get yours done? Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Try here http://www.newark.com/fairchild-semiconduc...equestid=108728 They have 89 in stock. SDT, did you ever get yours done? Thanks for the link evil. Yeah she did her's , 4th post on page 4. She did however report some problem acouple of posts after that. How do you order from Aquatraders? I called them and they said to send a email , I sent a email yesterday listing the items I wanted , and asking them to call me for credit card info. Waiting on them to call me or email me. :confused: Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 31, 2008 Author Share Posted December 31, 2008 Durrrr I remeber seeing it now. Don't know abot Aquatraders. Phone call is the most reliable way of getting a hold of them, but I don't know about orders. Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Ordered killawatt meter , light and mosfets today. Will post updates once I finish the mod. For anyone trying to buy the fixture , definatley got to Ebay and find the seller Hombby , MUCH easier to get intouch with than Aquatraders. Oh and Evil , I think it's BS that RC isn't letting you share your mod. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 Well, they will, provided that I write out the entire thing over there. They don't allow links to other forums. As a result, they aren't going to get it I did some additional testing over the weekend on this mod. While I got 252W on the stock Odyssea bulbs, the ballast only pulled 190W on a Phoenix 14k. While there has been much improvement in the overall draw of the ballast, and the color and brightness of the bulb looks fine, it seems that the regulation on the ballast isn't that great. It's possible that your mileage may vary from ballast to ballast with this mod. For the money involved, it's still worth trying, but it now explains why some people saw little to no change, while I saw great improvements on the stock bulb. Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Well that sucks. I'm going to do the mod anyway. Especially since I don't have the money for new bulbs or ballasts yet. Should give a better color to the stock bulb while I save up cash for a better ballast/bulb combo. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 Like I said, for the money, it's worth it. If you get more output out of it, great. If you don't, no harm, no foul. Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Mosfets and KillAWatt arrived today. They came from Oklahoma and South Carlonia. The light on the other hand is somewhere between here and San Fransisco. Probablly won't get the light until next week , would be nice to get it on friday. Is there some way to check that the killawatt is reading correctly? I connected it to a Coralife PC fixture w/ 1x96w and it only read 80w of draw. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Kill-a-Watts are know to be pretty acurate. You would have to use a device that has a known draw. I wouldn't worry to greatly about it. Chances are the Coralife ballst is underdriving the bulb too. I do know that the Current USA fixtures are pretty close to what they advertise. Link to comment
Grendel0501 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Light got here today. Do wattage tests on all the stock lights. The CF's only pull about 69-70 each. Testing the halide now , it turned on at 50w and had me really worried it wasn't even going to fire , but after 10 or so seconds the bulb came on. It's pulling 175 right now and still slowly climbing. -------------------- It's tapped out at 186w , decent draw , but no 250w. I'll have my buddy with some soildering expereince do the mod sometime soon , whenever he has time. Link to comment
shrimphombre Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Have you done the mod yet, I'm still trying to decide if the 15 dollar mod is worth it or if i should put it towards a new ballast. 15 bucks is 15 bucks. Anyway, I just got a really nice giesemann megachrome 14500K bulb and would really hate to underdrive it, as the price of the bulb is in the ballpark of the whole system lol. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 There seems to be some variance to the performance of this mod depending on the bulb used. The stock bulb showed the most gains, while a Phoenix 14K showed only a little improvement, but it did fire (which I have heard is hit and miss on the stock ballast). The Megachrome could see decent improvements. For the $15, it's probably worth a try. Link to comment
shrimphombre Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Alright I think i'll give it a shot. I had bought the canopy used and the person I bought it from had had the stock bulb on for about 14 months. Just switching to the megachrome was a drastic improvement to say the least, but it is still surprisingly a little yellow. If the mod doesn't coax the megachrome to go bluer, I may just go with the icecap, which would surely push the bulb to its full potential. I'll keep ya'll posted. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 There are other ballast alternatives that could save you a few bucks (like Ballastwise), but the Icecap is a simple plug and play deal. If you do the Icecap, get a PC power cord extension. The cord on the Icecaps are strangely short. Link to comment
SK8URDEAD Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 There are other ballast alternatives that could save you a few bucks (like Ballastwise), but the Icecap is a simple plug and play deal. If you do the Icecap, get a PC power cord extension. The cord on the Icecaps are strangely short. im getting mine tomorrow at my lfs. its this one. he also has one over his sps frag tank its the 48" fixture. hes been runing for 5 months stock and looks really great. hes helping me out and giving me mine for the 329.00 price instead of 349.00 that everyone will be paying. im just debating if i should do this mod or not or the icecap, because he speaks and talks with people form aqua traders and says hes running everything stock that came with it. ballast/bulbs everything. Fixture Size: 35.50 x 15 x 3 Support: 2x 250W DE HQI, 2x 65W Compact Fluorescent, 6x Dual Bluemoon LED External 250W Electronic HQI Metal Halide Ballasts with On/Off Switch Internal Compact Fluorescent Ballasts Three On/Off Switch, 1 for CF, 1 for LEDs, 1 for Cooling Fan Individual Power Cords for Separate Timer Setup Non-Corrosive Powder Coated Aluminum Housing Heavy Duty Cooling Fan Tempered Glass and Clear Acrylic Lens Covers Highly Polished Reflector Mounting Legs Included Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 For anyone interested, Radioshack is now carrying Kill-A-Watt meters for $20. Link to comment
jiriki76 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 http://cgi.ebay.com/10-pcs-TO-220-Black-He...1|293:1|294:200 Would this work? Or any of the ebay cheapies? I have 3x 250 ballasts to modify. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Thats just a heatsink. Ballast already has those. Link to comment
coralcor Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 wow this is verry well documented. and i remember this thread but i thought it was a vid thats how good it is! Link to comment
evilc66 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Thanks. Shame it doesn't work 100% of the time. Link to comment
jiriki76 Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Thats just a heatsink. Ballast already has those. Ahh.. my bad. I thought they included the MOSFETs. Since I am buying 6x of them, is there a cheaper alternative? What specs should I be looking for? Link to comment
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