Brain Cramp...need Some Help

krthomp33

Hey guys, need a little help here.

A job I am bidding calls for (2) 2 tube fixtures to be wired Master/slave combination with (1) 4 lamp ballast. I have looked at it, and have drawn it out on paper, but for some reason, my brain is just not connecting the dots. I am sure it is simple, but I think the lack of sleep and stress are turning my noggin into jello.......

Any chance you guys could dumb it down for me

ATS

The ballast is in one fixture connected to line voltage, an armored whip is typically used to connect the ballasts secondary leads to the other fixture.

K2

If it is a instant start, (parallel wired ballast), they are pretty simple. If they are a rapid start, (series wired ) they are a pain in the butt. Rapid starts have twice as many wires and they have 2 wires to each lamp holder and they have to be in the right place for it to flow in series. Also for rapid starts all the lamps have to be in place for the fixture to light so trouble shooting always takes more time.

We've done rapid starts with whips in grid ceilings. Drop cloths and vacuums were part of our gear. We also did 2 lamp 8 ft new fixtures with a master /slave for classrooms so we were running 16 ft of lights off of one ballast.

Instant start is the way to go on master/ slaves. We always marked which fixture the ballast was in, ( zip screw of something), so we didnt have to take everything apart to find which fixture/section we place the ballast. Makes it easier on callbacks etc.

So I guess the wiring would depend on what type of ballast you are using.

Some of the newer lamp holders are shunted, or one wire. One wire lamp holders won't work on rapid start ballast. A typical place that this could be a problem is when you are trying to convert some new instant start fixtures to dimming. Dimming ballast seem to always be rapid start so there always starts a hunt for some two wire lamp holders.