DIY Dimmable Ballast

[texasboy26]

:howdy:
I just purchased a ReVolt 400 watt HPS/MW Dimmabble Electronic ballast. Does anyone know whether I need a new bulb? I put in my 400 watt hps bulb from my former setup and it works. But.... The light does not change when I switch from 50/75/100%. Do I need a dimmable bulb as well?

Ive heard a lot about the Super HPS bulbs with the enhanced blue range for vegging. Does anyone have any tugged-by-the-nuts experience with them?
Do they produce?

Any opinions are appreciated

 

[Muddy]

Can't help on the ballast but I have used a Hortilux 400 watt HPS bulb with the expanded blue spectrum. They do a very good job at vegging plants and can be used for the whole grow cycle of autos, start to finish. I did a comparison grow of it against my 175 watt MH and CFLs I normally used for veg and it out performed them. The plants were only lightly bigger but a lot greener.

 

[agito]

no you use the same bulb i use a 600w lumatek which switch's from super lumen to 600 /400/to 300 and i can just see the difference, spotting a 400w id imagine would be harder again

 

[texasboy26]

no you use the same bulb i use a 600w lumatek which switch's from super lumen to 600 /400/to 300 and i can just see the difference, spotting a 400w id imagine would be harder again

OK So I need a 400 watt Lumatek light.
Lumatek are among the best ballasts. I purchased a ReVolt (ripoff) to save money. Im on a budget. You are proposing an expensive bulb which I did not even consider. My hps was so much better than its predecessor (CFL) that I never thought the bulb to be important. Amazon lists a 400 HPS Lumatek High PAR Bulb - 60,000 lumen initial for 50 bucks and says it is the latest and includes the enhanced blue light and, get this, its on sale. I spent a wopping 18 bucks on my latest chinese slave manufactured bulb. Should I rethink bulbs?

Why do you say "spotting a 400w id imagine would be harder again"

Thanks for your concern

 

[marclar]

sometimes it takes a while for the bulb to dim. its not going to dim right off the bat. on mine, dimming my 400 takes about 10 second to completely change

 

[S_a_H]

I have three Lumatek 1000w ballasts running the Hortilux Dual Arc Super Blue bulbs. I find they do a good job holding back stretch and when I did a side by side tent grow using same everything but bulbs the Dual Arc produced better looking plants in the early stages but the regular Hortilux Super Enhanced HPS bulb in the end produced better buds overall. So when I hit that mark I switch out the dual arc's for straight HPS for the home stretch.

I found the 400w Lumatek Dimmable ballasts had a hard time firing the 400w Hortilux MH Blue Enchanced bulbs.

S_a_H

 

[grindin]

im using a 600watt revolt and it works great, it dims, take a few seconds.. It produced nicely for me too

 

[dlovetheweed]

I got a couple of the dimmable I powers off amazon a 400w and a 1000w they work great and they're cheap