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I ran across something at a friends and decided to investigate it a little bit and use it to my advantage. I wanted a little more power on the Veg side of things but didnt need much. I had 2 high powered CFL's in there and they were doing OK. I was pleased with the veg results, but im gonna need it for flower as soon as the FD off spring are done. I want to be able to have a good punch on that side with out a great deal of heat.
So i found this 70watt MH Flood lamp and didn't want the bulb and the ballast in the same place. So i decided to make it remote
Now if you are not sure about electrical work, cause im sure that every flood lamp is different, be cautious on attempting this at home. What i have done is take a normal 70w MH flood lamp and turn it into a remote light and ballast system.
What i did was turn this.......
into this.........
Now the following is pretty easy to accomplish as the lights are put together pretty easy. There is the ballast and then the ignitor and capacitor. Most of them are going to look like the following.
This is the main reflector removed and un-plugged from the wire harness.
Under the reflector you will find the following
on the left is the ballast (transformer) and then on the right the capacitor and ignitor. You can see that the wires are pretty much in line here and are all tied together with wire nuts. To remove the parts that you need out all you need to do is remove the bands and slide out the assembly. Save the bands as you will need them to tie the parts back down.
After you have removed all the parts from the housing remember to get the ground wire as you will need it later.
Now the fun part.
From this point its pretty easy, we used a thin piece of sheet metal and bent it over a 2x4 to create a stand for the ballast, ignitor, and capacitor.
After we did this we took the current bands that held together the equipment in the housing and tied them down to the metal frame.
after i got it place where i needed it, i made a pad for the transformer from mining electrical tape, i swear three layers would stop a bullet, to keep the vibration at a minimum. Then i took the ground i showed you to save and attached it to the frame and tied in a typical electrical cord from home depot. The one that you connect a typical computer power supply should be efficient as well.
Couple things to note:
I had the ease of a pug assembly on my set up, i am not sure if all are like this or not. This is the first one that i have been able to actually get my hands on and work with. To extend the rage of the hood and light you will need to run a wire from the main leads. The plug assembly was tied to the harness with wire nuts. Remove the wire nuts one at a time to the plug assembly, once you have done this connect the extension in the correct manor, black to black white to white, and if need be green to green. Then at the other end of the line re-attach the plug in the same fashion. Once you have completed this you will have a new low budget remote system....
also as you can see in the pic i used copper wire as the hangers to connect the hood. This will allow you to balance it as its not the mos balanced when you hang it
So i found this 70watt MH Flood lamp and didn't want the bulb and the ballast in the same place. So i decided to make it remote
Now if you are not sure about electrical work, cause im sure that every flood lamp is different, be cautious on attempting this at home. What i have done is take a normal 70w MH flood lamp and turn it into a remote light and ballast system.
What i did was turn this.......
into this.........
Now the following is pretty easy to accomplish as the lights are put together pretty easy. There is the ballast and then the ignitor and capacitor. Most of them are going to look like the following.
This is the main reflector removed and un-plugged from the wire harness.
Under the reflector you will find the following
on the left is the ballast (transformer) and then on the right the capacitor and ignitor. You can see that the wires are pretty much in line here and are all tied together with wire nuts. To remove the parts that you need out all you need to do is remove the bands and slide out the assembly. Save the bands as you will need them to tie the parts back down.
After you have removed all the parts from the housing remember to get the ground wire as you will need it later.
Now the fun part.
From this point its pretty easy, we used a thin piece of sheet metal and bent it over a 2x4 to create a stand for the ballast, ignitor, and capacitor.
After we did this we took the current bands that held together the equipment in the housing and tied them down to the metal frame.
after i got it place where i needed it, i made a pad for the transformer from mining electrical tape, i swear three layers would stop a bullet, to keep the vibration at a minimum. Then i took the ground i showed you to save and attached it to the frame and tied in a typical electrical cord from home depot. The one that you connect a typical computer power supply should be efficient as well.
Couple things to note:
I had the ease of a pug assembly on my set up, i am not sure if all are like this or not. This is the first one that i have been able to actually get my hands on and work with. To extend the rage of the hood and light you will need to run a wire from the main leads. The plug assembly was tied to the harness with wire nuts. Remove the wire nuts one at a time to the plug assembly, once you have done this connect the extension in the correct manor, black to black white to white, and if need be green to green. Then at the other end of the line re-attach the plug in the same fashion. Once you have completed this you will have a new low budget remote system....
also as you can see in the pic i used copper wire as the hangers to connect the hood. This will allow you to balance it as its not the mos balanced when you hang it
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