frostythesnowthug
Well-Known Member
We've got all of our pieces sitting in front of us.
We've got the ballast (deceptively heavy):
We've got the ignitor:
And we've got the socket:
You've also got your plug cord and your extension cord.
A note before we start to put the wires together: take your time with the next few steps. Ensuring that your wires are securely twisted together and that the wire screws are on securely is very important.
I recommended 8 ft. before as you can use the plug to attach to the ballast and use the remaining cord to extend the length from the ballast to the socket.
First, you will want to measure how much distance you will need from your plug, to where your ballast will rest it's electrical box. If you are good at stripping wires then you know how much more space to give yourself. If you aren't, give yourself plenty of extra cable: you may accidentally cut into the cables within the outer jacket, and need to start with a fresh cut again.
Strip the wires so that you have adequate room to attach them together. Here's what you'll have
Plug Cord: W, Blk, Grn
Ballast Extension Cord (the other half of the cord): W, Blk, Grn
Ballast: B, Red, Blu
Ignitor: Red, W, Blu
Socket: W, Blk
Here's how to connect the wires to eachother. After properly attaching the ground wire to a good grounding place (if you don't understand this, read up on it), you can get your other wires connected. This is where you'll want to get your plug wire in through one hole of the electrical box and get your extension cable up into the other hole. (It's a box. I know, punch the hole out with a screwdriver.)
-Extension cord and socket: attach the white of the cord to the white of the socket. Attach the black of the cord to the black of the socket.
-Extension cord, plug cord and ignitor: attach the white of the extension cord to the white of the ignitor and the white of the plug cord.
-Extension cord, ballast and ignitor: attach the black of the cord to the blue of the ballast and the blue of the ignitor.
-Ballast and ignitor: attach the red to the red.
-Ballast and plug cord: attach the black of the ballast to the black of the plug cord.
Screw the lamp into the socket.
Do a little dance of luck and joy.
Here's a couple of examples of wiring found inside 150w hps
OK and for those who have a capacitor in the system here's a wiring diagram for that.
Metal Halide
Wiring Diagram
HPS
(High Pressure Sodium)
Wiring diagram
Also worth noting is that most ballasts come with the wiring diagram on the back like so -
Hope thats a help
and here's the rest of the tutorial