CMH Bulb Flickering?

Sunplix also makes a 330 ballast with boost to 400. I was wondering what lamp that ran.

dbkick said:

That is until Sunplix comes out with their lfsw ballast designed just for the allstart 860, which will be next month.

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Oh, REALLY? Did anyone tell them that Philips is discontinuing the lamp?!

ttystikk said:

Oh, REALLY? Did anyone tell them that Philips is discontinuing the lamp?!

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They are only discontinuing the bt56, bt37 replaces it.

dbkick said:

They are only discontinuing the bt56, bt37 replaces it.

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Can you explain?

ttystikk said:

Can you explain?

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bt37 has a smaller outer envelope , the bt56 is so large it's comical.
I've seen ads where it states discontinued on the bt56, I have seen the bt37 marked as clearance though I can't find it labeled as discontinued on any pages.
Oh look , Geoff from sunplix texting me saying he forgot about me and is sorry, I just told him it's not a problem or urgent but I DO want more of his product so I'll probably grab 2 more friday.

dbkick said:

bt37 has a smaller outer envelope , the bt56 is so large it's comical.
I've seen ads where it states discontinued on the bt56, I have seen the bt37 marked as clearance though I can't find it labeled as discontinued on any pages.
Oh look , Geoff from sunplix texting me saying he forgot about me and is sorry, I just told him it's not a problem or urgent but I DO want more of his product so I'll probably grab 2 more friday.

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Glad to hear it, would be a shame to finally get the ballast situation sorted out for them, only to watch the lamps vanish from the market.

And don't forget about Saturday!

ttystikk said:

Oh, REALLY? Did anyone tell them that Philips is discontinuing the lamp?!

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I've been hearing that for 5 years now. They already discontinued the retro white about 2 years ago. They have no plans to discontinue any more cmh bulbs. There's too big of a market for them. Costco and every baseball and football stadium use them. Now more cannabis grows then ever use them. There's more cmh grows these days than gavita grows. There's more cmh lighting companies uses those bulbs too.

dbkick said:

3 out of 3 phantoms went back , hydrofarm questioned nothing. There's a reason for that.

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One of the key features of the re-development of the recently reintroduced CMH versus traditional MH is the efficiency gained in the ballast. Very little heat is given off the driver [compared to traditional magnetic ballasts]. The CMH ballast should be only warm to the touch. Never hot. Without the need of an incident of failure a hot CMH should be considered defective.

hyroot said:

I've been hearing that for 5 years now. They already discontinued the retro white about 2 years ago. They have no plans to discontinue any more cmh bulbs. There's too big of a market for them. Costco and every baseball and football stadium use them. Now more cannabis grows then ever use them. There's more cmh grows these days than gavita grows. There's more cmh lighting companies uses those bulbs too.

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I miss the 400w retro-white too. They discontinued it because they made massive improvement in, desing, manufacturing, ballast, and arc tooling. Though today's 3K/4K PPF would be equivalent to a 380w Retro-White--leaving us with a -20watt difference in output, the complaints stopped with introduction of the 630w and forthcoming higher wattages, it's game over. Have you seen the crazy 98+CRI in today's 4K CMH? Tech pushed to amazing capability and tightening the race with LED and Fluorescent in efficiency.

NanoZeus said:

One of the key features of the re-development of the recently reintroduced CMH versus traditional MH is the efficiency gained in the ballast. Very little heat is given off the driver [compared to traditional magnetic ballasts]. The CMH ballast should be only warm to the touch. Never hot. Without the need of an incident of failure a hot CMH should be considered defective.



I miss the 400w retro-white too. They discontinued it because they made massive improvement in, desing, manufacturing, ballast, and arc tooling. Though today's 3K/4K PPF would be equivalent to a 380w Retro-White--leaving us with a -20watt difference in output, the complaints stopped with introduction of the 630w and forthcoming higher wattages, it's game over. Have you seen the crazy 98+CRI in today's 4K CMH? Tech pushed to amazing capability and tightening the race with LED and Fluorescent in efficiency.

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If CRI mattered that much, I'd be excited. Since I know better from personal experience, not so much.

I still think the 860W CDM Allstart lamp has as much of a future as 315W CMH does, now that thousand watt LFSW ballasts are readily available and inexpensive.

ttystikk said:

If CRI mattered that much, I'd be excited. Since I know better from personal experience, not so much.

I still think the 860W CDM Allstart lamp has as much of a future as 315W CMH does, now that thousand watt LFSW ballasts are readily available and inexpensive.

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Yes of course! Any retrofit lamp with new arc....designed to bring up to speed old hardware. Sexy. Like resurrecting an old laptop with linux. Even better since it is bringing up to speed the "edn effector"

Phillips retrofit 860W CMH [4 use on 1000W magnetic ballasts only] lamp's bright future is dependent rather on the magnetic 1000w becoming extinct. It's a patch. But yes as long as the magnetics are:
1) still being manufactured [some now with Aluminum cores] and
2) still in use.

It's game on.

Though recently some states and counties are cracking down on older tech. Electrical and power constraints.... That's what is causing the scramble for new technology. But if swapping technology gives you a break even point in less than a year and say 25+% savings there on...

CRI matters-- ever worked under blurple LEDs? - pounding headache in 20 minutes. HPS? 2-hours under them max without chromatic corrective lenses----more headache [not a problem in a greenhouse environment] and it takes me a while to correct the color aberration after working under HPS for a full day. Even when I am not growing and in the office CRI matters.. I hate most of the fluorescent lamps in commercial/office installations. "Hospital light". First thing I did in my office is to change my fluoros... before I even sat down.

CMH? No problem all day everyday. Had the pleasure of growing tomatoes in England with them last summer [real tomatoes]. I gather plants also like full spectrum---which they evolved under and spectrum does affect their morphology. But that is a whole-can-of-worms I have little time for.

Magnetics are awesome and for many your only real starting option.