my newest creation i call it "El falso sol" (sounds cooler in spanish  ). It has two lamps a 405W Incandescent and either a 400W mercury or a 400W MH the incandescents job is to kick on when power is interrupted I connected a relay, the coil is in series with the lamp (MH/MV) so when the lamp starts up it will draw enough current to also activate the coil and open the relay contacts, which then shuts off the incandescent, I also put an override switch so if for some reason i wanted both lamps running at the same time i simply flip that switch and it shorts the coil, which then closes the relay contacts. the reason i call it "El falso sol" is because the thing is bright as F*** lol

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sorry... to be honest, too lazy to change the file sizes , so yeah... kinda multi posted, sorry im tired after building that thing LOL

got some sleep, now i can explain a bit more...


anyway this thing is basically meant to be a sort of utility light,obviously it'd be a good idea to take the bulbs out before moving it around because you don't want the m hitting each other and breaking, the chassis is also grounded and the ballast is meant for powering MH or MV lamps, at first i was thinking of using an HPS ballast but the thing proved too big to cram into that box (especially with the cap and ignitor, and i lack access to any metal cutting tools so that would make the job of getting any HPS in there very hard, however, if i get my mits on any more boxes i may try it anyway. this box originally housed 277V 100W HPS gear lol.

There are actually specialized relays for this purpose. Some HID fixtures have them built in, it's called stand by lighting. Some also have a timer so when the HID lamp strikes, the relay shuts off after a preset amount of time, typically 2-5 minutes, enough time to get sufficient light output from the main lamp. Anyway, it's cool that you built one from a standard relay.

The gear can be installed remotely, optionally with only the ignitor in the luminaire

With ignitor in the luminaire - Use superimposed ignitor. The distance from the ballast is unlimited and the cable can be any ordinary cable

With ignitor in the remote gear box (together with the ballast) - Use high energy ignitor that relies on the ballast coil for making the pulse. The cable from the gear to the lamp must be suitable to handle ignition voltage and be installed in such a way that if a flashover happens in the cable it cant start a fire - This limits the possible options of safe installation with remote ignitor

The gear can be installed remotely, optionally with only the ignitor in the luminaire

With ignitor in the luminaire - Use superimposed ignitor. The distance from the ballast is unlimited and the cable can be any ordinary cable

With ignitor in the remote gear box (together with the ballast) - Use high energy ignitor that relies on the ballast coil for making the pulse. The cable from the gear to the lamp must be suitable to handle ignition voltage and be installed in such a way that if a flashover happens in the cable it cant start a fire - This limits the possible options of safe installation with remote ignitor

I'm confused, the thing is a prob start metal halide/mercury vapour lamp

You wanted HPS, you can do it HPS with remote gear. The ignitor needs some special attention and consideration as explained

You wanted HPS, you can do it HPS with remote gear. The ignitor needs some special attention and consideration as explained

ohhh... sorry was confused, yeah i may do that at some point, i do like the idea

heres the third and final upgrade to the desklamp, i finally figured out how to cram everything into a box, I used an old base from a followspot that i got from school, was a perfect fit for everything, it is in the background of this photo, (it is the one with the 405W incandescent in it. I took the mogul base out and stored it (it is a really old looking one) and put the ballast and ignitor in the box, then i took the top , and screwed in one of those junction box things into it, then i attached the gooseneck to it, also rather than a  toggle switch, i installed an inline rotary switch

heres the photos of the actual lamp:

and from the box i removed from the bottom of that exit lamp, the former shade/goose neck of my desklamp and a 100W HPS ballast off amazon i built this... a work light,  I'm feeling very accomplished today lmao, now it is time for me to clean up my room... it looks like I massacred a robot in there  


oh yeah, my fan looks like that because it is 8 yearsold and has been hit by a backpack thousands of times, ima use the thing til it dies though

UPDATE: the work light i built seems to mount perfectly behind the window/curtain cover things.

Alright, so i dissasembled the lamp i previously posted, (the one that is sticking out of the curtain shield the reason being is sorta complicated, So i got a new fixture i think its a bulkhead? is that what they're called?it is made by crouse-hinds, anyway, like usual i felt the urge to HIDify it, because i really got nothing better to do, but i have a limited number of ballasts, small ones anyway, and the 100W ballast was in that fixture that was hanging from the curtain thing, so i figured out that the bulb was way too big to fit in the fixture and gave up on that.... then i had an idea, a 70 watt lamp would fit just fine... I only have one of those ballast too though, so i decided to upgrade my HPS deskie from 70W to 100W and use the 70W ballast lamp and gear in a new worklight, which i have no issues with, i actually like it more than the previous one which met its end to make this, because this is  whole lot tougher..... it is very heavy aswell, i kinda knocked it around a bit to see how sturdy it was, it is wonderful lol, and my desklamp is even brighter now