Ballast for grow lamps.

@Tolivac: I know this is a grow light ballast, though i guess i should add that to the title.

So i did another test with this ballast, by hooking up an EOL Feit 40w incandescent, the lamp flashed bright pink and continued arcing for a few seconds before the stem of the bulb exploded. This was in the super lumens mode.

Yes, It is for growing, I've seen many at growing kits on internet while looking for HPS or MH.

I wonder if that "dimmer" is a PWM bright controller, phase cut like normal incandescent dimmer, current limiter or voltage limiter.

@Binarix128: The switch is likely hooked up to the control circuitry to limit the current from the primary side of the ballast.

I wonder if normal HPS or PSMH lamps will work on this thing, or will it only work with grow lamps?

I think it will, growing ones only changes its light spectrum emmition I think.

The humming of the arc that came when you connected the bulb to the ballast should show the power control system of tbis ballast. I think the "digital" claims can mean that the power is controlled by a PWM, or can also mean that there is a microcontroller regulating all the lamp conditions.

It does what it says on the tin, gents.

"digital" means it's electronic. This means switchmode. There's no triac phase cut nonsense. MH or HPS means it will regulate the POWER, not the current, not the voltage, and certainly not the phase angle.

I've got a few of these style of ballast myself, although I paid $40 for my 400/600/1000/SL selectable one. They DO work very well with regular MH/PSMH/HPS lamps (although I believe it always pulses on start, so I don't know if this is moderately harmful for probe start... but it WORKS at least). I've verified the power draw with a watt meter. The selector switch is even hot-switchable, if you ever feel the need to do something silly like dimming a 1000W lamp to 600W.

Since it's high frequency AC, it extends the lamp life as well. The... "tomato gardeners" use these for a reason. They're pretty great.

edit: oh, and the warmup time is also a lot faster. I haven't timed the difference, but I'd estimate 30-50% the time.