Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #16 on: April 27, 2024, 06:24:04 PM » Author: Maxim
Quote from: BT25 on April 27, 2024, 02:16:18 PM This is just a typical 2-wire ignitor that ITT/American-Electric used in the 80's...finding another will be difficult...may get lucky on eBay, or another member may have one. Eric, you sound like you have one.
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Collector of all kinds of lamps, gear, and fixtures.
My favorite lighting technologies at the moment are incandescent and mercury vapor, and my favorite Big 3 lighting brand of the late 20th century is GTE Sylvania.

About that Westinghouse Lifeguard disease, I think I've caught it. Thanks Eric!

	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #17 on: April 27, 2024, 11:30:32 PM » Author: BT25
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First known case of Westinghouse Lifeguard Disease!
If you can say yes to any of the following, you may have it too:
Can't resist buying more even if you already have an example in your collection?
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	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #18 on: April 28, 2024, 12:39:43 AM » Author: Maxim
I-I-I'd be interested, if you're willing to sell that is.
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Collector of all kinds of lamps, gear, and fixtures.
My favorite lighting technologies at the moment are incandescent and mercury vapor, and my favorite Big 3 lighting brand of the late 20th century is GTE Sylvania.

About that Westinghouse Lifeguard disease, I think I've caught it. Thanks Eric!

	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #19 on: April 28, 2024, 01:29:35 AM » Author: Medved
But it seems to be an open board, so depends on what is wrong with it, there is some chance for it to get fixed... Does someone have a detailed picture of it (both component, as well as trace side), to determine the circuit? Or already the circuit?
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	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #21 on: April 28, 2024, 10:53:46 AM » Author: Maxim
Will do, RRK and Medved. I'll have a look this evening and let you know my findings. The lamp might be at fault? Not certain. It's a clear 70W 55V BT-25 lamp from 1985 (Philips-Westinghouse).
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Collector of all kinds of lamps, gear, and fixtures.
My favorite lighting technologies at the moment are incandescent and mercury vapor, and my favorite Big 3 lighting brand of the late 20th century is GTE Sylvania.

About that Westinghouse Lifeguard disease, I think I've caught it. Thanks Eric!

	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #22 on: April 28, 2024, 12:26:41 PM » Author: Mandolin Girl
Something like this is invaluable for checking to see if the arc tube in a lamp is still good.
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	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #23 on: April 29, 2024, 12:58:45 AM » Author: Medved
The ignitor you can check using an (old) AM radio. When the ballast with ignitor is powered without a lamp, the ignitor makes a lot of RF mess that could be picked up by the radio (mainly at the bottom end of the AM band). Prezence of a buzz signalizes the ignitor is trying to do something, but it still could have some HV insulation problem. After you manage to pick up the resulting buzz, try to connect a piece of wire (0.5..1m spread across the desk; be careful to have its lose end well insulated) to the lamp live terminal. If the buzz becomes way stronger in the radio, it means the ignitor is generating the high voltage, so very likely is OK. I also wouln't be surprized the lamp did not survive the transport after being used for some time (spot welds connecting the arctube tend to weaken over time and then crack way easier when the lamp is moved around). To test it you may also use one of the ijstant stsrt fluorescent ballasts. Normally these are able to ignite quite fatty discharge in HPS, so good to test the lamp integrity. Of course, you should not run it for longer than a few second, such low power is not able to warm up the electrodes so the HPSwill suffer on it, but for a brief check of the lamp it is good.
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	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #24 on: April 30, 2024, 03:52:26 PM » Author: arcblue
I had an ITT wall pack fixture that used a ballast with the two-wire ignitor; when I realized I couldn't use one of the standard 3-wire ignitors (which I have some spares of) to repair it when it failed, I changed out the entire ballast. I'm not so good at repairing electronics on the component level, but admittedly, the open style ignitors like this would be fairly simple to repair even if one's soldering skills aren't so good. Just have to find and order the correct component. Makes sense the capacitor would be the most likely failure point. My DR-70H actually was a DR-70M originally, with the HPS ballast taken from a later model Electripak medium-base HPS version, so it has a standard ignitor. I'm very fond of those deluxe yard lights. I've never encountered a choke in an HPS ballast that had problems...but have changed out many failed or failing ignitors. But there certainly are other possibilities, such as broken solder joints, broken ballast wire connections, broken weld or connection within the lamp itself. The field test for a 55V HPS fixture is to try an incandescent lamp in the socket, as mentioned previously in this thread.
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	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #25 on: April 30, 2024, 05:35:03 PM » Author: Maxim
Thanks for your input, arcblue. Honestly, I could've just retrofitted this to incandescent or SBMV in the field. SMH lol.
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Collector of all kinds of lamps, gear, and fixtures.
My favorite lighting technologies at the moment are incandescent and mercury vapor, and my favorite Big 3 lighting brand of the late 20th century is GTE Sylvania.

About that Westinghouse Lifeguard disease, I think I've caught it. Thanks Eric!

	Re: ITT 70W 55V HPS Yard Light Troubleshooting « Reply #26 on: May 07, 2024, 06:37:23 PM » Author: BT25
Quote from: Maxim on April 27, 2024, 06:24:04 PM Eric, you sound like you have one. Yep, I have two...I'll never need them. Shoot me a PM if you want them.
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First known case of Westinghouse Lifeguard Disease!
If you can say yes to any of the following, you may have it too:
Can't resist buying more even if you already have an example in your collection?
Bank account/CC statement shows unnecessary spending?