Lighting-Gallery.net
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Fluorescent05 on September 01, 2019, 04:22:25 PM
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When I apply 12 volts to my XMH car headlight conversion kits, the lamps refuse to strike. The ignitor just pulses without an arc being struck.
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It could be a bad ignitor coil or lamp side cable (insulation defect)...
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It could be a bad ignitor coil or lamp side cable (insulation defect)...
Both lights don't start.
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Measure the "primary" voltage on the ballasts to be sure its at least 12VDC.Maybe there is a voltage drop across any added wiring.
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Measure the "primary" voltage on the ballasts to be sure its at least 12VDC.Maybe there is a voltage drop across any added wiring.
All "12V" automitive electronic is supposed to be designed to run from 8..16V range (some car makers specify up to 18V as "normal range") with full performance, the HIDs are usually designed to operate from down to 6V with some performance reduction.
But you may check, whether the clicking you think is the ignitor is really the ignitor and not the converter (12V-> -400VDC) attempting to start and failing due to weak power supply (the ballasts need at least 10A capable source to operate, so reasonable size batteries use to be OK, but bench top power supplies not).
It could be, when charging the secondary capacitor, the input voltage drops below the minimum input limit (uses to be in the 3..6V range) and so the ballast shuts down. You wont register this by a multimeter, because the undervoltage is too short in time (few 100 us)...
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All "12V" automitive electronic is supposed to be designed to run from 8..16V range (some car makers specify up to 18V as "normal range") with full performance, the HIDs are usually designed to operate from down to 6V with some performance reduction.
But you may check, whether the clicking you think is the ignitor is really the ignitor and not the converter (12V-> -400VDC) attempting to start and failing due to weak power supply (the ballasts need at least 10A capable source to operate, so reasonable size batteries use to be OK, but bench top power supplies not).
It could be, when charging the secondary capacitor, the input voltage drops below the minimum input limit (uses to be in the 3..6V range) and so the ballast shuts down. You wont register this by a multimeter, because the undervoltage is too short in time (few 100 us)...
I was using a bank of 8 D batteries to make 12 volts and power the light. Do I need a car battery?
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Try running the lights from a car battery or a 12V power supply.The D batteries may have too much voltage drop when trying to run the lights.Do you have a meter to measure the voltage?
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It also could be the holder you are using adds way too much series resistance (problem with the common black plastic battery holders - there all the current has to flow through just the spring wire, no real interconnection straps there, so they are good up to 1A, not more).
The best from that is to use the car battery, or some alarm or UPS SLA.
The bench top power supply would have to be rated for at least 10A, lower current limit may prevent the thing from starting up.
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Try running the lights from a car battery or a 12V power supply.The D batteries may have too much voltage drop when trying to run the lights.Do you have a meter to measure the voltage?
Yes. I will try that.