I’ve just noticed your signature, great to see another Judge Judy fan on here! 

We rather like her as well, we have about 140 episodes recorded we haven't watched yet 

I just love the way she takes no nonsense from anybody, I sometimes feel like doing that on here, but I'm not sure how it would go down with some people

Hello,
I want to give you a follow up regarding this topic. I experimented a bit with this ballast and various ways to use a a three wire ignitor with this ballast. As Ignitor i used a 400W Magnetek 230V Igngitor and my 1200W HMI event lamp.
Using the ignitor pin of the socket I was not able to strike the lamp, as the potential between ether one of the lamp line and the ignitor line is too low. Finally I wired it like you would wire it when using a choke ballast (both lamp lines go in the ignitor). However I put an extra switch in the "neutral"  line, and the lamp striked successfully.
However on thing to note, my ballast has an open line voltage around 450V. So it may destroy other ignitors...

best regards,

Alex

I’ve just noticed your signature, great to see another Judge Judy fan on here! 

Alllll garbage, just like cheap Chinese lighting. 

As far as I know, Venture Lighting was known for developing metal halide lamps that had wattages that were not seen on other metal halide lamp manufacturers such as 575w lamps, 200w lamps, 125w lamps 300w lamps, and 875w lamps. Why did Venture lighting manufacture metal halide lamps with such non-standard wattages?

BAH.  Apple, AI, garbage. 

Well it is Apple?, so programmed with American English!

TBH, having a source for newly produced SOX is a good thing IMO. For one it'll probably mean the prices on older lamps won't command such a premium and it'll also mean people who just want SOX lamps to run (instead of to collect) have a option to get those. I personally always liked to save vintage stuff I can't easily find replacements for and run the modern stuff instead.

It's shame that they're aren't readily available in Canada and most of the existing users of SOX here either converted to LED or are wrapping up converting the old SOX lights to LED.

You may inspect that mica, if is burned there or not. If it is clean, it is likely the bag sparking (and the light from that just being reflected by the mica), so there is nothing wrong with the microwave at all.
If there are some scorch marks on the mica, mainly on the top side close to the dome, it may be \needed to remove it and at least turn around, so the scorched edge is at the bottom (there the field is by far not that strong).
And once it is off, you may peak into the cavity onto the antenna (e.g. using a phone or so), if there was flashover, the eventually damaged spot will be most likely facing down, so it will be visible.
If no damage, you can just order some mica sheets to replace the cover once it arrives and the microwave will be in normal working order again.
In any case in the meantime you may still operate the microwave, the damaged spot on the mica cover just has to be on the bottom side (away from the bulb in the sheet metal, where is not that strong field). The oven may be a bit more sensitive to flashovers (so better to not use it for popcorn), but you may still heat up normal food with it, till the new mica arrives or till it starts flashing over again.