Hello everyone!
This is "lightsforlife" from Gallery of Lights finally getting around to the lighting gallery.
Recently I got my first streetlight from a LED phase that struck my town...
It's a 50W HPS M250R2 FCO. I'm temporarily using it dusk/dawn to light up a part of my backyard while attached to my shed. I'm thinking about retrofitting it to MV using the same HPS ballast.
I'm not entirely sure how mixing different types of HID lamps with different ballasts work, but I've seen a couple of videos of a MV lamp working fine on a HPS ballast.
If it isn't possible for my type of ballast for whatever reason, plan B would be buying a MH probe ballast to run a MV bulb instead probably with a higher wattage (most likely 100W).

If anyone can give me pointers on swapping different bulbs with ballasts that would be great!

Hello and welcome. A 50w HPS ballast will not light a 50w MV lamp. Here is what you should use.

39w MH = 50w MV
50w MH = 75w/80w MV
70w MH = 100w MV
175w MH = 175w MV
250w MH/HPS = 250w MV
400w MH/HPS = 400w MV
1000w MH/HPS = 1000w MV

Remove/disconnect ignitors from all HPS ballasts and any PSMH ballasts you use to avoid damage to the MV lamp you use.

Also:

150w MH = 150w 100v HPS

Thanks! I'm probably going to go with a 175W MH ballast to run 175W MV since both items are found for a relatively good price googling them.

Also of note is that the older 175w and up probe start MH ballasts were labelled for the same wattage MV and MH lamps. They had to stop labelling them for MV lamps to comply with the 2008 MV ballast ban but are still the same ballast.

Yeah a 175w probe start MH is probably one of the cheaper ballasts from that list. I got one from a distributor for around $50 CAD the last time I needed a replacement ballast.

Yeah I'm still salty about the MV ballast ban today

BUT, I'll be ordering the parts soon and probably start the project sometime this month. Thank you guys again

Welcome to LG your right up near where I am!

Thanks!