How bad is a cycling lamp for a fixture? I have a Hps Wallpak, and the lamp cycles. I think it’s cool looking, but I know it is hard on the components. How bad is it to have it running for maybe 2 or 3 hours?

As far as I know, a cycling lamp causes wear on the ignitor and possibly the ballast insulation if left neglected for too long as the ignitor would keep attempting to restrike the lamp over and over again when the lamp goes out. Ideally, you would want to replace your lamp as soon as possible.

This is indeed the general answer. A more specific answer depends on additional considerations :

Ballast insulation quality varies. Some ballasts don't mind it too much even for years, while others may be damaged

If the ballast is exposed to moisture, its insulation may be bad enough to the point where it barely withstands even normal lamp starting or plain line voltage. In this case the cycling lamp may just what pushes it over the edge

A ballast independent (superimposed) ignitor does not expose the ballast to ignition voltage, in this case the ballast only have to withstand Voc, which any intact ballast will withstand indefinitely

Ignitor quality varies. I have seen an install with 5 floodlights, of which 3 were powered full nights for 12 years with no lamps installed, continuously ticking all night long, and were still intact. (Eltam K75 ballasts and ES50 ignitors)

The worst ignitors i have seen have underrated components which can't survive the "lamp open circuit" condition for too long. In one such ignitor the charging resistor melted right out of the side of the ignitor through the plastic. This is not result of the ignition voltage, but just of it getting powered at Voc (charging the ignitor from the ballast output) for too long

Some ignitors are "smart" types that stop attempting ignition or reduce it to quick attempts with long delay between them if they figure out that the lamp is bad

The luminaire wiring and especially remote ballast wiring is also susceptible to damage from ignition voltage if there is any initial small damage to the insulation

There are two types of anti-cycle ignitors:
1. One that gives up ignition attempts after few number of cycles.
2. One that monitors the lamp conditions and fires to stabilize a lamp that about to extinguish, and gives up ignition attempts after the lamp extinguished.

I know once there was a fire caused by neglecting to use a regular not-HV rated cable from ballast box to luminaire in the case of non-igniting MH lamp! So far, so good, ask me how I got four combos of nice NOS Tridonic 150W chokes with nice NOS Tridonic igintors for VERY cheap haha!

@RRK: Are the Tridonic ignitors you got, anti-cycle or regular?

ZRM 4.5-ES/C marketed as ignition cut-off, not sure if smart enough to prevent cycling, too.

Ignitor being TOO smart is the source of its problems in practice unfortunately...

Though, looking more carefully, it seems that ignitors should be ES/CT version to have timed cutoff.

How bad is a cycling lamp for a fixture? I have a Hps Wallpak, and the lamp cycles. I think it’s cool looking, but I know it is hard on the components. How bad is it to have it running for maybe 2 or 3 hours?

Inexpensive American luminaire is probably using a tap on the ballast choke to generate HPS HV ignition pulses. So yes, cycling HPS is stressing choke insulation repeatedly. How bad is this in practice, hard to tell, as HPS ignition voltage is typically low, less than 2kV.

 

It seems to have the same ignition correct as any other American ballast would.

If you have a wire going from an ignitor to a special tap on ballast choke or transformer, then yes, you have semiparallel ignitor circuit that uses ballast windings to get high ignition voltage.

Why though? Even with a proper ignitor in place they still need to cheat with the ballast windings?

As it was said before already, superimposed ignitor works completely independent to ballast circuitry and even can be housed remotely. AFAIK, superimposed ignitors are not popular in US for some reason and probably not practical with low voltage HPS lamps. To clarify, there is three classes of HID ignitors, parallel, so called semi-parallel, and superimposed. Parallel ignitor just runs just parallel to the lamp. It uses its own HV generator circuit but still subjects ballast output to HV pulses. Semi-parallel uses ballast winding as high-voltage autotransformer. Superimposed is completely independent and isolates ballast from lamp ignition.

Yeah, ignitor circuits are confusing to me. I get it, thanks.

The American semi-parallel ignitors are of different topology than the European semi-parallel ignitors.
Also @RRK: Only parallel and semi-parallel ignitors can use for remote ignition. Superimposed ignitors must be close to the lamp.