Has anyone had anything to do with Microsun lamps ? I know Paintballer has a lamp but no fixture. I imagine 68 watts of MH to be a bit much, I'd be tempted to try 35 watts (with a standard ballast). It would be nice to be able to see and manipulate/use one to see how much light it produces and to see how quickly it runs up and the restrike time and all that jazz.

I would like to try one of these lights-but don't like the fact that it uses two 25W incandescent bulbs along with the MH bulb.The MH bulb is a special type that runs from a HF squarewave switching ballast.From the info on the MicroSun website you can't run the MH bulb alone.And they don't tell you if the light will work without the 25W incandescent bulbs-and no mention that you can replace those with CFL or LED bulbs.So I passed on the MicroSun lights.Has anyone of this forum tried or own a MicroSun light and can fill us in about them?

Where have ou seen the incandescent ones ?

In the pictures in the website they show it with the Philips strangle-loop LED lamps, which IMO miss the entire point of having a healthier light... (wheh the MH is off that is)



Nice one and i bet the light quality is awesome, but i dont see why you wouldnt be able to recreate this with any desk lamp, open-rated MH and remote ballast

(by remote ballast i mean magnetic, with the ignitor being inside the lamp base. I would not place the ignitor or an electronic ballast remotely, as then there is 5KV on the flex when the lamp is igniting, and continuously if the lamp is cycling - does not look safe to me)

@tolivac : The LED (or incandescent) can be switched off separately. You have the choice of either MH, auxiliary or both. The reason they state you need the auxiliary lamps (either incandescent or LED) is probably for liability reasons. They don't want you to have empty sockets that might become live.

@Ash : The Philips LED loop is offered by Microsun (and recommended by them) but you can put in any incandescent lamp provided they are no more than 25 watts. If I used one, I'd use incandescent lamps.

The price of these lamps is very high, in the order of 250-350 dollars US each and you have to order directly from them, which means shipping costs, exchange, and custom fees if you are outside the USA. If I were to adopt this, I'd make something with a standard ballast and lamp. I'd use an electronic ballast and put it somehow in the base of the lamp (table lamp).

Good-the mystery of the other bulbs in this light has been solved-I would want to use the LED bulbs in place of the incandescent ones.I suppose the other bulbs are good to use while the MH lamp is warming up.At some point it might be worth adding one of these lights to my collection.Will have to look at the MicroSun website again.Figuring it must of been updated.That is good you can use the MH bulb alone.

"68W" look like rather regular 70W CMH...

What catch my eye: On one page they write once 3500K and and on another place of the same screen 3000K...

But the excessive stressing of the "testimonials" everywhere on their site makes me feeling of it as an overpriced junk...
But that is just the feeling I get from their web page...

The 68w rating is probably to discourage someone from purchasing a standard 70w CMH from another source. Nevertheless, 70w (or 68) seems a bit high for a simple table lamp. I would go for 50w max, if not 35 or 20.

They are aiming for the eldery (look at the website). Peeps at that age do want more and more light, they will be quite happy with the 70W

As for the lamp rating - Yep probably. But i see thereother issue, when the socket in the lamp is just ordinary E26, peeps will be tempted to screw in CFL's and such.... And i can expect CFL's catching fire when fed with a HID ballast output

I see they updated the website to show it using those Philips slimstyle LEDs instead of 25w incandescent. I suppose the auxiliary lamps also help it there's a hot restike, sorta like those halogen lamps sometimes installed in highbay lights.

I would expect a hot restrike capable ballast. At least that is what i'd use if i made the light for the general public (magnetic and ordinary ignitor for peeps like us ^_^)

I would expect a hot restrike capable ballast.

But that is not possible with an E26 socket, so you would need some double ended format. The reason is the high voltage required for a hot restrike.