I was doing some tests with my Nanolux ballast on probe start lamps, and I started to see blackening on my cheap Chinese MV. But it was on the side without the probe, which would mean that the ballast can run probe start lamps by pulse starting the other end.
I also noticed that when starting my Sylvania 400 Watt HPS at 50 percent power, the ends looked very silvery and blackened, but at high power, it all went away.

The blackening has nothing to do with the ballast being pulse start.
The only possible drawback of operating probe start lamp on a pulse start ballasts (assume all the other characteristic equal) is the risk of an arc ignited in the outer bulb. If that is eliminated in one way or another, there is no difference anymore.
So if you see a premature lamp blackening, it is caused by either incorrect ballast characteristic (the ignition pulse does not count here), bad lamp quality, too short time for the lamp to be left operating, so being able to recover after ignition (if the darkening is in fact the mercury which was not evaporated, or if the electrodes were not able to rebuild the emission layer from the barium reservoir,...).

It's probably because of low lamp quality.

Personally, I wouldn't even TRY what you are doing, as I've had lamps explode from running them on the wrong gear, even for a short time.

Personally, I wouldn't even TRY what you are doing, as I've had lamps explode from running them on the wrong gear, even for a short time.

Too much power?

Too much power?

Some lamps don't play well with the wrong ballast!
I ran a 50 watt pulse start MH on an F32T8 ballast and it exploded in my face...

What kind of start was the ballast? Seems odd.

What kind of start was the ballast? Seems odd.

Instant start, I hit the resonant frequency of the arc tube and it exploded. So rule of thumb is, always use the right gear when running lamps

I haven't tried it out on probe start MH lamps yet, but it should do well because it seems to be designed for MH lamps in general.

No, and if its that grow lamp ballast from the previous discussions, we have all told you the same about it every single time

No, and if its that grow lamp ballast from the previous discussions, we have all told you the same about it every single time

The ballast I'm talking about is not the one from other topics, but it seems like this one is more vague about its features, as the power control knob could mean wattage or equivalent brightness.

The ballast I'm talking about is not the one from other topics, but it seems like this one is more vague about its features, as the power control knob could mean wattage or equivalent brightness.

And increasing power to the wrong lamp can cause it to possibly explode, like I've said before. Why don't you listen?

I set the ballast to 50 percent power, and for now, let's assume that's 200 Watts of power being delivered to the lamp.
And MV can be overdriven without exploding, so if it's one of the fake 175 Watt lamps, (actually 125!) it would be overdriven by 75 Watts. Not too bad.
But if it's a real 175 Watt MV, it would only be 25 Watts overdrive.

I set the ballast to 50 percent power, and for now, let's assume that's 200 Watts of power being delivered to the lamp.
And MV can be overdriven without exploding, so if it's one of the fake 175 Watt lamps, (actually 125!) it would be overdriven by 75 Watts. Not too bad.
But if it's a real 175 Watt MV, it would only be 25 Watts overdrive.

Still not a good idea, and you aren't listening to us, overdriving any lamp is not good and very dangerous! I ran a 50 watt MH lamp overdriven, and it exploded, wound up with glass in my face, the last piece of which came out around the time I was 27, and I was 18 at the time it happened.
With that being said, don't ask about overdriving HID lamps again, and listen to me when I tell you not to talk about this.
Lighting-gallery.net, it's administrators, and webmaster are not liable for any damages that may come from something you try when we told you not too.
Posting about this again you may get a temporary ban from lighting-gallery.
Thread closed!