Author Topic: Constant wattage choke ballast?  (Read 564 times)
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!


Worldwide HIDCollectorUSA
Constant wattage choke ballast? « on: February 19, 2021, 06:23:39 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I wonder if it is Possible to make a single coil reactor/choke ballast function like a CWA autotransformer ballast by wiring a Capacitor in series with the choke and lamp where the Capacitor is wired in between the choke and the lamp? If I try to do this, will it damage the choke?
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Medved
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Re: Constant wattage choke ballast? « Reply #1 on: February 21, 2021, 03:56:28 PM » Author: Medved
You won't damage anything and it will work as a really constant current ballast.
It was (before the electronic ballasts took over) even used in fluorescent lighting to get phase shift between lamps in a fixture to reduce the 100Hz flicker (as it is a lead ballast), on top of compensating the inductive nature of tye lag section. It used the same chokes, just with proper capacitor in series.
There was a drawback, however: The lamps and starter timing were designed to get just the right preheat energy with the elevaed currents the partially saturated chokes feed (about 1.6x the rated current). But in the series LC the current remained pretty much the same as the operating current, so after the usual preheat time (about 0.5s ON for classic starters) left the lamp filaments too cold, so they suffered from cold cathode sputtering wear.

But with 2.5s electronic starter it allowed to operate an 80W 0.43A lamp, an ~190V arc, so way more than the 1/2 mains limit for the choke alone. The key is, the capacitor voltage adds up to the mains around the zero cross restrike, so at the end there was enough voltage at the zero cross point to keep the arc stable. However this need the circuit to complete in order to build up the capacitor (resonance) voltage. Because of the high arc voltage, a classic voltage controlled starter concept wont work (no way to distinguish reignition spikes of normal operation vs the 230V mains), the S10e worked more in the preheat -> EOL shut down mode, so just based on time (so it has only one attempt to ignite the lamp each power ON).
The ballast was operating really on its resonance, just maintained slightly detuned by the slightly saturating core. This then meant the lamp was operating nearly in phase with the mains voltage but the capacitor voltage wasof course 90deg off, so provided full peak at lamp reignition point.
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