Mostly a lighting channel but you will see some other videos occasionally.. I record and post in my free time so my posting schedule is random. Comments of any kind are appreciated. Enjoy!
I'm surprised a 100 watt MH lamp started on a 175W MV ballast, considering all MH lamps 150 watts and under are pulse start, while MH lamps from 175 through 1000W may be probe start or pulse start, whereas all MV lamps, to my knowledge are probe start. In any event it is never a good idea to run any HID lamp on a higher wattage ballast than the lamp since this causes the arc tube run at much higher temperature and internal pressure than it was designed for resulting in a violent rupture or at the very least severely short lamp life Slightly under driving a lamp on the other hand shouldn't cause significant harm long term. A good example would be wanting to host a party with a 125W MV blacklight but you only have a 100W MH or MV ballast on hand, since 125W MV is a very uncommon size, at least in the USA anyway.
I did building maintenance for 20 years in a large doctors office as a side gig. Those original ballast will last a long long time but the replacements won't last more than 5 years best case . Typical to get about 2 years out of them .
What a sweet fixture. I have two Day-Brite fixtures myself, one just like this with two lamps, and one from around 64 with a GE Bonus Line rapid start ballast. Most three lamp fixtures I've seen have two ballasts, including mine which I have a three way switch installed so I can have low-medium-high.
This is what scrappers do, at least it is common here in Brazil, a country with a lot of social inequality and poverty. Here practically 100% of metal waste is recycled due to its considerably high value.
That's pretty awesome finding a bunch of bi-pin instant start F40s. if I'm not mistaken, these vintage 2 lamp instant start fixtures intentionally used medium bi-pin sockets with the line hot connected to one socket, line neutral to the other socket, and ballast input leads wired to that same socket, and instant start lamps, which are basically a standard F40 with internally shunted end caps, to act as a switch to disconnect power to the primary coil of the ballast when either lamp is removed, to protect a worker against receiving a high voltage shock and possibly falling off a ladder when changing a lamp. More modern magnetic ballast instant start fixtures use single pin lamps and are wired the same way as the older bi-pin instant start fixtures. The stationary socket actually has two contacts next to each other, the lamp pin bridges the contacts and completes the circuit to the ballast when both lamps are securely in place. The problem with these bi-pin instant start fixtures is that installing standard rapid start F40s will immediately blow the filament on one end destroying the lamp because the full ballast input current would be applied across it unless someone had shunted the socket. On the other hand, a F40T12/ IS lamp would cause a dead short across the heating winding of a rapid start ballast. It's these reasons modern instant start fixtures use single pin lamps, with a few exceptions, most notably the F32T8 lamp which typically is run on electronic instant start with shunted sockets or standard sockets with a jumper across the socket, although these lamps are sometimes run on rapid start or programmed start when frequent switching or dimming is required.
You are completely correct other than when you put a modern Preheat/rapid start lamp in the fixtures both cathodes actually survive. I even tried one shunted and one regular lamp to put the full ballast current on one cathode and it still survived, although glowing considerably brighter
@@BROKEN.WRENCH.GARAGE thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge about these old and obscure fixtures and lamps. I would have only guessed that the cathode wouldn't hold the ballast line voltage/current when inserted into a bi-pin instant start fixture. I enjoy learning new things from other lighting collectors on RU-vid. Since you mentioned the end was glowing considerably brighter, I wonder if that had the effect of slightly lowering the required starting voltage , acting like sort of a hybrid instant start/rapid start tube, if you will. I also wonder if using a modern rapid start F40 in a bi-pin instant start F40 fixture without shunting the sockets would result in an even shorter lamp life, than if all four sockets had been shunted so that no ballast input current could flow through the cathodes and make them glow brightly. I wonder when approximately the time period bi-pin instant start F40 fixtures fell out of fashion in favor of the somewhat more common F48T12 single pin lamps and sockets. Maybe like late 1950s???? I do know that the F40T12/CW/IS lamps were still available for replacement purposes until at least into the mid 1990s, they are listed in my 1993 GE lamp and ballast catalog, but none of my newer catalogs list them. My newest GE catalog is from 2016 and it has F48T12 lamps listed, essentially the modern day equivalent to the F40T12 /IS, since they both, along with the 60 inch F40T17 /IS are compatible with the same ballast. If you still have any F40T12 /IS lamps laying around and a slimline ballast for F48T12, I think it would be cool of you to do some demonstrations of them alongside a standard F40T12 lamp, in a future video. Your other many subscribers will probably appreciate it as well .
@@BROKEN.WRENCH.GARAGE sure that would be awesome, since this upload was the first time ever seeing a F40 /IS in a photo or video. I have however, seen a couple of different F48T12 slimline lamps in other youtube videos, and one lighting collector had a pair of ultra rare F24T12 slimline lamps operating in a strip light, magnetic ballast from about 2009, some of the very last magnetic fluorescent ballasts manufacturered before being banned due to federal minimum evergy efficiency standards (thank you, Government for taking one more freedom of choice away from me in the name of "saving me $$$ on my electric bill and protecting the climate " 😂🤬) and he had to remove the bi-pin sockets and install single pin sockets because he couldn't find any purpose built F24T12 fixtures. I've also seen a F40T17/CW/IS lamp on an upload from about 10 years ago, running off a F32T8 electronic instant start ballast wired for 2x overdrive. If you decide to upload a video of a F40 /IS lamp in the future, I along with your other subscribers would probably like to see a standard F40 operating next to it with the end glowing brighter as a demonstration on how an F40/IS lamp is really just a rapid start F40 with shunted end caps making them electrically equivalent to a slimline F48 and hence the slightly shorter rated life than a slimline F48 as listed in my 1993 GE catalog, because all slimline lamps have more robust cathodes to tolerate the higher striking voltage better than rapid start /preheat)
I remember when I was in high school before everything got converted to LED, there were 10-20 (possibly more) of these on each pole around the football field, 4 poles in total. As a marching band geek, I performed during many Friday night halftime shows under these lights. Even after the sun had set, it still felt like daytime! Then after the game ended and everyone left they’d turn the lights off and sometimes I’d sit and watch them glow after being turned off, gradually “fading out”, imagining how hot those arc tubes must be at several thousand degrees! Good times, and yes the new LEDs are just as bright (and more efficient), but you don’t get that nice afterglow effect like with the MHs. And they come on instantly, unlike these which took 5+ minutes to reach full brightness 😂 (which I also thought was cool to watch) My alma mater’s baseball field still has MHs and the last time I was there, the lights were on and I could hear them buzzing from a half mile away! My guess is a bad (or even just loose) ballast. No burned out lamps though. Hopefully they don’t get replaced anytime soon!
Dayburners last a long time, because the thing that wears out light bulbs the most, is the initial voltage of turning them on. This is why if I am leaving a room for 10 minutes, or less, I will the lights on, and fluorescent light packaging used to say, "When turned on, keep light on 15 minutes, minimum."
Wow. That's a pretty bad ass floodlight. Replace the condensers and throw in some new 400W probe start metal halides and you'll have football field lighting in your backyard and make you the Clark Griswold in town for Christmas. Lol I've read on some lighting forums that new probe start metal halides will work fine on a mercury vapor ballast of matching wattage, but have trouble starting and appear as EOL when in fact the lamp is still good for another several thousand hours because metal halide has a slightly higher starting voltage requirement than mercury vapor, which increases as the lamp is used to the point of exceeding the open circuit voltage of the MV ballast, while a MV lamp will run on a probe start or pulse start MH ballast with no problem. Other forums I've read say that probe start MH lamps will not work on MV ballasts, but MV lamps will work on MH ballasts with matching wattages. Have you had any experience with this and if so, how did it work out for you?
I've had good luck with mh lamps on mv ballasts of their respective wattages.. in fact the church I do lighting work for has a 175w westinghouse nema head street light on a pole with a sylvania metal arc 175w lamp installed... which I did myself. And on the other part of the building there are 2 MH prove start wall packs I put mercury lamps in and both are running great no issues
From what I have read on the Lighting-Gallery forum, some European collectors have said that they can get probe start metal halide lamps to run properly if they use a same wattage mercury vapor ballast in conjunction with a low voltage 2 wire parallel ignitor such as the Philips SI51 to help improve starting reliability over time in order to maximize the lamp’s usable life. The low voltage ignitor technique has been used in Europe because of the fact that a simple choke ballast is a way more efficient and economical ballast option compared to developing a dedicated autotransformer ballast with a slightly higher secondary voltage like what is available in North America.
@@worldwidehidcollectorusa3519 thank you for sharing your knowledge. I enjoy learning new stuff from other lighting collectors from around the globe In European countries, since they already use 230V, 50Hz power supplies or 230/400V 3 phase, as compared to North America's 120/240V, 120/208V 3 phase (or 277/480V only found in larger office buildings and large commercial and industrial buildings) it only makes sense they would use the simplest ballasts possible. Although I have to admit, I used to always wonder why other countries used preheat ballasts for 4 foot and larger fluorescent lamps long after the 2 lamp rapid start F40 ballasts became one of the most common ballasts in North America for decades, even lasting into the F32T8 electronic instant start era.
@@Sparky-ww5re As far as I know, preheat fluorescent ballasts are also way simpler than that of rapid start ballasts in terms of their design and the European ones have been wired in series with the tube. Just so you know, I think that a vast majority of countries in the world have adopted European spec lighting. It is also good to know that some Latin American countries and Japan have also been known to use a mix of preheat and rapid start ballasts well into the modern era. Sadly, whenever I have been trying to find knowledge about the unique lighting for the Japanese market, I have seen ZERO collectors native to Japan on LG or Facebook. In those cases, I have often relied on lamp catalogs, lamp spec sheets, Japanese lighting websites, and imported lighting equipment owned by me and other collectors to gain knowledge on Japanese lighting. For many of these sources, I often use Google Translate to read the information in English after taking screenshots. However, I have happily seen a few native Japanese lighting collectors on youtube such as FKT, shimo shimo, and MLZ; but virtually all their content is in Japanese. Even for the Japanese lighting youtubers, I also have to use Google Translate to read subtitles in English if I have closed captions turned on.
Haha that's a really bad power factor! Consuming 15 amps with just ~400 watts, lol!! I'd suggest replacing the old bad capacitors with some modern polyester film motor run capacitors instead, they are awesome for lights. It's what I've used on some of my HID's! ❤ Beautiful lamps, love Mercury vapour a lot!
Wow. That is insane. I'm curious what temperature it runs at. ? I have a 400 watt mercury vapor blacklight blue bulb that I run in my 400 SouthWire Hang-A-Light pulse start metal halide fixture, in the polebarn on Halloween week for the Haunted house setup, and it seemed quite a bit hotter than a 400W metal halide, so one day I measured it with a laser thermometer and I was averaging 620°F.
Is that one of the cheapo ebay ones? I have one too I got for like 16 bucks on ebay. And yeah they get way hotter than mh lamps because that dark woods glass traps heat in
@@BROKEN.WRENCH.GARAGE I don't know that my 400W MV blacklight is a cheapo per se, it's says American DJ and I paid $46 off Amazon. It does however have an E40 base, BT39 shape. Which leads me to believe that it was really designed to run off a European or similar ballast used in 220 -240V 50Hz countries. On the flipside, it was described as a replacement lamp for the UV cannon, popular (or used to be) at large nightclubs and what have you. I would imagine these were most popular from the late 1980s - mid 1990s with the rise of electronic music, notably when Eurodance and House music marked the peak of the rave scene and nightclubs in major US cities across the US and abroad. Regardless, all I had to do to my Hang-A-Light was replace the EX-39 socket with E39, and disconnect the ignitor and the M155 ballast seems to have no issue with running the MV blacklight. The first MV blacklight I ordered, I used it with the ignitor, and during hot restrike time it struck an arc between the leads in the glass stem near the base, melting it and destroying the lamp. This is something to keep in mind if using a pulse start MH ballast to operate a probe start MH or MV.
Black light bulbs get hotter than standard bulbs, even if it’s an HID bulb. My 75-watt Philips got up to 490 degrees Fahrenheit with the base up compared to a regular soft white coated 75-watt bulb, which got up to 320 degrees Fahrenheit with the base up. In horizontal position, light bulbs will get even hotter.
@@BROKEN.WRENCH.GARAGE That’s pretty hot. My 500-watt halogen flood light is even hotter. I can feel the heat a few feet away. It measures close to 700 degrees Fahrenheit on the glass cover. It’s not even the bulb. Those things get scary hot. Metal halide is very hot on the outside, but not as near as bad as halogen for whatever reason. Of course, the halogen light is a lot smaller. I bet the 1,500 watt metal halide bulb is at least 600 degrees Fahrenheit on average. Even the back of my halogen flood light gets so hot that I can barely touch it. It will definitely burn curtains and other combustible easily.
For insect collectors especially in the tropical rainforest these mercury vapor bulbs are best! No need for the white bed sheet. In French Guiana and Amapa' region of Brazil collectors of the rare titan beetle Titanus giganteus these have the best results. The lamps are hoisted high in the tall trees so the males flying above treetops in search of females see the light and are drawn to light bait. The beetles fold their wings and crash land away before reaching the light trap then crawl on the ground to another lamp set up on ground level where they are collected.
Yo one question, what happened to the refractor? Why is it damaged? Was this the one that came with your Thomas and Betts Nema head? Or is it a different one?
I believe this one actually came with another spare GE SA-201 that I used for parts.. and a bird flew into it. But the original refractor is in safe keeping in the attic of my shop
