Hamilton Technology dual 175 ballast question??

[rmstevensiii]

Does anyone have, or no where I can find a wiring diagram for the Hamilton dual 175 magnetic ballast? 

When I originally purchased my setup (used), I had no experience with MH setups and thought that it was correctly configured b/c it fired the bulbs and everything appeared to be working correctly.  The previous owner only had 1 of the 2 power cords plugged in but both bulbs fired.  I assumed that it was setup and wired properly b/c it worked.  When I pulled the cover off of the ballast about a yr ago to replace the wiring between the ballast and moguls, I noticed that only 1 half of the ballast appears to be connected.  I, again, didn't think anything of it b/c everything appeared to be working.  Last wk, I switched out bulbs, replacing the XM 10k's with Hamilton 10k's.  The Hamilton's, though new, don't appear to be as bright as the XM's were and also appear to be more yellow than white (even with 220 watts of atinic supplementation).  I was under the impression that the Hamilton 10k was a very bright, white bulb... whiter than the XM's.  After pondering the change in appearance, I remembered the questionable wiring inside the ballast and now I'm questioning its correctness and/or safety. 

Has anyone run into a situation like this before?   If this is incorrect and/or unsafe, I want to resolve it ASAP.  I can pull the ballast and take pics of the wiring configuration if that helps.

Thanks in advance,

Mitch

[verper]

It appears from Sanjay's lighting page that the Hamilton (71 PPFD) should be brighter than the XM (62 PPFD).  However, it also shows the color rendition (CCT) to be much more yellow for the Hamilton light (8707 or 8.7K) vs the XM (10179 or 10.2K)  By those numbers, the XM is closer to to true 10K bulb and thus whiter than the Hamilton.

I would say that if your ballasts have been working, then they should be wired ok.  The more yellow light won't seem as bright as a white bulb.

[rmstevensiii]

Thanks for the follow-up Verper.  I did some poking around on Sanjay's site before deciding to switch to the Hamilton's but I didn't look for anything related to how "white" the bulbs would appear.  I didn't know that anyone was measuring and/or posting that type of info.  Now I know.

Pics of the inner wiring for this ballast:

The leads from the 2nd power cord are not connected to anything 'cept he chassis ground bolt.  I've contacted Hamilton and sent the same pics to one of their engineers. 



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[rmstevensiii]

More pics...

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[micki]

Mitch, I don't know if you dislike the color enough to change or not and I don't know where you got your lights.  I got some lights a while back at hello lights and didn't like them. I wanted to get a different bulb and they exchanged them with no problems. 

[rmstevensiii]

Micki,

I purchased them thru Premium Aquatics.  I'm going to see what I get back from Hamilton on the ballast before deciding what to do about the lights.  I will also try and wait out the 100 hr burn in period before making a decision on whether to keep these, go back to XM's, or step up the temp to 14K's.   

Which Hamilton bulbs do you have?

[micki]

I have 14K and love them.