Electrical lighting/wiring help?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey folks,

Well, I'm looking to do another little project for my work. I need to make a little viewing type box, with special green filter, round dot diffuser screen, large viewing lens suspended above the box...so that I can hold eyeglasses between the view/ligth box and magnifying lens to be able to see the very fine/small laser etched markings on the lenses. There is a professional commercial grade device, but I'm trying to duplicate one.

I need/want to use 2 CFL type bulbs, the flat 2 pin 7 watt G23 style.

All of the compact electronic ballasts I'm finding say they can handle either 1 or 2 of the G24q type bulbs, which are 4 pin type bulbs but they have essentially 2 tubes vs. the G23 which is 2 pinned 1 tube bulb. They are also rated for at least 13 watt bulbs, not 7.

My questions are:

1) Is there a way I can run the wiring for a G24 ballast...1 4 pin style to drive two of the 2 pin G23 bulbs.

2) As long as the wattage rating of the ballast is higher than that of the bulb, is it okay to use a stronger wattage ballast on a weaker wattage bulb...I'm thinking it's okay because the lesser bulb will just draw less power from the ballast??

3) Some ballasts are designed to drive 2 4 pin bulbs. If I wire the 2 2-pin bulbs to 1 of the circuits, will the other be damaged or the ballast damaged?

T.C.

[crazy steve]

TC, the ballast has to match the lamp or you'll have shortened life on one or both if it even works. But most modern electronic ballasts will be rated for more than one lamp or combination of lamps, you just need to get the right ballast.

[b.walker5]

TC, further to Steve's advice, the biggest factor for the ballast is the startup of the lamp, and once the lamp is running almost any ballast will suffice, but the ballast must match the startup current or the lamps wont stike. For that reason a twin ballast needs two lamps to operate. As Steve said, for your project you need to find the right ballast for the lamps you want to use.

[DGXSER]

Yep, need to match. Ever notice in most electronic ballast lights, if you lose one lamp, you tend to lose two?

If you look at the bulb manufacturers site, they should sell the ballast, although most lamp mfg do not mfg ballast. Even if you buy the fixture the lamp is made for, you should be able to add some wire to make the ballast more remote if you need it to be, maybe not 3' or wire, but some.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for trying to help! I am just AMAZED at how complicated Fluorescent lighting is! I have learned that the smaller 2 pin bulbs have built in starters, so that they need to use the Magnetic ballast, not the electronic ones! The 4 pin bulbs need the ballast to provide the starter function, and so the electronic ones work for them.

I found some small inexpensive magnetic ballast to drive the small 2 pin bulbs, but from my personal experience with CFL's, they have to warm up a bit before they put out their maximum brightness, and this device would only need to be on for maybe 30 seconds at a time, not left on all the time. Also the need to put in 2 of these ballasts to drive the 2 separate bulbs, etc., just seems like too much!

So...I'm going to be looking at using some small frosted incandescent tube type bulbs that will provide the 25-35 watts of illumination power and will be instantly on and at the desired brightness, and I'll be using the diffusor grid and possibly even some frosted glass to help provide the omni-directional light to shine thru the glasses before viewing in the large magnifier lens....I think this will work, and will probably be easier and cheaper to design, wire, and such! Sorry to have bothered you all!

I'll be posting a possible update to the HID lighting situation for our bikes, have found some interesting stuff lately to make the MOD much better and closer to OEM style HID lighting, with proper focusing projector lenses and such!

T.C.

[DGXSER]

TC depending on cost implications, you could look at LED lights also. They have some really interesting stuff going on with those these days!!

I am definitely interested in the HID work your doing. I still have one of the two I bought in the car kit a while back. Of course I also have the hi-beam, low beam flasher set up to install as well.