[Shop-talk] Outdoor metal halide lights...it's not the bulbs

[Scott Hall]

Okay, one of the spade terminals is unplugged from the capacitor. I 
might have done that myself--the fixture is angled down so when you take 
off the cover it dumps out on you and the ballast is heavy.


I, uh, don't know which terminal to put the spade connector back on. the 
diagram shows two; the capacitor has four.


Capacitor top center, connector mid-bottom right:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VolZ4H-61b7ZrB5UPtBmpLy-MFnhMrTu/view?usp=sharing


Then, this link 
(https://www.hunker.com/12002043/how-to-troubleshoot-a-metal-halide-light-fixture) 
references testing the ballast. How? Unscrew the wire nuts and put the 
leads on that?


Ballast:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/18uVa14h9UHZkbVsLvW2H5AgnHoIHXLER/view?usp=sharing


Thanks fellas. This is better than a garage door torsion spring, but not 
by too much.


On 3/23/2019 3:34 PM, Randall wrote:
>> The internet says metal halide fixtures have ballasts. Guess
>> I'll look for that.
> That would be the thing in the diagram that I called a transformer.  Old
> fashioned ballasts actually were transformers, but with cores that would
> saturate and limit the transfer of energy to the bulb.
>
> -- Randall
>