Electrical Question

[starrfish]

I'm so proud of myself - I finally plumbed my frag tank! Now the lighting. I purchased a used Ice Cap ballast, got it today. When I went to wire it to my lumanarc, I'm totally confused by the wiring diagram on the ballast. It says that the blue and yellow wires go to the light, and the white and black wires go to the AC 120v. But the lumanarc has a white and black (and green) wire coming from it. Shouldn't the white, black and green wires from the lumanarc go to the white, black and green wires on the ballast? Why is the diagram telling me that those wires should go to the AC plug? As you can see, I know NOTHING about electrical stuff. Any advice from anyone who uses an Ice Cap electronic ballast would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Daire

 

[agent6473]

It makes sense, just follow the diagram. One explanation could be that they're using the white and black wires to show ones that connect to a source, but really they could make them purple and pink striped. I'd follow the directions. The green wire is the ground.

 

[starrfish]

It doesn't make any sense to me. On the Ice Cap website they have white, black and green going to the bulb - this makes sense to me because my bulb has white, black and green coming out of it. But the diagram on the ballast has the white, black and green going to the AC plug. If I follow the diagram on the ballast where the yellow and blue on the ballast go to the bulb, how do I know which wires to connect them to on the bulb since the colors don't match.

 

[nitrofish]

It doesn't make any sense to me. On the Ice Cap website they have white, black and green going to the bulb - this makes sense to me because my bulb has white, black and green coming out of it. But the diagram on the ballast has the white, black and green going to the AC plug. If I follow the diagram on the ballast where the yellow and blue on the ballast go to the bulb, how do I know which wires to connect them to on the bulb since the colors don't match.

the colors don't need to match, like agent mentioned, they could be pink, it dosent matter. white and black are common colors for wireing, but if you make the power to the ballast white and black, you cant make the ones to the bulb the same color, they would get mixed up.

 

[starrfish]

Ok, I get it - the colors don't need to match. But how do I know which wires to connect??

 

[denvig]

Is this a Metal Halide ballast or Fluorescent? what model is it?

 

[denvig]

Does this help
http://www.icecapinc.com/pdf/250mh.pdf

 

[nitrofish]

generally blue,red,and black are "hot" and white is neutral. im fairly sure yellow could be substituted for the white . so blue to black, and yellow to white.

id call up icecap just to be sure though.

 

[nitrofish]

looks like either combonation is acceptable.

http://www.diyprojectorcompany.com/other/article_lighting_wiring.htm

 

[starrfish]

It's a 250-MH. Jeff, that diy link helped a lot. I think I can do it now. If you don't hear back from me by later tonight, send the Reefermedic.

 

[nitrofish]

It's a 250-MH. Jeff, that diy link helped a lot. I think I can do it now. If you don't hear back from me by later tonight, send the Reefermedic.

haha, be carefull. 120v might not kill ya, but just make sure no one plugs the thing in while your working on it.