I thought I figured out why my MH ballasts won't fire up my bulbs... but thats not the case. About 90% of the time the bulbs will fire up for about 30 seconds, then turn off. The other 10% of the time, the bulbs will actually turn on and work just fine. I've tried turning on both of the bulbs on the same time, turning one on, then the other 5 minutes later, etc. I think its unlikely that I got two bad ballasts in a row. So I figure I must have wired the thing wrong... here's how I wired both of my ballasts up.
The red wire from the cap is connected to the black wire from the socket. From there, the white wire is connected to the white common wire on the ballast. The green wire from the socket is connected to the ground on the plug. The orange line (120v) is connected to the black line on the plug (hot?) and the remaining white common line is connected to the white line on the plug (neutral?). The black and tan lines from the ballast have been capped off.
I just plugged in one socket again... the bulb lights up. Just as it looks like the bulb is about to fire up to full power, it cuts out and turns off.
I'm going to try doing this on another outlet... maybe the outlet in this room is messed up or something.
Thanks for the help!
-Richer
-Richer