Hqi repair

[pirate]

So I bought a used hqi fixture and the 250 hqi does not light up. I opened it up to have a look and see if I could find something obviously wrong with it, but no luck.
So I opened the ballast box up and there is a M80 ballast( if I remember correctly) and cap inside of it, and in the fixture there is a ignitor. How do I go about trouble shooting it?
I it helps it's a coralife 250 hqi with with 2 65 watts pc and LEDs. I bought it and was gonna turn it into parts, but plans have changed.
Thanks

[BlueTang<3]

Your confident the bulb is ok. Can you check for power at the end caps?

[pirate]

Forgot to mention that. Yes the bulb is good, used a know good one from my existing fixcture. Test the bulb at the socket? What should be the voltage there? Anything to watch out for when testing?
Thanks

[BlueTang<3]

Not super familiar with this I checked one time on a 400w bulb and at the end caps had 240 volts so i would say be afraid of this lol. I was just throwing out ideas to maybe get a response for you.

[pirate]

I'm not too scared of it ( I know I should be but I'm too dumb) I would like to know what I should be gettin before I start poking around with the meter. Any other ideas out there?

[mike31154]

Yeah, I'd be a little leary of poking around the socket with meter leads, too easy to short out one of the leads. Might not get shocked, but the little arc weld you get will certainly get your attention.

Since it appears to be a magnetic ballast, it's likely the capacitor or igniter (possibly both) that is (are) the culprit(s). Either of these shouldn't be too difficult to source & replace. My first guess would be the capacitor. The transformer should be fairly bullet proof and that would be a more costly item to replace for sure.

Here's a link to a pdf that might save your bacon. The Pocket Guide to High Intensity Discharge Lamp Ballasts. Great info & a logical troubleshooting chart near the end. Includes a rather important caution when measuring voltage at the socket, make sure the ignitor is disconnected. Also talks about distance between ballast & ignitor being a possible issue. Apparently there is such a thing as a special ignitor for longer wire runs.

http://www.advance.philips.com/docum...HIDPcktGde.pdf

[mark]

^ nice link

[pirate]

That's what I'm looking for thanks. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight/tomorrow. So now where is the best place to pick up the replacement parts here in Calgary? Would prefer local.

[Delphinus]

I've gotten ballasts and parts before at places like Litemore, Brite-Lite, Calgary Lighting Products, and Westburne.

[pirate]

Thanks I'll be digging into the light hopefully tomorrow and see what it needs. Ill check out the places listed for parts cheers