Letting the smoke out DO NOT ATTEMPT THE FOLLOWING!

[DJ88]

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well the problem is in the grounds (yellow wires) I guess that power back feeding throught the grounds smokes electronic ballasts if the ballast isn't on. if they are both on it prevents them from lighting for some reason. Oh well it was fun

Steve,

It wasn't the grounds. You can't hook power supplies in parallel. Those yellow wires aren't the ground you see from the wall of your house. They are meant to run to the opposite end of a lamp to complete a circuit that the ballast supplies a voltage to.

You are lucky it was only a puff of smoke IMVHO.

How did you try wiring those things? By the looks of it you wired the output grounds from two independant power supplies and then turned them on. Am I right??

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give you practice at finding recipts so you can take back the "defective ballast"

Your choice Steve. But don't post it here. I'd prefer to have the trust of retailers if I ever have to return something that actually is defective. I am sure others will agree. IMO it is wrong. You blew it up, you pay for it.