Light Repair or Re-Configure?

[saltnewb]

So I have this 24" light fixture with 4 T5HO and 2 LED moonlights, no brand name found anywhere on it, and when I took it apart to replace the 2 LEDs, I found out I bought the wrong type of LEDs. Looks like CREE plates and I bought just LED bulbs. Oh well, that's my bad for not checking before making my order.

The issue now is the unit only turns on 1 T5HO light, before all 4 T5s turned on and I was able to have 2 on or all 4 on at a time.

I don't have any money to buy a new fixture and noticed the wiring in the fixture is bad and I figure something broke or frayed or something. A lot of crunchy wires in there.

So the question is, do I take it all apart and replace all the wiring and put it back together or do I take it all apart and build a new housing out of wood with all new wiring? I'm leaning towards just replacing the wiring and leaving it in it's current setup.

What are your thoughts/experiences?

 

[mannyhernz]

Its the ballast

 

[saltnewb]

The wires in the unit are sweating and crunchy. Plus the unit, aside from the leds, was working fine before I took it apart.

 

[saltnewb]

So I took apart the fixture and found 2 LED Drivers, PXY0301, and then a couple circuit boards. Nothing in there looks like a light ballast. Not sure how to go forward at this point. No need to buy a retrofit kit as it doesn't have anything I don't already have. Now I'm thinking about using what I have, building a canopy and buying two T5HO ballast, and looking into a LED Moonlight, so 3 switches total.

Thoughts?

 

[bblumberg]

Follow the wires from the T5 endcaps and see where they go (following all of the way to the switches and mains power connections). These must connect to the ballasts somewhere, otherwise you would have never had any light from the T5 lamps. I can see the sense of replacing the sweating, crunchy wiring (whatever that means). The LED moonlights should not need much in the way of drivers so I don't understand why you should have 2 LED drivers in there. I would not be surprised if these were your T5 ballasts. If you are budget constrained, the first thing I'd try is to replace the wiring with known good wiring and see how that works. If that doesn't work, then you could try replacing the T5 ballasts, assuming that you have located them by then. What brand is this fixture?

Bruce

 

[saltnewb]

Unfortunately there is no brand anywhere on any of the components with this fixture. I wish I knew. I'll post some pictures of the insides so you can see what i'm looking at as well.

 

[saltnewb]

The clock/program is the circuit board on the left. The bottom LED driver was going to the moonlights and that's it. The top LED driver is what powers everything else, I think. I think this because when it isn't connected nothing turns on, simple enough right? The only other thing not shown in the picture is a long skinny circuit board, 2 of them where the end caps connect too.

 

[saltnewb]

So my response to this mess was to buy 2 Centium ICN-2S54-T ballasts. I'm in the middle of building a canopy now and will have 2 bulbs on each ballast, controlled by light switches for now. This is only a temporary solution for a temporary tank. I'm just trying to get by until I setup my big tank with great gear.

 

[bblumberg]

So my response to this mess was to buy 2 Centium ICN-2S54-T ballasts. I'm in the middle of building a canopy now and will have 2 bulbs on each ballast, controlled by light switches for now. This is only a temporary solution for a temporary tank. I'm just trying to get by until I setup my big tank with great gear.

The clock/program is the circuit board on the left. The bottom LED driver was going to the moonlights and that's it. The top LED driver is what powers everything else, I think. I think this because when it isn't connected nothing turns on, simple enough right? The only other thing not shown in the picture is a long skinny circuit board, 2 of them where the end caps connect too..

This seems to be a very strange setup. I suppose it is possible that those long, skinny circuit boards are the T5 ballasts. I think that you did the right thing buying new ballasts. I don't much like the non-water-resistant connections for the T5s, but perhaps you can limp along with these until your new setup is ready.

Bruce

 

[saltnewb]

This seems to be a very strange setup. I suppose it is possible that those long, skinny circuit boards are the T5 ballasts. I think that you did the right thing buying new ballasts. I don't much like the non-water-resistant connections for the T5s, but perhaps you can limp along with these until your new setup is ready.

Bruce

Glad to see I'm not alone on the confusion under the hood here. I know water and salt get everywhere, but I will be taking precautions to minimize that issue as much as possible.