Electricians in the house?

[Festus]

Since it’s winter, I decided to set up to do some indoor shots. So off to Home Depot to buy a Metal Halide area light. It’s fully contained with ballast and photocell. Figured this was going to be a piece of cake. Mounted it to a board, wired it up, and….it comes on, but very dim. I painted the photocontrol so it would think that it was “night”. I’m pretty sure I wired it correctly, black to black, white to white, and green to ground wire. The light is mounted to the board sideways so I could aim it. Maybe this is a factor?

Help! It’s been a few weeks and I need my dag fix!

[Andy Stockton]

Sometimes they take 5-10 minutes to start. Just leave it on a while.

[Festus]

No such luck. Left it on for 15+ minutes and still dimsville. The cord I wired it into is off a grinder that died, so I’m pretty sure it’s up to the current flow. The “destructions” state that it requires 60hz to operate. Not sure if a typical wall socket would be that? The box states that the 100 watt bulb has the same brightness as a 650 watt incandescent, which to me would be BRIGHT!

Not sure how standardized the black/white wiring thing is. Maybe the current is flowing the wrong direction and am tempted to go black-white and black-white. But sure don’t want to fry a $75 light.

[Andy Stockton]

AC in the US is always 60 Hz and the polarity is not a problem the way it is with direct current. It will still work if you reverse the wiring (but also won’t change anything). You may just have gotten a defective bulb. It sounds like the halogens are not reaching ionizing temperature.

Do be sure not to touch the bulb. Depending on the case type finger oils can cause them to shatter when hot. How cold is your shop? I would let it run at least 30 minutes before you give up on it. I would throw a few tape layers over the photocell too.

[Festus]

Thanks Andy. The light does get brighter after a few minutes. Maybe I was just expecting more from it. I have a 220 heater in my shop, so even when it’s very cold outside I can get it up to 65-70. It happened to be 70ish when I was playing with the light.

As long as the light output stays consistant I’ll be able to zero in my exposure times. This should be fun!

I’ll keep tinkering with it.

Thanks again.

[Mercury]

[Author]

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