Fixing cmh315w wiring ... electrician or elecrtonic repairs?

[OldManDallas]

It is indeed

 

I used to grow with warm white fluorescents and wire them up myself in the early 90's which is pretty simple and i do a little wiring in the cabins i build and i have a healthy respect for what can go wrong, ive had my far share of mishaps and thank fk for breakers

[itchybromusic]

i've been involved in the audio industry most of my life , def not a sparky & i learnt my lesson early on 

when a mate came in to work one day with a lill audio amplifier not working

 

he had already taken the housing off & plugged it in to show me it didn't , stupidly without killing the powder

from the wall i picked up the unit to see if i could see anything obvious wrong

 

what was wrong was the fuse holder wasn't holding the fuse in place , so as i moved the unit round to see

what i could see i managed to put a bit of my hand on the terminals of the power transformer while my finger

pushed in the fuse holder which made a connection 

 

240v right into my hand for a second or so , some how i managed to drop the unit & disconnect myself , interesting feeling 240v 

 

with a lill burn spot on my hand i thought " you only get to make that mistake once & get away with so no tempting 

fate has been attempted since

Edited May 2, 2019 by itchybromusic

[pdman]

If you're in the SE pug I can take a look at it as I am still licensed .

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[pug1010]

thanks heaps for all the suggestions. it's all good advice and is much appreciated.

 

i'll have a good think about it ... that might require a vape or two.

 

have a great night.

Edited May 2, 2019 by pug1010

[HarryCallum]

I would recommend electrician for that job, they will do the best work with it.

[benn0]

i've been involved in the audio industry most of my life , def not a sparky & i learnt my lesson early on 

when a mate came in to work one day with a lill audio amplifier not working

 

he had already taken the housing off & plugged it in to show me it didn't , stupidly without killing the powder

from the wall i picked up the unit to see if i could see anything obvious wrong

 

what was wrong was the fuse holder wasn't holding the fuse in place , so as i moved the unit round to see

what i could see i managed to put a bit of my hand on the terminals of the power transformer while my finger

pushed in the fuse holder which made a connection 

 

240v right into my hand for a second or so , some how i managed to drop the unit & disconnect myself , interesting feeling 240v 

 

with a lill burn spot on my hand i thought " you only get to make that mistake once & get away with so no tempting 

fate has been attempted since

Your certainly correct you only make the mistake once, the old man had it explained to me that working with wires one handed as much as you can is the best safety precaution after knowing everything is off, dead and discharged.

Couldn't imagine a shock off a transformer either and frankly don't want too.

 

If your going to rip the ballast apart make sure the globe is cold and the ballast has been discharged, have seen someone pull out a ballast plug from the socket after testing it then let the plug drop onto the metal frame of their shed shorting out the pins while the HPS globe was still hot/red/glowing down, sparks flew across the floor.

 

I've been lucky and made 2 mistakes but only ever getting a shock from my index finger to my thumb on the same hand, once when wiring up a light overhead, I was raging after woods, the person who installed it thought it was a good idea to have the switch upside down and I assumed the normal off position was what you'd expect to be off. The second time I was being lanky fingers and plugging into a socket and my finger were wrapped around the plug. Soon figured out why they must insulate the prongs expect for the last 10mm.

If a single 240v shock doesn't make a cocky tunc pull their head in and respect electricity then they probably deserved to be removed from the gene pool.

 

I'm not exactly sure how a ballast works, I'd imagine big fuck off capacitors/transformers, make sure they are discharged before poking around, probably the best advice I could give regarding ballasts

[DavisTremblay]

Hey pug

Can you post a pic of the internals of your light.

How long does the lamp ignite for?I was a sparky in my old life so the more info you can give me the better. Might be as simple as a tighten and clean. Cheers

PDman

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 Pics can help an electrician to understand the proper issue of the lamp.

[pug1010]

thanks heaps for all the replies. some really good advice.

 

a very kind and patient electrician (danks PDman) worked out my problem. it's a bit embarrassing really ... but after going through all the possibilities (and heaps of pics) ... it ended up being exactly what he thought it was initially - the bloody lamp.

 

i always thought that when bulbs died ... they died. this one confused me, as it came back to life (briefly) ... a few times ... hehehe.

 

he also offered the great advice of taking in the suspect bulb to a hydro shop and asking them to test it on one of their ballasts. i was thinking that i would need to bring in my whole light fixture to test whether the ballast was stuffed.

[micmac]

Yeah 1 of mine did that ,came on and went off by itself

Changed the bulb , fixed it

 

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[merl1n]

 

 

 interesting feeling 240v 

 

 

Interesting??? Hmmmm not quite the wording I'd use PMSL

 

Here's a story for ya

Many, many years ago when I was growing outdoors I had a steel cage over a grow, with an old car parked in front of it, blocking the view (or so I thought).

I'd bought an electric fence unit and wired the cage up to keep the dogs out of it. The mutts only touched it once, they learnt. Had the unit under the bonnet of the car.

My gf at the time called me this day in a flat panic, the cops had turned up. I was only round the corner at a mates place and made the mad dash home

I got home just in time to see this big burly copper grab the mesh with both hands and get the BOOT of his life. I swear ya could see daylight under his feet from the charge coursing through.

Cursing and swearing calling me every F & C under the sun. Fucking funniest thing I seen in a long time. He saw the wires going up behind the front wheel, grabbed the bonnet and bent the fucker up to grab the unit

They tried to do me for a mantrap but I explained I had a legit use for it to keep the dogs contained (they were well known as the local roamers) and it worked. No roaming with the fence on.

They had the device tested. Turns out it put out over 5000volts but at a very low amperage of around 120 milliamp (It's the amps that'll kill ya). But by Christ it would let you know you was alive ZZZAAAPPP

They confiscated the device and charged me for the plants but it was worth every penny to see that copper get a BOOT!!!

 

Elecricity can be nasty stuff, don't play with it. Sounds like you got the right man to do the job. Having minimal knowledge about electrical can be a dangerous thing. Leave it to the pros IMO (or the coppers )