Fluorescent troubleshooting
On Apr 30, 2:58*pm, Mike Easter wrote:
I have 3 identical fluorescent fixtures in the garage about 15 years
old, 2 bulb 4' rapid start. *A clue to their usage is that none of them
had had any bulbs changed in their life.
One of the units showed intermittent flickering sometimes one bulb was
good/bright, sometimes dim, the worse/dimmest bulb had a dark spot at
the end.
So I changed the bulbs, with no improvement. *Used another new bulb.
Same thing. *Took two working bulbs from the other fixture and put them
in. *No improvement. *I began to suspect something was wrong with the
ballast, but I wasn't smart enough to do any troubleshooting. *All I
have is a little volt/ohm meter I use to troubleshoot computer power
supply problems.
So, I went to Home Depot and bought a ballast aided by an experienced
sales person who understood what fixture and bulbs I had. *The new
ballast was not as 'fat' as the other but was the same length and color
coding of the wires.
I disassembled the fixture/ballast and replaced the ballast using wire
nuts acquired during the ballast trip and reconnected, reassembled, and
resecured the ceiling fixture.
No improvement.
Now I don't know if my original ballast was good or bad and/or if the
replacement ballast is good or bad. *I would like to do some of the
diagnostic testing I didn't do during my original guesstimation that it
was/ must be/ the ballast.
How can I:
* - benchtest my old ballast I removed
* - test the integrity of the new ballast installed
* - troubleshoot my malfunctioning fluorescent
If I could satisfactorily prove to myself that the new ballast isn't
good, then I could return it; but under the present conditions I have no
clue what is wrong.
--
Mike Easter
Hate to go through this, but swap into your known 'good' fixtures. If
it doesn't destroy it, it was ok.
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