One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm

New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity

After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

Before you changed the ballast you should have checked the bulb contacts for
corrosion. I had a fixture driving me nuts and finally decided to abraid
the contacts by removing and replacing the bulbs about 20 times. That was 2
years ago and the fixture has been working great since.

By the way a tip for anyone with flourscent fixtures in the garage. This
has been posted before but a long time ago. If your area suffers from cold
weather and bulbs don't work well in winter, by those cheap flourscent tube
protectors. They help the bulbs warm up much faster and the bulbs will be
bright even in a cold winter.


"Yong Huang" wrote in message
...
One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm

New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity

After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

On Jul 20, 6:46 pm, Yong Huang wrote:
One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm

New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity

After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

Do the tubes light up when you brush a hand over them?
Check your ground. Tubes must be within 1/2" of a
grounded metal surface (the chassis) or they won't
start.

On Jul 20, 8:59 pm, Father Haskell wrote:
On Jul 20, 6:46 pm, Yong Huang wrote:



One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm

New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity

After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

Do the tubes light up when you brush a hand over them?
Check your ground. Tubes must be within 1/2" of a
grounded metal surface (the chassis) or they won't
start.

One of the tubes will show dim flickering light if I rub on it. The
other one still doesn't work.

To Art, I even moved the other known good tubes into these two
sockets. They still don't work. I checked the inside of the sockets. I
didn't see rust or anything. Thanks.

Yong

Yong Huang wrote:
On Jul 20, 8:59 pm, Father Haskell wrote:
On Jul 20, 6:46 pm, Yong Huang wrote:



One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.
Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:
_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R
Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm
New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity
After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v
Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.
I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.
Yong Huang
Do the tubes light up when you brush a hand over them?
Check your ground. Tubes must be within 1/2" of a
grounded metal surface (the chassis) or they won't
start.

One of the tubes will show dim flickering light if I rub on it. The
other one still doesn't work.

To Art, I even moved the other known good tubes into these two
sockets. They still don't work. I checked the inside of the sockets. I
didn't see rust or anything. Thanks.

Yong
Hi,
Did you check the groundiung of the fixture or not? Those lamps are
cheap, why not try a pair of brand new one. Also there are older 40W
lamps and newer power miser 37W ones. They act different.

On Jul 21, 8:23 am, Yong Huang wrote:
On Jul 20, 8:59 pm, Father Haskell wrote:



On Jul 20, 6:46 pm, Yong Huang wrote:

One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

Old ballast:
Blk to W: 12ohm; Y to Y: 2 ohm
Blu to Blu or R to R: 2 ohm; no continuity between Blu and R
Blk to Blu: 3ohm; W to Blu: 10ohm

New ballast:
Blk to W: 8ohm; Y to Y: no continuity
Blu to Blu or R to R or : no continuity
Blk to one Blu: 1.5ohm; Blk to the other Blu: no continuity
W to the first Blu: 8ohm; W to the other Blu: no continuity

After I turned power on, I checked the voltage on the wires when the
new ballast is installed:
Blk: 120v; Y and W: 0
Blu: 120v; one R: 0; the other R: 140v

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

I don't know what I should measure exactly. Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

Do the tubes light up when you brush a hand over them?
Check your ground. Tubes must be within 1/2" of a
grounded metal surface (the chassis) or they won't
start.

One of the tubes will show dim flickering light if I rub on it. The
other one still doesn't work.

To Art, I even moved the other known good tubes into these two
sockets. They still don't work. I checked the inside of the sockets. I
didn't see rust or anything. Thanks.

Yong

Wrap a grounded wire around the tube (watch the end so
it doesn't short out a terminal pin). Tube should light up
with no problems.

On Jul 20, 5:46 pm, Yong Huang wrote:
One pair of the fluorescent lamps in the kitchen stopped working. I
replaced with the other pair in the same big box on the ceiling. They
still didn't work. Then I bought a ballast from Home Depot, a magnetic
type, and installed it. One of the two bulbs can flash with dim light.
I did this before (in a different place). Replacing ballast and all
was well. But this time I'm at a loss.

Can somebody tell me how I check the ballast or circuit? I did all the
following measurements. Both ballasts are like this:

_________
Blk | | Blu
W | | Blu
Y | | R
Y |_________| R

....

Of all the 4 sockets (for 2 bulbs), one which 2 blue wires go in has
120V. The other 3 are 0.

This is a follow-up to my question. I solved the problem by finding
out how dumb I was. The two red wires on the ballast are supposed to
each connect to each of the two red wires in the box (I mean the box
that has the lamp sockets). But instead I accidentally connected the
two red wires on the ballast to themselves, and did the same to the
two red on the box. No wonder the socket the two red wires go in
didn't have power. It's embarrassing to admit it. But people in this
newsgroup seem quite friendly so I thouhght it a good idea to post a
follow-up. Thanks everyone.

Yong Huang