oh this is bad....

snowolf41

Member
ok so today im making food with my brother and this cable guy knocks on my door and tells me something in my house is making peoples cable/internet go crazy, so he asks if he can come in and try to look at the wires. Well just so happens that my little grow tent is in the same room as my router. so i unplug the light and then he tells me that whatever i did it worked. now i have a cheap Apollo digital ballast so i know that is the problem. now im scared to plug my light in and to make things worst im in the 4th week of flower. i did move my tent to a diffrent room maybe that would help? if you guys have any ways that you know work please let me know them!
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
If possible shorten the cord from the hood to the ballast would be one thing.
Moving it away from the cable/router probably took care of it.
This is why I shudder every time someone suggests buying a cheap lighting system.
Don't skimp on the light.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
Although I will say even some premium ballast I'm sure put off rfi. If you want to remain stealth something lower frequency such as a hortilux platinum or any of the agro elite 315 ballasts (they operate at a low frequency unlike digitals, digitals run at up to 67 khz . New DE ballasts operate at over 100khz, this doesn't help for rfi .
Cheapest way out is to go with a magnetic ballast but then you sacrifice.
 

dandyrandy

Well-Known Member
If it's feeding back through the power line you can try a corcomm ( or other brand) emi/rfi filter. If radiating it could be tough.
 

dandyrandy

Well-Known Member
An
Although I will say even some premium ballast I'm sure put off rfi. If you want to remain stealth something lower frequency such as a hortilux platinum or any of the agro elite 315 ballasts (they operate at a low frequency unlike digitals, digitals run at up to 67 khz . New DE ballasts operate at over 100khz, this doesn't help for rfi .
Cheapest way out is to go with a magnetic ballast but then you sacrifice.
And digital signals have lots of harmonics.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
They drive by here and point shit at your house. I'm pretty much convinced it's to locate ballasts/grows.
They being johny law. And it's fucking legal here, I wish they'd quit wasting my goddamn tax dollar.
 

Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
idk that just doesnt make much sense...could you clarify whos cable was fucky and why they had to come in to look at wires, seems suspect to me
 

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
Ya after reading this whole post I'm glad I'm not the only one that smells bacon . . . not to freak you out dude but this sounds mad suspect.
 

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
Still doesn't make any sense.......how would a cable guy know you were the root cause? doesn't add up regardless if they cause interference or not, unless you were the one who called there is no way they would have known to come to you. On top of that there's no way that your dinky ass ballast is causing interference on other peoples services. I can assure you this is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
 

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
No, a poorly shielded ballast will fuck up the cable
YOUR cable not your NEIGHBORS come on now guys have some fucking common sense here. we are not working with two ton electromagnets. The field these things produce are NOT that strong. Simple science my friends. Not to get rude but pick up a book sometime and have some common sense. If it wasn't a cop it was someone looking to rob you. If my neighbors are having problems with their cable and the cable guy came over he would ask if i was having troubles and that he would like to take a look if you were. Were you? With the details you've left, it wasn't the cable guy. Did you even see what company he worked for? Where he came from? Where he went after your house? How did he know right away that you fixed the problem???? Did you ask yourself any questions besides " is my light the right one?"
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
in the right conditions a ballast may interfere with the entire blocks cable.
I remember my first ballast and the cable guy we called since we were having problems (even at lights off) with inet.
He says "So you're the ones that have been lighting up the whole block." That ballast was replaced that day.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
YOUR cable not your NEIGHBORS come on now guys have some fucking common sense here. we are not working with two ton electromagnets. The field these things produce are NOT that strong. Simple science my friends. Not to get rude but pick up a book sometime and have some common sense. If it wasn't a cop it was someone looking to rob you. If my neighbors are having problems with their cable and the cable guy came over he would ask if i was having troubles and that he would like to take a look if you were. Were you? With the details you've left, it wasn't the cable guy. Did you even see what company he worked for? Where he came from? Where he went after your house? How did he know right away that you fixed the problem???? Did you ask yourself any questions besides " is my light the right one?"
You need to do some research.
 

giggles26

Well-Known Member
Still doesn't make any sense.......how would a cable guy know you were the root cause? doesn't add up regardless if they cause interference or not, unless you were the one who called there is no way they would have known to come to you. On top of that there's no way that your dinky ass ballast is causing interference on other peoples services. I can assure you this is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Do your research before you open your mouth next time.

It's very simple to drive around with an RF meter and find where grows are located. If it's a cheap poorly made ballast with no fcc testing then it can easily effect to a radius of 30ft. Living in a city that's your next door neighbor. Do a google search next time.

To the op that cable guy did you a favor. The cops don't know yet but if you don't get it fixed they will notify the police.
 

snowolf41

Member
ok well he worked for Comcast, and once I turned the light off it was fixed so I'm going to replace it with a magnetic one. Those dont throw off any rfi right?
 

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
Do your research before you open your mouth next time.

It's very simple to drive around with an RF meter and find where grows are located. If it's a cheap poorly made ballast with no fcc testing then it can easily effect to a radius of 30ft. Living in a city that's your next door neighbor. Do a google search next time.

To the op that cable guy did you a favor. The cops don't know yet but if you don't get it fixed they will notify the police.
Thirty feet is smaller than the width of an average house......do a Google search next time.
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
The way he found out it was you was by taking each coax cable out of the box outside and plugging it into a machine that detects EMI. I doubt he was looking directly for EMR by sensing for radiation. That would be totally ridiculous.. could you imagine that? like searching for gold on a beach...

When he found the one that has interference, he followed it to your house.
 
Top