400W MH Ballast Wiring Help!

Hello everyone! I had a similar post up in indoor growing and realized I may get some more info on this thread, so if you already saw this I apologize but I need some help.

I have a 400w Metal Halide that I bought on ebay years ago and never used due to the fact it is not assembled/wired. Well I am wanting to take it to the next level and use a little HID!

So, I need to know how to wire this beast up. The diagram on the ballast lists all the wires coming off of it: 277V, 240V, 208V, 120V, then two that say COM. These are all coming off the smaller part of the coil, then off the large side one wire that says CAP. Now, after doing a lot of reading it has been made clear to me that MH does not need any capacitors or ignitors, so it looks to me like that CAP wire is going to go to the socket on one side. But what do I do with all these "V" wires? What gets grounded? What gets 110? Please somebody or many of you help me out on this.

mine looks exactly the same but hps ....
pretty simple theres actual picturesa online that could be visually helpin with a step by step..
but from wat i can say right now...
120v from ballast wire to black coated wire from socket
com from ballast wire to white coated wire from socket

black to 120 v
com to white for the extension cord to plug in the ballast

ull need a 15+ gauge 13+amp extension cord ,almost any 3 prong cord

u need to find out which wires to connect .....ex. theres 2*120v wires n 2*com wires one from the small coil n one from the large coil i just checkd mine n its all tangled up so sorry i cant really give u an info right now......its quicker to google ....how to wire ballast.cannabis grow on google thats how i started......ye that stupid charts they put on ballasts is impossible to read for 1st timersw

first of all, great pics...one suggestion, rotate them before posting...at least the pics with text...reading a schematic sideways is really hard, for me, but I'm kinda high atm. lol
second, I'd throw that old thing out...you're begging for a fire, IMO.

icewaterbong gave you good advise, I'd go with that. it's a good thing all your wires are labeled cuz it would be really confusing otherwise as they're all the same color.

good luck

Hey Listerfiend, are you still around? Holler back if you still need help and I'll get you some pics of the insides on my MH and offer insights on the mounting and grounding n such. Hope you're still alive buddy.

Halides do need a cap.

Read:
http://www.venturelighting.com/TechCenter/Capacitors.html

OregonMeds said:

Halides do need a cap.

Read:
http://www.venturelighting.com/TechCenter/Capacitors.html

Click to expand...

My 1K MH does come with an oil-filled capacitor from the factory so it must be true.

UserFriendly said:

Hey Listerfiend, are you still around? Holler back if you still need help and I'll get you some pics of the insides on my MH and offer insights on the mounting and grounding n such. Hope you're still alive buddy.

Click to expand...

haahaha yeah Im still kickin. I decided to just go ahead and get a new 400w hps set up with a hortilux. I kept having this wierd vision of that thing burning down my house. lol not worth it! Thanks for all the help everyone. Anyone know definitively if I can run that MH bulb in my HPS ballast? I see some threads say you can, some say it MUST be a conversion bulb due to the ignitor. Hmmm Im not gonna try it but that would be pretty cool to able to use it for veg though.

ballast u bought should say if it can use both hps n mh . if no then theres a fire for u. fires only happen if u exceed item requirements or u force things that are not compatible. what im saying is ur old ballast will work just fine man. i guess u got overwhelmed by the instructions