oh this is bad....

Carolina Dream'n

Carolina Dream'n

Well-Known Member
lol these people thinking it was cops are paranoid as shit. The same thing happened to me, I had an extensive conversation with the cable company. The rfi actually can be traced back at headquarters. They are not there to do anything to you they have standard they have to follow under the fcc. Rfi is one of them.

snowolf41 said:
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!
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Do you have any cable lines in your house that are not being used? They are entenas for rf. if so, unplug that line at the cable inlet that's probably outside your house.

Your other options are fairday clamps and fairday cages.
 
Diabolical666

Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
not sure anyone said anything about cops, just said it didnt make sense. An Apollo ballast making that much ruckus
Carolina Dream'n said:
lol these people thinking it was cops are paranoid as shit. The same thing happened to me, I had an extensive conversation with the cable company. The rfi actually can be traced back at headquarters. They are not there to do anything to you they have standard they have to follow under the fcc. Rfi is one of them.


Do you have any cable lines in your house that are not being used? They are entenas for rf. if so, unplug that line at the cable inlet that's probably outside your house.

Your other options are fairday clamps and fairday cages.
Click to expand...
 
Carolina Dream'n

Carolina Dream'n

Well-Known Member
Diabolical666 said:
not sure anyone said anything about cops, just said it didnt make sense. An Apollo ballast making that much ruckus
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People called cops and robbers (no pun intended). Apollo ballast are cheap, they are definitely not rf shielded. Cable company come out when I was running solis tek ballasts, one of the most respected on the market. So even the "good" ballast produce rfi. Nanolux is the only brand I know that had built in fairday clamps.

And just to clear things up, your neighbors don't call the cable company on rfi 99% of the time, the cable company detects it way before it's a problem. They are simply doing their job or the fcc fines them, if I didn't fix the rfi after being told about it by cable company, the fcc would fine me.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
SnotNazi said:
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?"
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The ballast doesn't have to broadcast to the whole neighborhood, just the nearest section of cable. In this case, in the same room.
 
snowolf41

snowolf41

Member
so you guys think if I put the ballast in a different room think that would help? Or wrap some aluminum tape around it might work
 
Carolina Dream'n

Carolina Dream'n

Well-Known Member
snowolf41 said:
so you guys think if I put the ballast in a different room think that would help? Or wrap some aluminum tape around it might work
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All I did when it happened to me was to unhook any unused cable lines in the spot, and changed the one line to a tv to coax cable instead of standard cable. Problem solved.
 
Diabolical666

Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
Yea, you guys convinced me...now that I think of it, I've encountered some interference from electronics before. So it makes sense now. So the cable company most likely is aware of people s ballasts interfering. Thats why the cable dude was like "whatever you did, it worked" ...he knew what OP did to stop the interference;)
 
JPd9

JPd9

Member
Nanolux makes RF filters that plug into both the supply side and the lamp side of the ballast. One of the main problems when it comes to RFI comes from the cords acting as antennas, especially if they are bunched up. (cords bundled up together looks cleaner but actually makes it a more powerful antenna). I just picked up a set of them for my spot to keep the interference down for the HAM radio operator next door. I will post back and tell you how they work when I install them tomorrow.
 
Carolina Dream'n

Carolina Dream'n

Well-Known Member
Diabolical666 said:
Yea, you guys convinced me...now that I think of it, I've encountered some interference from electronics before. So it makes sense now. So the cable company most likely is aware of people s ballasts interfering. Thats why the cable dude was like "whatever you did, it worked" ...he knew what OP did to stop the interference;)
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Not at all. The cable guys listed to me about 25 things that produce rfi, and ballast was not one of them. I knew what it was right when they said something. They carry a device that can read rfi, that's how they knew it it worked. When he unplugged his ballast (just as I had to do while they were there) the rfi goes away. They never even asked to come in, they actually said they would rather not come in, that they could read everything from outside.

When I unplugged the ballasts and it went away, they even asked me what I had done, told them I unplugged a fish tank light that ran using a digital ballast. They did not even know what a ballast was, he asked me.
 
Diabolical666

Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
Carolina Dream'n said:
Not at all. The cable guys listed to me about 25 things that produce rfi, and ballast was not one of them. I knew what it was right when they said something. They carry a device that can read rfi, that's how they knew it it worked. When he unplugged his ballast (just as I had to do while they were there) the rfi goes away. They never even asked to come in, they actually said they would rather not come in, that they could read everything from outside.

When I unplugged the ballasts and it went away, they even asked me what I had done, told them I unplugged a fish tank light that ran using a digital ballast. They did not even know what a ballast was, he asked me.
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I meant like living in Colorado they know that could be the main issue most likely. Alot of people grow here being legal and all
 
SnotNazi

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
Red1966 said:
The ballast doesn't have to broadcast to the whole neighborhood, just the nearest section of cable. In this case, in the same room.
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How can a weak 60-120hz ballasts transmit a strong enough signal to disrupt your neighborhoods cable. I still don't buy it. The only place I read about this phenomenon is in forums written by people like us....all the scientific forums and articles I read say it can only interfere a nearby area - i.e. only your house or TV that is closest to the ballast - either way FCC does regulate this but you will not be fined for denying access to the cable guy, but they will cut your service if they cannot enter your house and they are suspect that you are the cause. Look at the FCC website for yourself. The cable company can detect minute amounts of interference at HQ that tech guys on the road cannot. Even someone else in this thread said that the cable guy that came to their house was glad to finally find the place causing the interference. Either way, if someone you don't know and wasn't expecting shows up at your house tell them to go away and especially never invite them into your home. What would you rather have, a house with no HBO or a jail cell with no HBO, just saying. Read some forums and you'll get plenty of fixes to limit the leakage.
 
snowolf41

snowolf41

Member
well I'm going to turn the ballast down to 50% and move the whole.tent and light and ballast to a different room then check the am radio.........whats the range for RFI?
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Never had problems with Galaxay's and Quantam's ....... anything cheap or from China is not going to be viable.
Lumatek's have been problems for years....

Look for that open ended line....remove it. Move away from the router........
 
Indagrow

Indagrow

Well-Known Member
Any DIY set ups to reduce detectability besides not clumping wires or having near other electronics... Should I be wearing an aluminum foil hat?

Hmm. @giggles26
 
C

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
SnotNazi said:
How can a weak 60-120hz ballasts transmit a strong enough signal to disrupt your neighborhoods cable. I still don't buy it. The only place I read about this phenomenon is in forums written by people like us....all the scientific forums and articles I read say it can only interfere a nearby area - i.e. only your house or TV that is closest to the ballast - either way FCC does regulate this but you will not be fined for denying access to the cable guy, but they will cut your service if they cannot enter your house and they are suspect that you are the cause. Look at the FCC website for yourself. The cable company can detect minute amounts of interference at HQ that tech guys on the road cannot. Even someone else in this thread said that the cable guy that came to their house was glad to finally find the place causing the interference. Either way, if someone you don't know and wasn't expecting shows up at your house tell them to go away and especially never invite them into your home. What would you rather have, a house with no HBO or a jail cell with no HBO, just saying. Read some forums and you'll get plenty of fixes to limit the leakage.
Click to expand...
SnotNazi, are you too young to have seen an antenna before? Do you know what those do? Any wire will act as an antenna..

 
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SnotNazi

SnotNazi

Well-Known Member
IT WILL ONLY AFFECT A SMALL AREA how do you guys not understand - whatever by all means invite strangers into your home and end up in jail - think I'm being paranoid then by all means continue but imo I would have told them to fuck off. I even talked to an electrician today who said you are all fucking retarded so idk I'm just going to bow out and let you guys do your thing - PEACE!
 
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