Hi, ive bought a 400w light + eballast from my friend, and when i try to power the light up, the ballast does a *click* i see a little blue light into the bulb, then it turn off. I dont have any light at all!! What could be wrong?

Do you immediately turn it off after that or do you leave it on?
You might see an initial flash and then it might fade to a blue glow - it should then begin to get brighter and brighter.

If you can take a picture of your wiring setup or provide a diagram, that might help.
Also let us know what lamp and ballast you are using?

Were they purchased from LL?

Do you immediately turn it off after that or do you leave it on?
-no, but after 30sec-1min, it does it again

Also let us know what lamp and ballast you are using?
-standard LL lighting kit.

Were they purchased from LL?
-yes

Is it a single ended screw bulb. If so make sure its in real tight and makes good contact with the center prong in the base.

how 'tight' do i need to scre it in?
i forced it a little in the base, but im scared i would break it screwing it.

have you pulled up the little tab in the bottom of the mogul base to make sure it contacts the center tab of the bulb? is all your wiring secure?
these E-ballasts will click when they try to fire the bulb and will do it again every so often to try again. thats normal. dont try to tighten the bulb too much, you will know when it bottoms out, if you tighten it too much you risk breaking it at the base.

Most important, do all your tinkering with the wires and such with NO POWER plugged in. better to be safe then sorry.

which e-ballast is it? the older black one or the newer magenta one?

wiring secure +i got the black e-ballast.


"Most important, do all your tinkering with the wires and such with NO POWER plugged in. better to be safe then sorry."
hehe my dad's an ellectrician and ive been playing with electronics/wires for many years now

lot of problems with the black ballast. I had one work for a year and then it just died. was it used or sold to you as new?

sorry if I am preaching about safety but you can never be too safe. there is a 4000 v pulse to start these bulbs and that can make for a very bad day if you get zapped.

yeah heh, it's an used ballast, bought from my friend.

anything i can do to troubleshoot it? bad lamp? bad ballast? what should i do now?

I'm having the same problem with a black ballast like yours, I wish there was a way to tell
if it's the bulb of the ballast.....will get back to you if I figure it out...

A bit late to tell, but today my ballast did not start (it worked fine yesterday). The symptoms: A few strikes, then a very poor glow of blue light. Waited for like 20 minutes, no result. After that i waited for 15 minutes to let it cool down. Still the same symptoms, no light. Then i checked all the connections (reconnected everything from scratch). Did not work. So, after a breif serch on the LL forums i decided to open the eballast to see if i had fried something (i herd a pop-sound the first time i to turn it on, and no, no shortcut). So i unscrewed 8 screws from the ballast and slid the lid open. Pretty Soon i could see a fried resistor. I think this is a common problem with many eballast (i recognized the symptoms from others on LL forums), and i actually think is a easy one to fix. Now i just need to find a new resistor (probably the only component fryed as it also worked as a fuse), and replace the old one. I might return with the results (here) soon.

Good luck out there all DIY constructors!
/Sweden.