I got to a point where I can test my light source (though I am going to redo the frames soon, want them to be a little more snug and sealed) but I ran into a problem last night.

The ballast wire colors were different than in any diagram, but they were hooked up like this:

120vL -> Ballast Brown
120vN -> Ballast Blue
120vG -> Ballast GND screw
Ballast Red -> Lamp Black
Ballast Blue -> Lamp White

No sound or anything, and the ballast had a rattling noise since the day it arrived so I don't know where to go from here? I used a piece of cardboard in the lamp to see if it had a nice indentation after screwing the bulb in and it seemed to. I can't imagine that the bulb is loose, it seems like it would break if it was any tighter. Is the thing wired wrong?

On lunchbreak I came home and reconnected the thing but I bent the mogul tab up quite a bit. Don't trust the cardboard method, I had to make sure that the tab had a visible scraping mark from the bottom of the bulb after screwing it in and taking it back out.

The lamp worked after that and damn is that thing bright when it is just running wide open... The dog and the cats ran out of the room after that thing came to full brightness.

glad to hear it worked

these things are badly put together... if you want, you can pop open the side and pour out all the pieces of plastic inside that make the rattle sound

It works but its probably not safe. The dark brown glass on the base of the bulb is now shattered into little pieces. I didn't really screw the bulb in that tight and the damn thing just broke. Guess there is no way to fix this one.

I had to grip my lightbulb like I was gripping a baseball bat to screw it down enough. I believe that if the bulb is not fully touching the tab on the bottom of the mogul it creates an arc between them, this causes the ballast to stress and is damaging to it.

But your problem is with the bulb, Keith I honestly don't think theirs anything wrong with shards of glass inside the bulb. Many people have shards inside of their bulbs, I believe its common, some people even have enough glass inside to make another bulb! Of course thats probably exaggerated.

I'm a little confused what is broken here? Can you post a few pictures? Did you actually break a component on your bulb physically, or do you think you did because of the glass shards in it?

Don't have a camera, but on the very base/bottom of the bulb on the outside, there is very dark glass around the metal contact point. That glass broke at the bottom while screwing in the bulb. I dont know if the tab at the bottom broke it or what, but it cracked and broke off fairly badly, but not enough to expose the inside of the bulb or whatever (de-pressurize it etc., if they have a vacuum or something.)

It might be safe to put a bunch of JB Weld (is JB Weld conductive?) on it but I have no idea. I dont really want to buy another bulb already (I haven't even used it for more than 30 minutes,) but I don't want it to implode or shatter or anything either.