Icecap 660 wiring question

[dkelly]

I'm reequipping a Hamilton 4 PC lamp setup with a new Icecap 660 ballast and have a question about wiring.

According to Icecap's wiring diagrams, http://www.icecapinc.com/downloads/660wiringdiagram.pdf">http://www.icecapinc.com/downloads/660wiringdiagram.pdf</a> , there should be 4 wires running to each PC socket. For lamp 1, 2 reds/1 brown and a connection to lamp 2 (red->green).

However, the Hamilton only has 2 wires running to each socket.

What am I missing?

 

[james s_]

Best thing to do is follow Icecaps diagram and not worry about how it was wired before. Just simply disconnect the original wiring, and wire the lamps directly from the 660.

 

[rbredding]

that's because PC lamps combine terminals (two positive, two negative) inside the cap...

if the wires combine, then just put all 3 in a wire nut (2 from ballast, 1 from holder) in the example below (two tubes) you'd wire 1&3 together, 2&4 together...

this is pretty common with fluorescent lighting



(see the diagram below)

 

[dkelly]

Thanks for the advise and diagram; however, the Hamilton setup only has 2 wires going to each plug.

Here's two pictures showing the 2 wires.

http://www.apago.com/~dkelly/reef/CIMG1096.JPG" alt="" />

[IMG]http://www.apago.com/~dkelly/reef/CIMG1097.JPG" alt="" />

 

[rbredding]

I can't see the pics you posted... I guess you can see it better here..

left two wires will be wired together, right two wires will be wired together...(within the cap)

in other words, when you wire the PC's.... put both wires of the same color together before connecting to the lead coming from the base....

wire them in parallel (not series) which means that your ballast will have 8 wires coming from it (two each of a different color..) run two PC lamps by using two colors (4 wires) per lamp.

 

[rbredding]

when wiring more than 2 lamps (wiring in series), ignore the "brown and purple" leads that run from the ballast and use the connector "gray" wires to connect one lamp to the other..

 

[dkelly]

I called Icecap this morning and they said the Hamilton ballasts did not have protection circuits (return lines to ballast) that detect a broken or loose bulb. They said I'd have to rewire them completely to use the Icecap 660 ballast.

 

[rbredding]

I believe you can wire the ballast to the lamps without the return loop protection circuits..

I can't find the link that showed how to do it though..