Fixing Juwel Light Bar.

bobbypnut7 said:

doresy said:

bobbypnut7 said:

haowin said:

nice one on the creativity.
im tryin to fix mine but it seems to be quite unique. most of the ballasts i see in this thread have 8 outputs, mines only 3
Im thinking of changing to saltwater. Any help would be great.
View attachment 60110View attachment 60111
(yea i busted it open , figure duct tape should do)

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Hi, had trouble with my light bar to, when i opened it i found that i had 3 instead of 8.
Did you find an answer for this problem, as i cant seem to find it on this forum.
Regards
bobbypnut

Click to expand...

Best way is to post photos of your connections

Click to expand...

Hi Doresy, having problems uploading pics but my problem is the same as haowin's on page 4 (middle)of this thread.
bobbypnut

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Hi all
very interesting thread and good to see some of you are having a go at diy instead of spending a fortune on new lighting units.
As a lighting engineer i have quantities of various electronic ballasts if anyone is struggling to locate.And would be happy to help/advise on the subject.Just drop me a pm.

regards ade

Welcome to the forum Ade.d.
I am like most people here who simply have a practical knowledge of lighting and fixtures. We always welcome people who know the finer points of getting things working.

ade.d said:

bobbypnut7 said:

doresy said:

bobbypnut7 said:

haowin said:

nice one on the creativity.
im tryin to fix mine but it seems to be quite unique. most of the ballasts i see in this thread have 8 outputs, mines only 3
Im thinking of changing to saltwater. Any help would be great.
View attachment 60110View attachment 60111
(yea i busted it open , figure duct tape should do)

Click to expand...

Hi, had trouble with my light bar to, when i opened it i found that i had 3 instead of 8.
Did you find an answer for this problem, as i cant seem to find it on this forum.
Regards
bobbypnut

Click to expand...

Best way is to post photos of your connections

Click to expand...

Hi Doresy, having problems uploading pics but my problem is the same as haowin's on page 4 (middle)of this thread.
bobbypnut

Click to expand...

Hi all
very interesting thread and good to see some of you are having a go at diy instead of spending a fortune on new lighting units.
As a lighting engineer i have quantities of various electronic ballasts if anyone is struggling to locate.And would be happy to help/advise on the subject.Just drop me a pm.

regards ade

Click to expand...

Oh wow, a lighting engineer I started this thread and believe that I have helped many members by it but at times got a little beyond my self proclaimed expertise! Happy to hand over that responsibility to you before I light someone up!

doresy said:

ade.d said:

bobbypnut7 said:

doresy said:

bobbypnut7 said:

haowin said:

nice one on the creativity.
im tryin to fix mine but it seems to be quite unique. most of the ballasts i see in this thread have 8 outputs, mines only 3
Im thinking of changing to saltwater. Any help would be great.
View attachment 60110View attachment 60111
(yea i busted it open , figure duct tape should do)

Click to expand...

Hi, had trouble with my light bar to, when i opened it i found that i had 3 instead of 8.
Did you find an answer for this problem, as i cant seem to find it on this forum.
Regards
bobbypnut

Click to expand...

Best way is to post photos of your connections

Click to expand...

Hi Doresy, having problems uploading pics but my problem is the same as haowin's on page 4 (middle)of this thread.
bobbypnut

Click to expand...

Hi all
very interesting thread and good to see some of you are having a go at diy instead of spending a fortune on new lighting units.
As a lighting engineer i have quantities of various electronic ballasts if anyone is struggling to locate.And would be happy to help/advise on the subject.Just drop me a pm.

regards ade

Click to expand...

Oh wow, a lighting engineer I started this thread and believe that I have helped many members by it but at times got a little beyond my self proclaimed expertise! Happy to hand over that responsibility to you before I light someone up!

Click to expand...

Glad to help
Most electronic ballasts have a simple wiring diagram printed on the body and as long as you follow that you shouldnt have any problems.
Although there are a couple of rules, most lamp wires are mounted in pairs(to 1 end of the lamp) unless there is a shared wire which some ballasts use and you can get any wiring configuration/diagram by going onto the ballast manufacturers website anyway.
These electronic ballasts dont generate high temperatures so it shouldnt be a problem mounting them in a confined hood space as long as it is pretty water tight,they dont like moisture and will blow if moisture gets into the casing.
ade

Hi

I was (and still am) as happy as larry after seeing this section. No need to say why I am really but the words, Jewel, Lighting units and Poor Quality, fit nicely together. Having now been through 3 units, one being nearly £100, I feel its time to stop.

I have a question. Has anyone converted a T8 lighting unit from a Jewel Trigon 350 (my lighting units are both broken) to use an external ballast? Personally I don't really have any faith in the Jewel units and the light seals, even if they are new. I'd like to take a different approach and try and eliminate further failure from water seeping through the seals into the unit. I have cut one of my units up and removed the ballast but it got me thinking that if water has gotten in once (even with new seals) it will only get in again. An external ballast using the same type of ballast unit would expose the wires etc which would not be safe but if an external ballast could be used it would be safe. I'd just drill through the top of the light unit, bring the wires from the light unit into the new external ballast, seal the hole with silicon and hey presto.

For example, the Arcadia Ultraseal?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Ant

Hi all, I'm going crazy with this diy'ing!!!

ok, here's the situation. got a new ballast for my rio 240 - T8 2x36w. strip down the light unit and study the wiring. then place the new ballast and connect the wiring. on test, i got it working... well sort off. it 'flashed' twice then nothing, no lights. the tubes used were Aquaglo 40W.

i've checked the connection and also the tubes (using Arcadia light controller) to make sure it was okay.

does anyone got any suggestions what might be causing this?

thanks.

bardbj said:

Hi all, I'm going crazy with this diy'ing!!!

ok, here's the situation. got a new ballast for my rio 240 - T8 2x36w. strip down the light unit and study the wiring. then place the new ballast and connect the wiring. on test, i got it working... well sort off. it 'flashed' twice then nothing, no lights. the tubes used were Aquaglo 40W.

i've checked the connection and also the tubes (using Arcadia light controller) to make sure it was okay.

does anyone got any suggestions what might be causing this?

thanks.

Click to expand...

You will probably find that the new one is wired differently to the old one. Did you try to wire it the same as the originol ballast or did you study the wiring diagram that is on top of the new ballast & wire to that?

Hi Dorsey,
Well it seems quite a long while now since I PM'ed you asking if you would be kind enough to submit an article on the subject of repairing a light bar, little did I know then how massive a thread this would become. Just goes to show that something so sublime can spawn a myriad of views and response to this very valuable and informative article.
Many thanks for producing this for TFF
Regards
BigC

BigC said:

Hi Dorsey,
Well it seems quite a long while now since I PM'ed you asking if you would be kind enough to submit an article on the subject of repairing a light bar, little did I know then how massive a thread this would become. Just goes to show that something so sublime can spawn a myriad of views and response to this very valuable and informative article.
Many thanks for producing this for TFF
Regards
BigC

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Hey, BigC

Yes it does seem a while ago now. I had fun doing the original article and as far as I know my repair is still good as I hope the ones done by other members after reading this thread. I would also like to share the thanks with all those who have added stuff to the thread.
eBay has also been a great supplier of ballasts (there is a ballast for the Juwel 125 just going out right now)

Thanks for the recognition

Doresy

doresy said:

BigC said:

Hi Dorsey,
Well it seems quite a long while now since I PM'ed you asking if you would be kind enough to submit an article on the subject of repairing a light bar, little did I know then how massive a thread this would become. Just goes to show that something so sublime can spawn a myriad of views and response to this very valuable and informative article.
Many thanks for producing this for TFF
Regards
BigC

Click to expand...

Hey, BigC

Yes it does seem a while ago now. I had fun doing the original article and as far as I know my repair is still good as I hope the ones done by other members after reading this thread. I would also like to share the thanks with all those who have added stuff to the thread.
eBay has also been a great supplier of ballasts (there is a ballast for the Juwel 125 just going out right now)

Thanks for the recognition

Doresy

Click to expand...

Anyone any ideas where to get a 2x18w ballast, cant seem to find any on ebay. My unit went last night (Juwel 350 2x15W 55cm).

Im operating on her later to test the ballast.

regards

Scott

ant_howell said:

For example, the Arcadia Ultraseal?

Click to expand...

I'm looking at doing the same thing - I really cant see me being able to do all that clever stuff with electrics was a good read though and at one point i did start to think, maybe I could do it, but then I realised I would probably blow myself up - had to ask Nobodyofthegoat (Steve) to put a plug on a powerhead for me so I have no chance do i

So, back to the arcadia ultraseal external ballast - can i use that?

Seffie x

Has anyone tried this one a hagen fluval tank, its the biggest tanks they do 1200 deep ? di

I am not sure this comment is relevant to the present discussion but a ballast does not care much where you put it. When I decide to upgrade a lighting fixture, I always mount the new ballast outside the hood on the back. What that does for me is puts the heat load of a bigger ballast in a place where it will get plenty of air flow and at the same time removes the ballast heat from the light strip. A side benefit for a tank that does not have a glass cover is that the ballast is not exposed to the moist atmosphere under the tank's lid. I like it when things last a long time, being as cheap as I am.

Will this ballast be suitable to replace the one in a Juwel Vision 260?? I assume it is OK as it is 2 x 36 watt. Just some clarification before I place the order would be great!

Thanks

Ballast

Great article doresy. I got as far as taking the ballast out but was thrown when I saw it as it is nothing like the ones I've seen in this article. There is no casing around it at all. It's just glued onto a rubber matting. I put this down to the age of the unit and so I decided to buy a spend the £60 required for a new lighting unit. I'll be trying the rest of your instructions out on the old unit anyway just in case I need to do this again at some point with my new unit.


I've attached a photo of the ballast for interest.