Need a replacement PC ballast?? Perfect for nanocubes!! $3?!

[reefermike]

heyyyy i was going to try and cram 5 lol... i was thinking about those metal connecters as well.. where did you pick them up? radio shack or something? and i think im going to change ballasts. I only cut one open so at least it wasn t a complete waste.

You would figure a phillips ballast would be great... well try hooking one up for our purpose lol.


By the way...what are you guys going to try and mount on? Im going to use a peice of 1/8" aluminum and follow the nanotuners heatsheild. I might even used some aluminum reflect tape to make my reflector as the aluminum isnt to shinny. Ill post pics on the way. As you shoudl continue to as well! :lol3:

 

[reefman23]

I actually havent picked them up yet, but they have something similar at radioshack... Im going to check out a huge electronics store called Fry's to see what they have.

We plann on just using some aluminum sheet like you too... may not be too worried about reflectivness as they are going to be pretty crammed anyways!

Jesse

BTW, we'll start a new thread if we do go forward with that project.

 

[Trogdor]

This is just random thinking...

As for mounting the circuit board. Look to see if you can find some good potting compound (or just a crap load of silicone). Cut a plastic water bottle or something non-conductive that is the slightly larger than the circuit board. Then pot the board in the bottle. It will give a water tight seal around the ballast. I would look into getting some good connectors somewhere for the bulbs. Maybe you can find some old lights for sell on ebay pretty cheap that you can use for parts.

 

[KidNano]

These bulbs are on sale at Walmart for $0.77 right now. At least in So cal. Edison is subsidizing the cost. My Wife just bought a ton of them.

 

[ronald7410]

So when a compact bulb goes out (round). Would the ballast still be good to convert it to aquarium lights or does the ballast also go bad?

 

[reefman23]

So when a compact bulb goes out (round). Would the ballast still be good to convert it to aquarium lights or does the ballast also go bad?

Hmm... I'm not sure. Sorry. I can say though that you can buy at 4-pack of the 23 watters for $1.99 at Walgreens and Frys. Not sure if it is worth the work just to find out that the ballast is bad.

Jesse

 

[ronald7410]

So when a compact bulb goes out (round). Would the ballast still be good to convert it to aquarium lights or does the ballast also go bad?

Hmm... I'm not sure. Sorry. I can say though that you can buy at 4-pack of the 23 watters for $1.99 at Walgreens and Frys. Not sure if it is worth the work just to find out that the ballast is bad.

Jesse

So I opened up a burned bulb and the ballast seems to look in tact. i think its just the bulb that broke and the ballast is still in good condition to reuse. I'm going to try tomorrow to solder the ballast into my 6g 18W

 

[brett.west]

I think this is an awesome idea,so I went to dollar general after church today and got a 26 watt ge bulb for $4 It came apart real easy just by prying on it.Now I just need to buy a bulb and a cheap extension cord to use as the power cord and Ill be set to go.Ill let you know how it works out later.

 

[brett.west]

Well,I got my light hooked up last nite,it works great.Awesome Idea!