movil(Offline)

Hi,

a friend or mine has just had an accident after changing the cable on his old Halcyon Pro 4 10 watt HID. Inadvertently he has inverted the polarity of the connector and has fried the ballast on his light. He believes the HID bulb is still ok, although I doubt it myself.

If anyone on this forum has experienced this problem before I would be most grateful if you could let me know what the solutions could be.

purchasing a new light head is an option, an expensive one we would like to avoid. Is there a way that the ballast could be replaced without spending big money?

any advice would be most welcome

Jorge

davy (Online)

I also did that when I changed a light cord at the last moment in the middle of the night with a sleepy head


the ballast went with a big bang and a lot of smoke...
the bulb broke from the impact.

but yes, you can just open the light head and replace the ballast and maybe bulb too if it broke.
the 10W ballast is not that expensive.
I believe I payed ~80 euro's for a new ballast.
which would be a little over 50 pound.

Just make sure you close the lighthead properly if it's a new style focusable head.
shift the glass around while you tighten down the front to make sure you screw it tight enough.
If the glass front is out of centre you can screw the bezel down tight, and it looks OK, but the lighthead will leak!!!

consider it learning money

movil(Offline)

Hi,

thanks for the information. in this case it´s the old style lighthead. although I have the same style lighthead as my friend, I have not opened it so I don´t really know how easy it is to do what you suggest.

the lighthead is of the same type as the one on this picture:

http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/st...ar/charger.jpg

regards
Jorge

davy (Online)

OK, than it's different.

That one you have to open from the back via the 3 little screws.
the back may be stuck with sealant, so you may have to pull a little bit.

Then you should be able to unsolder the cable leads and pull the ballast out.
If it actually blew up like mine did it may be wedged stuck and you have to pull with some force... and it can be hard to get it out.
be carefull not the break anything.

When you go get a new ballast, be sure to mention it is for an old style light head... apparently the new one is different?
At least the shop asked me if I needed one for the old or new style 10W.

put it back together and seal the surface of the back lid with sealant.
I used simple universal bathroom silicon sealant and it still holds up well.
When you screw the back on again be carefull not to overtighten the little screws, the holes are drilled *very* close to the side and you strip the threads in a pinch, and then you have a problem since there is no room to drill them bigger and use a bigger screw.

Good luck!

movil(Offline)

Hi Davy,

thanks a lot for the information. I have passed it on to my friend. Let´s hope he can fix it, because I will need to change my cable at some point in the near future and wouldn´t want to make the same mistake

davy (Online)

Check, double check, check again and take a pictures of how it is arranged while taking it appart

movil(Offline)

Hi Davy,

we are having a little trouble sourcing the old-style ballast here in Spain. Do you have a source for it somewhere in Europe? where did you get yours?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jorge

caverkevin(Offline)

I just changed the cord on my 18W. Here is a few things I learned.

Insead of removing the sealed rear cap of the ballast. Only remove the cord gland. First loosen the compression nut. Then hold the cord in place while you remove the body of the gland. Then just pull the wire connections out the hole. Then do the work. Beats having to reseal the box.

Write all the wire colors down on paper and check everything four time. I did not make notes and got quick with the soldering iron. I had removed the old wires from the ballast and then side (which is + and which is - ????) Lucky for me, Corey at halcyon was nice enough to fill me in on the color code. I was not going to gamble with a guess.

Lastly Halcyon puts together a nice ballast. Mine had been flooded for awhile. There was no damage under the shrink tubed connections. So I was good to go for my E/O cord upgrade!!!

Cheers!!

Kevin

davy (Online)

I got it from tauch und reisewelt in germany, they used to import halcyon etc. for northern Europe. (which is now handled by BTS) and have a halcyon repair shop.
I 'm sure they can help you.
I'll PM you with personal contact info

davy (Online)

yes I never opened the ballast... just worked from the cable gland.

and yes, the color coding can be a little confusing since I'm used to a different standard in my day job.
blowing a ballast up and now taking pictures helps a lot