MH ballast ?

[trockafella]

What s the difference between probe start/magnetc/electronc, with that are probe starts obsolete now..? thanks

[lawnboy]

and how do you know what bulb to use with each one??? Hope you don't mind me tagging along on this one.

[Coral Hind]

This is a very good article on HID lighting that will explain the probe vs pulse start issue, just skip over the LPS and HPS section.

Here is another good article I had saved.

 

 

If you want to see which type of ballast works best with which bulb use Sanjay's two lamp lighting guide to compare different setups. You will be surprised to see that electronic ballasts do not always out perform magnetic ones.

 

As for last question, President Bush signed a bill that banned the production and importing of probe start ballasts and bulbs after 1/1/09. This only applied to industrial applications and not for special purpose lamps like for our hobby. I don't know how long that will last but hopefully LED's will be online by then.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Coral Hind