Be very careful with the new digital ballasts people use now a days. My friend had 4 dual air cooled Lumatek ballasts running in his house. A neighbor 2 doors down was into HAM radio, and had an antenna in his backyard. He was picking up all sorts of RF Noise from the digital ballasts, so much so that he eventually contacted the landlord to get a hold of my friend to try and fix the problem. He had to switch out to magnetic ballasts, which don't put off rf noise. Problem solved, but pricey.
Not really. It's bullshit imo. I don't see how the neighbor knew he had a running ballast in the first place and let's not forget that those street lamps outside of his street also has ballasts and they are 1000w's
While we were I'm veg, he dropped a note off saying there was a 24 hour interference that he had narrowed down to my house. So we grounded the ballasts, in hope that would help. We also wrapped them in aluminum foil (a farraday cage) and that didn't work either. He told our landlord the interference was now between the hours of 1pm and 1am. We switched to the magnetic ballasts, I called the neighbor, and he said the interference was gone. It WAS the ballasts! Try getting AM radio reception in your grow room while your digital ballasts are on, if you can't they are giving of rf noise. Wait til they turn off, and I bet you will be able to get reception on that same AM station
By the way, 1pm-1am is the time of his flower cycle. This problem IS real!!!! My friend was almost exposed to his landlords over it. Just don't want it to happen to anyone else.
I read a thread at one point that said there is one small component that burns out in the ballasts and causes the interference. It said it was common in the cheaper ones but the more expensive digital ballasts didn't have this issue.
These are brand new, Dual HPS/MH Air cooled dimmable lumatek digital ballasts. They will power 400/600/1000 W and super lumen. They cost about $300 from the growstores. Started using them in October and had problems immediately
It's not the first time I've seen this posted either. Some other guy had the cable company (I think) crawling through his house looking for interference, luckily he got spooked when the neighbors first complained and cleaned out his op, but it was a close call. Be careful out there everybody.
this is def. real i just read a post the other day about the FCC knocking on someones door. Their investigators have long reaching powers regarding searching for this type of interference without warrants
From working with car audio, isnt it actually the cord that needs to be shielded, not the ballast? Its pretty similar to stereo amp, and when doing a large system you shield the wiring, not the amplifier. I just downloaded the lumatek wiring guide. They claim the cords are shielded and that they do not emit rf for more than 5tf, while claiming other unshielded ballast cords emit up to 50 yards. It also says to not run a neutral wire on a 240 system which i know every relay out there has one typically, i wonder if that could cause excessive rf? Either way, you should be able to find some rf shielded cord suitable and just splice on the ends needed and i bet that would eliminate the problem. But im very interested since i have lumateks, im not worried honestly since im legal, but good info to have for sure.
The new digital ballast do interfere with radios,I started with digital but my wife restores these old radios and complained about interference within her workshop once I started using one.Fortunately I only bought one.We now only run the magnetic ballast and have no interference issues with the radios.
I have not logged in and posted here in a long time but I have to post this. Lets see the proof. Not just speculation and stories of this guy or that guy. Prove to me with testing that this is causing such an issue. Show me charts of the range of interference during testing. I know for a fact that a digital electronic ballast is giving off frequency as well as the cord attached to it. I know with pretty good certainty that it is not causing people issue under normal operating conditions. I say pretty good because frankly I have not done any testing at all other than run two of them side by side within feet of multiple things that would be affected from the levels of interference that are being speculated on here and on other forums I keep finding this on. I have some knowledge of this outside of all of this arena that I will not go into on the internet but I can tell you there is something else in play and not just a tiny amount of RF from a ballast here. I have watched leakage teams in action and I promise a cut cable outside in a box at the road with no terminator on the end just pouring RF into the air is more of a threat. I also run multiple AP's in the area near these ballasts and in the surrounding floors of this building. I can tell you that the levels of any frequency being given off by these ballasts is so negligible I don't even register a loss on the meter. If I hold the meter against the ballast I register a minor loss that I am guessing may affect something like an AP if it was resting on the ballast itself. So does anyone have definitive proof or just urban legend style regalia? Thousands of these are sold around America daily. 10's of thousands probably. If it was truly this large threat currently this board any many others like it would explode with info. I see these threads on them all but always in the context of not enough evidence... I can continue using the gear I have here to test but I am only one person and my results show that 2 600w ballasts and cord sets are not a significant leak of rf or other frequency that anyone would be bothered by or notice unless your grow is in someones network room/closet.
remember the issue with digi ballast and non-digi bulbs them burning out very fast then hortilux and sunpulse released their digi bulbs and everyone had to upgrade to theirs. sound true to me
All types of HID ballasts can produce a lot of Electrical Magnetic Radiation (EMI). But digital ballasts have a high frequency power supply that will make them much more prone to producing noise. Any yes, you'd want to shield more than just the ballasts.
I'm going to plug in a stereo switch it to an AM station that comes in clear as day and than turn on my 1000watt Phantom and see what happens. I'll get back to you guys in a few minutes.
Well it's a fact, at least for me. I tuned the radio to a solid station and immediately upon plugging in the ballast it went to shit. The radio was about 10 feet away so that might have something to do with it. Going to plug in an extension cord and move the radio further away and see what happens. Edit: There is still some noticeable static picked up outside my house and there are no other electronic devices plugged in anywhere near the radio. Don't know if that proves anything and I know it wasn't a Lumatek ballast but it still proves how someone might be able to pick up interference next door.
I just tried with my iPower digital ballasts with an old radio in my grow room... they definitely affect it. Next step is to see if it is doing anything past my grow room. I'll try farther in the house, then outside. Will using a car radio work for this test?
I beat my brains out trying to limit RFI from my ipower digital ballast. Using the AM Radio test I found out most of the RFI was coming from the actual bulb. After following many many many threads (shielding with foil, with copper foil, with foil tape) trying to figure this out I came across an electrician's thread comparing RFI FROM 4 different types of shielded electrical cables (standard 14/3, Twisted copper 12/3 with ground, and two types of conduit. With a RF sniifer the poster showed that the the best shielding was actually from a heavy copper 12/3 with ground piece of romex you can buy at Home Depot. Because the wires are twisted around one another in the outer wire sheath it limits RF. I had some left over from a new dryer plug I'd hooked up and used it in lieu of the ipower supplied Ballast to Lamp cord. I can now play my AM radio right beside the lamp and not worry about the cable guy coming to my door saying "something in your apartment is screwing up everyone's cable TV and internet." Sorry, long winded but I hope it helps.