So im a week and a half from harvest and my ballast died tonight. 2 1/2 months old. Since they missed most of their light tonight, should i fork out a bunch of cast for a new ballast or flush for a few days and harvest? Pissed off grower...
i would return that ballast if you got it at the local hydro store they will give you a loaner until your other one is fixed that is one of the benefits of shopping locally if you bought it use then you could leave them in the dark for a week just make sure they are not wet sorry about your ballast
thank for replying. kindof in shock and beside myself right now! is there anything i can do to save them? the hydroshop told me if i ever have problems to send it to the manufacture so i doubt they will give me a loaner. if i leavethem in the dark and replace the ballast tomorrow will they get back to normal or are they toast?
an extra dark period in flower although not ideal should be ok, lights on in the dark is bad though, if you can get a new light m8 put them back on 12/12 asap .even if they did hermie (doubt they wiil) thats gonna take longer than you have left to happen. This is only my opinion though as i have never had this happen to me .. HTH ..
thanks! and knock on wood! outof all the things i have encou tered growing this is by far the most devestating all time! just sickto my stomach! all that work and bred for this!
you will be alright m8. have you asked the hydro man about a loaner or replacement ? if he didnt offer me 1 i wouldnt go back , ballasts last years m8 i havent had a digi fail (yet) but the old coil nd core do. but mine lasted years nd still ran . have you checked the fuse or timer ? i blew loads of timers b4 buying the right 1 .?
this one has a builtin timer. its a pretty slick ballast when it works. not sure if i got a bad oneor what. the errorcode e-04 indicates opencircuit. i know the electrical is right and has worked since day one. i didnt touch anything yesterday either so i am stumped. imaytry to see if i can get something cheap to get me through tomorrow. iwill just have to be the manual timer for a week. hopefully someone will have something in stocki can install quickly. also wondering, inoticed the light was dim, thats what mde me check things out to begin with. could it be as simpleas the bulb failed? when i powered off thenback on it didntcome on at all. then i got the open circuit code. i maytry a new bulb and see if the error clears and if not try a cheap used ballast for a week.
so i may have jumped the gun. after taking a good look, i noticed the bulb is insanely blown. maybe i got a bad or used one from the hydro shop? im gonna replace the bulb. today and ill let yall know if that resolved the issue. im hoping the bad buld caused the E-04 open circuit code because it considers the bad bulb open circuit! fingers crossed! ill post a pic of the bulb in a few so you guys can check it out...
This is why you should have a spare bulb and ballast. It is Murphy's law it will fail at the most in-opportune moment, and on a day when the stores are closed.
Any idea what caused it to blow ? Could it have getting wet ? Do you folier feed ? Best of luck with ya grow m8 hope this is the last problem ya face happy growing. K P
i am doing flood and drain right now. that may change next batch. still debating. turns out the place i bought my bulbs got a bad batch. thats their story anyway. i know two other guys who had the same problem with the same hydro shop. go figure. i hope it is smooth sailing from here on out as well!
hmmmmm? i have a similar story. i got the matrix 600w with remote and the light suddenly stopped coming on at the set time. everything was working as it should, even the rays indicator around the bulb on the remote was saying the light was on! i had to go back to manual timer to get the ballast to work. was in mid grow so didnt want to mess about, apparent software fault, they couldn't get another to repeat the error. they did send me a veg bulb for the hassle. then i got a new 10k MH a couple of weeks ago, to use for the last 2 weeks. i git the E04 fault right away with this bulb. im hoping its just a bad bulb. never had a prob with my old magnetic 400w Steve eta. just been offered a replacement bulb today and swap for a new ballast when im done cant say better than that!