Before I build one.....

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LHarrington

Senior Member
Location
Saginaw Bay area Michigan
Good morning everyone,

I was wondering after a brief search of the worldwide wait if anyone has or has seen a fluorescent light ballast testing equipment. I know how to test them in the field but this is going to be for non-electrical savvy employees to assemble light fixture in our assembly department. We purchase thousands of ballast a month from xxx ballast company and every once in a while we get one that doesn't work. I was planning to build a small test enclosure that the employee's can just stab the wires into a test port and apply power the see if the starting voltage is there as well a the filament voltage is present. Maybe as simple as a good or bad light. When these suspected bad ballast get rejected they send them to my shop to test and normally half check good and were probably just hook up wrong. Thanks in advance. The ballast we use are RLQ-120-TP rapid start ballasts.

LHarrington
 
LHarrington said:
We purchase thousands of ballast a month from xxx ballast company and every once in a while we get one that doesn't work. .... The ballast we use are RLQ-120-TP rapid start ballasts.
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Gee, that sure sounds like an Advance part number. Never heard of xxx company.

FWIW, GE used to make a fluorescent ballast tester. It was pretty primative and featured neon lamps on the front panel and a couple switches. We had one at a factory I once worked at, and it appeard that it was probably from the 70's. Nobody ever used it for real, but I played around with it on the bench a little bit.

I normally just put my non-contact voltage probe up to the ballast secondary wires. Nine times out of 10, the secondary is dead on a bad ballast. Quick and easy test for a failed ballast.
 
i would just make up a test fixture with spring clip terminals like whats on the back of speakers to connect the wires to
 
What the labor needed to install, say, 1000 ballasts?

If X of them are bad, how much labor is that?

Compare that to the labor needed to check the 1000 ballasts. If there's less labor involved to simply replace the X bad ballasts, you're spending a dollar to save a dime.
 
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