The Official.:My Angel Eye Ballast Burned:.Thread!!

i think they will be worse if built inside the headlight...if they burn they would be harder to replace and probably do some damage to your actually headlights if they catch on fire and melt.....i still haven't checked to see if my pass side ballast is built in or not...shitty weather

Originally Posted by Cheezemurda

wait..the new ones come with them INSIDE the headlight? well thats the way it fricken should be. Why didnt I get that type. I bought mine only like 3 months ago.

Originally Posted by sstainba

You must have a ballast to provide the 700+ volts these things require. However, you don't need *these* ballasts. In theory, you could use a ballast/starter from any flourescent light fixture, as long as it is for a tube of the approx length and provides the correct current.


What type/rating fuse are you using? I would recommend using a fast-blow 1.5A or at most a 2A. That will hopefully stop the burnings...

why do people keep refering to the INVERTERS as BALLAST? Unlike Xenon, the CCFL does not require a ballast. It it is just an inverter (google it).

Ballast is one thing and inverter is another

I'll assume you didn't go to school for engineering. Luckily, I did. An inverter only convers DC into pulsating DC (an approximation of AC) at aproximately the same voltage and the same frequency. A ballast (as in these) produces pulsating DC at a VERY high frequency (about 20KHz) and at high voltage (depends on the tube length).

FYI: Xenon is a gas, not a technology. CCFL is a technology, not a gas. Xenon can be used in CCFL. So can mercury, sodium, argon, neon and more. The gas used in the bulb determines the color of the light produced. Neon is red, mecury is blue-ish, xenon is white and argon is green. The main difference in these things are the bulbs. Some require higher voltage than others and some require starters. That's about it.

There is almost NO difference in the technology that powers either a xenon bulb or a ccfl tube.

Perhaps you should have googled it first. :-D

^ ouch

i suppose i should mention that an "inverter" *could* alter the freq/amplitude of a wave but this is not usually the case. a ballast is specifically designed to stabilize current in a circuit as is needed in lighting applications. the most common of all ballasts is the magnetic species that uses reactive inductance to do this. newer ones (smaller ones like these) are typically electronic and employ resistors, chokes, capacitors and such to do the same thing.

lol nice.

Here's a question for the people ordering from Vibelights.com, which product are you ordering? Are you ordering the cold cathode inverter and if so the "aluminum dual ready" or the "24" special inverter"? I'm trying to figure out which one I need.

Thanks!

burned 3 of the ones pictured in first, blank plastic nothing on them... then bought a set of those RaceDash ones and haven't had a problem now for over a year. With all inverters though be sure to silicon the entrances to the cases where the wires go in or you will eventually burn them out due to moisture. Condensation can do it, not just rain.

Originally Posted by chivo328

Here's a question for the people ordering from Vibelights.com, which product are you ordering? Are you ordering the cold cathode inverter and if so the "aluminum dual ready" or the "24" special inverter"? I'm trying to figure out which one I need.

Thanks!

yeah bump...i need to know the answer to this too please..
thanks

The aluminum ones "dual ready" ones. The "24 special" one is for.... 24" tubes. :-)

And these shouldn't need any silicone as mentioned above... they are fully potted. (the insides are already covered in a rubbery material)

cool thanks for that bro...

i just had doubts..coz each inverter powers two tubes.. and I worked out that the total circumference of the two rings would be close to 24"...

^lol....i thought the same thing....mine should be shipped to my house sometime this week

Originally Posted by sstainba

The aluminum ones "dual ready" ones. The "24 special" one is for.... 24" tubes. :-)

And these shouldn't need any silicone as mentioned above... they are fully potted. (the insides are already covered in a rubbery material)

Right on, thanks.

Yeah, that makes sense, and a second glance at the pics looks like the "24" special only has one plug on the light side, guess that shoulda been a clue to me as well...

Also has anyone here used both the RaceDash and the Vibelight? If so, do you have a prefrence?

honestly, i think you'll find that most all of these things will be the same. the internals are probably all made by the same company in china. it's most likely just the plugs & case that are different. i'd use whichever is cheaper!

i was thinking too... if mine fail again... i might end up going to LED rings. i know no one likes them because they aren't crazy-bright.... but even ccfl rings are kinda hard to see during the day. and i sometimes think the ccfl puts out *too much* light at night. the leds could fix this. i might take some and put some new, brighter leds in them. least they wouldn't burn out.... EVER!

Originally Posted by sstainba

I'll assume you didn't go to school for engineering. Luckily, I did. An inverter only convers DC into pulsating DC (an approximation of AC) at aproximately the same voltage and the same frequency. A ballast (as in these) produces pulsating DC at a VERY high frequency (about 20KHz) and at high voltage (depends on the tube length).

FYI: Xenon is a gas, not a technology. CCFL is a technology, not a gas. Xenon can be used in CCFL. So can mercury, sodium, argon, neon and more. The gas used in the bulb determines the color of the light produced. Neon is red, mecury is blue-ish, xenon is white and argon is green. The main difference in these things are the bulbs. Some require higher voltage than others and some require starters. That's about it.

There is almost NO difference in the technology that powers either a xenon bulb or a ccfl tube.

Perhaps you should have googled it first. :-D

LOL

You need to go back to School "mr Engineer." If not, you are scarrying me.

CCFL DDE uses inverter and not a ballast. That 700+ volt you are talking about is only for ballast. Have you ever touch the DDE's CCFL inverter when installing? For those people that have, they will tell you thatIt is nothing more than a slight voltage shock.

If the CCFL was using a ballast like you claimed, then touching it will kill you. therefore, this is why ballast has warning sign and your DDE CCFL inverter doesn't.

1) go back to school

Originally Posted by sstainba

I'll assume you didn't go to school for engineering. Luckily, I did.

2) CCFL DDE uses inverter NOT ballast
3) ballast is normally for more critical applications such as powering HID

Therefore;
1) knowledge > you.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCFL_inverter
http://www.ccfl-inverter.com/html_en/ccfl_inverter.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_ballast


"A CCFL inverter is a device (an inverter) for providing drive power to a Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL). CCFL are often used as inexpensive light units in electrical devices."

"Model DN INVERTER for CCFL is mainly used as the driving power for Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) in a poor light unit. Electric parameters should be strictly matched with during the driving process with lamps in order that the life of the tube can be ensured. Its chief characteristics are as following"

Regardless of what you think you understood from that, you are mistaken. An inverter is used with ccfl as with any application that requires an "ac" wave from a dc source. A ballast is a device that specifically regulates the current. They are used in nearly all types of vapor bulbs. (that means fluorescent, metal halide, mecury, hps and hid). The reason they are used is because, and go look this up smart guy, a vapor lamp requires high voltage to ignite the gas inside, but a considerably lower voltage to maintain the spark. Ballasts use inductors or electronic limiters to maintain the currect current flow when the voltage drastically changes.

Your assertions that 700 volts would kill is plain wrong. You can be hit with millions of volts and not be hurt one bit. the killer is the current, which is inversly proportional to voltage. 14V @ 1A => multiplier => 140V @ 0.1A. It also depends on the frequency. A very high freq wave will bounce across your skin. Oh, and static... when you shock your tard ass on the door knob, measure around 3KV.

I suppose when you looked all this stuff up... you didn't bother to actually read it all. Here is a quote from your wikipedia page:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia: Electrical ballast

An electronic lamp ballast uses solid state electronic circuitry to provide the proper starting and operating electrical condition to power one or more fluorescent lamps and more recently HID lamps. Electronic ballasts usually change the frequency of the power from the standard mains (e.g, 60Hz in U.S.) frequency to 20,000 Hz or higher, substantially eliminating the stroboscopic effect of flicker (100 or 120 Hz, twice the line frequency) associated with fluorescent lighting (see photosensitive epilepsy). In addition, because more gas remains ionized in the arc stream, the lamps actually operate at about 9% higher efficiency above approximately 10 kHz.

The reason you are seeing it called an "inverter" is because CCFL are typically ran from a DC (battery) source. Like in cars, computers & such. The multiplication of voltage using a transformer or cascade multiplier requires AC. So the DC input must be "inverted". However, that term is somewhat misleading as well. There is no "inversion", only a method to produce a pulsating wave, which for the most part acts like an AC sine wave in the circuits.

just received my second replacement ballast today for my PCs...passenger side went about 6 months ago, drivers side about a month ago..."free" replacement only cost shipping of my faulty part which was less than $1.50. only problem is the connectors are different on the replacement ballast. the new ballast also came with new connectors, i just have to figure out how to get them onto the wires that come out of the rings now...any suggestions?????? I emailed my vendor, but the sooner i get this resolved, the less ghetto my ride will look with one side burned out

only way is to cut the connectors off and use a butt splice or solder them. i would recommend the solder...

Originally Posted by sstainba

only way is to cut the connectors off and use a butt splice or solder them. i would recommend the solder...

that is not the "only" way. You can always cut the wire. Stripped the rubber shielding to expose the metal wires. Twist the wires together and wrapped in heat shrink and electrical tape.

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

that is not the "only" way. You can always cut the wire. Stripped the rubber shielding to expose the metal wires. Twist the wires together and wrapped in heat shrink and electrical tape.

you're right... it's not the only way. i suppose you could strip the wires and use bubble gum to hold them together too.

the ways i mentioned are really the only way to do it (with variations on the splice type used) decently.