Marquee light bad?

orion3311

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More out of curiosity than anything - anyone ever have a marquee ballast go shorted? I have a typical marquee light that when I put in the bulb, flashes very brightly and thats it. I think the ballast is shorted and sending 110v right to one of the filaments.

Tried a new starter and didn't work.

Just curious - I have plenty of fixtures to swap it with but was wondering if thats what the deal is. Marquee light is hooked up to 110v non-isolated but after the power filter.
 
Ballast can short out. It sounds like that is exactly what you are experiencing; did the bulb blow? Ballasts can be replaced but most of the hardware stores clearanced out the ballasts commonly used in arcade machines last year...
 
Usually, if the light flashes quickly, it means your ballast is bad - and now your bulb and starter are, too.

Since it sucks to lose an $8 bulb just because of a bad ballast, it's best to check the ballast first.

1) Shut power off or disconnect power connector to light fixture.

2) Remove (bad?) bulb.

3) Find the two wires from the ballast. Sometimes they are both in wire nuts, and sometimes one goes to one end of the fixture.

4) Do an ohm-reading between the two wires. If one goes to one of the bulb sockets, just put your meter on that socket side.

5) A good ballast will read approx. 25 ohms (23-27). A very low reading (under 10) indicates a short (and why you blew your bulb). A very high reading would indicate an open (and the bulb may still be good).

Home Depot still carries these ballasts for $6.99, but Lowes stopped carrying them last year (and many of us took advantage of closeout prices of under $1 each). Other hardware stores like Ace probably still carry them. There is no polarity for a ballast, and are pretty easy to replace. If one wire goes directly to a socket, just cut it and use a wire nut to connect your new wire...
 
Thanks - I have a handful of the typical under-counter lights like this one is, I just happened to use it because it was mounted on a board that just happened to fit in the cab perfectly. I keep finding the lights at yard sales and thrift shops for a buck so I bought up a few, some even brand new in the box yet.

Then I found an entire paper box full of the bulbs at another yard sale LOL. The guy couldn't understand what I wanted with 20 small fluorescent light bulbs (for $2).

As much as I've dealt with that before I just never saw one blow a bulb like that, and figured I'd ask. I'm just gonna replace the whole fixture with a new one since I have em.
 
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