I need to figure out a way to test hid ballasts and bulbs in house without the use of a car battery. I'm assuming there should be a way using some device that I can plug into a typical wall outlet, or a combination of some easily obtainable parts that I can put together to do this. If anyone can help me out I would greatly appreciate it. I need to test a large amount of HID's and installing them into cars would take too much time.

 

You will need a 12V power supply, not cheap, I would just get a small 12V batt. and a small batt. charger, a lot cheaper then something like this... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...l.asp 94

 

use a drill battery. thats what i use to do.

 

a drill battery that is 12volts of course. or a small power inverter. why can't ya just test it on ur car battery? get a dry cell if you're doing it a lot.

 

Ok I need to test hundreds of bulbs and ballasts, so installing them in a car is too time consuming. Going the cheap route isn't ideal, so I think buying a power supply will most likely be the route I choose. What is this about drill batteries though? Is that enough to power a ballast and bulbs? Could someone show me an acceptable power supply to get that will work for me? Also any tips on wiring this thing up? I know it will need 12volts but what about the amps? these are the specs on the ballasts...

input 9-16V
norm 12.8V
norm 3.2A
in max 15A
output 35+-2W
case -40C-+105C

Sorry electronics isn't mything, but I appreciate everyones help.

 

You can probably get away with this one... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...l.asp
but this would be better... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...l.asp or this one... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...l.asp remember you get what you pay for.

The first one is a 12A with a 14A surge, should be OK for testing, the other two are 22A, max draw on your lights is 15A, either one will give you a little wiggle room.

Now if you got a job testing lights and you are going to be doing this a long time, you need to spend $$$$... you need the Binford 5000, or the Binford 5000MD, [More Dollars]... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...s.asp ... http://www.audio-warehouse.com...s.asp 94

 

Thanks your the man, is binford 5000 a joke? HAHA I can't find it but I seem to remember that from some movie or show or something. So once I get one of these machines, I just hooke the ballasts up to the red and black the same way they woudl be wired to headlights and that's that? Nothing to worry about..?

edit...I believe it was home improvement..??? HAHA and I actually looked it up lol.


Modified by menappi at 10:40 PM 4/2/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by menappi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">edit...I believe it was home improvement..??? HAHA and I actually looked it up lol. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You are correct

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by menappi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> So once I get one of these machines, I just hooke the ballasts up to the red and black the same way they woudl be wired to headlights and that's that? Nothing to worry about..?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You have it somewhat correct, you have your positive(red) and negative (black) but you also have a switch (the part that plugs into your headlight socket) which depending on the kit, will have a headight socket already on there, or just two wires, in the case of the two wires, you just ground one, and power the other.

Now i just thought of something else, and i dont feel like earsing what i just typed ^ (afraid i may forget this --&gt but if memory serves me correct, in each kit you get a wiring harness which gets hooked upto your postive and negative posts on your battery (or another ground, which is recomended ) and the headlight socket ....well if you take one of these wiring harness (easiset may be from an h1 kit, since it just has the two bare wires) and do the positive and negative connections and hook the black wire from the headlight socket lead to ground, and hook the white (or what ever the positive wire color is) to a swtich that is hooked upto VCC (postive battery post for testing purpouses) you should be able to just hook up each ballast and bulb to test.

if i were doing that is how i would do it

sorry for rambling on, hopefully you can follow that.

EDIT: here is a picture for reference




Modified by skingfreak at 6:57 PM 4/4/2007