North American made Electronic Ballasts

[Olyver]

Would you buy an electronic ballast if it was assembled in North America. There is NO REASON why the same ballasts can't have pcbs etched and hand solder 90% of the components. Only pcb with smt components is the dimming module, and that can be pre-made, that module doesn't affect a electronic ballasts failure. Labor would be expensive, wouldn't take more than 2 hours to hand mount and solder components. The enclosures are already machined, it's all hand work after. Hire some assemblers, $15/hr and parts are not going to cost more than $100. That's any triacs, resistors, diodes, capacitors, receptacle, lampcord, fuse, etc, etc. Buying in bulk, 1000 or more of each components. The pcbs can also he done inshop. There is no two-sided etching on the electronic ballasts from what I can tell. The resin is not needed, it's to keep all the components covered so no one can try and reverse engineer. Already did that, got 99% of all the epoxy resin off, and can make out markings and values on the components

Just wondering if people would be more apt to buy a ballast built in US and/or Canada that can be serviced if it fails or becomes faulty. Not sure what the return rate is on Quantums, Phantoms, Solis-tek, Nextgen, or any of the other dozen or so Chinese built ballasts. One of the main issues with components, is buying all quality parts like resistors, caps, etc.

Seen at least 20 electronic/digital ballasts fail or burn out in the last few months and knowing they could have been fixed, instead of returned and scrapped or recycled. Only sad part is it takes $$$$$ to get them built, but seeing made in US or Canada on the ballast would be kewl, jmho. Any other opinions or suggestions welcome.
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[UNITEDGROOVES]

I would buy USA made ballasts if there were some on the market.. I try to buy US made stuff on a daily basis for everything, but 95% of shit out there is made in China.. I work for CM electronic company and we can build it up super quick, the hand soldering and potting is what would take the most time but if digis don't need the potting its the final mechanical assembly that would take the most time.. If the design is mostly SMT parts it would speed up the process and most of the parts will be placed by a pick n place machine.. So did you already reversed engineered an electronic ballast or do you have your own designs? what are your plans for making this happen?

 

[slap14]

I know the Hortilux Ballast is made in Japan.(Expensive) Not what your looking for but I would think it would have higher standards than the made in China brands. But to be honest I use Quantum and know it was built in China. It would be nice to have a North American option but I don't think it exists.

 

[Olyver]

UG, already have scehmatic, layout, and design done. I have a buddy who's an EE, he looked at the ballast I had apart with the resin removed and he laughed. There is very little smp and he mentioned thos p&p machines too. We'll probably get a couple university students taking an electrical or electronics, and employ them to hand solder all the parts and I'll supervise and do qaulity control and testing.

Right now looking into financing and having maybe 500 or 1000 ballasts built. They will have dimming function too, but it will be either manual select or timer controlled. Looking at maybe installing a simple digital timer that will control power off and on and power down during a flip cycle, so there is no hot flips. I've spoken with a few electrical inspectors and they frown on flip boxes that don't power the ballasts off for a flip cycle, even for a few seconds.

 

[dankworth]

Been wondering about the powering down being successfully managed for a flip.
Looking forward to being in a position where I can support Olyver's work.

 

[sdgrower]

I would be interested in digital ballasts made in North America.

 

[Olyver]

My buddy Jack is thinking making it a kit, you assemble, take maybe an hour or two. Some stuff could be done ahead of time. He's working on a component list and has pretty much all of them identified and values. Using quality produced resistors, capacitors, diodes, triacs, coils, ICs, etc. The pcb is marked so it would be easy to mount and solder. If I can't get $$$$$, I may just build to order. An Aluminum enclosure with fins/heatsink used for car power amplifiers is purchasable from dozens of metal fab companies. The boards I will have to etch myself, and I maybe replace the smt componets if I can with standard sizes, caps and resistors and a few micro ics.

Hoping in a few weeks to have more info and possible production. Nice to place an ad here for a sponsor link to sell the ballast :-). It's strange that some of the hydro companies with deep pockets haven't done this yet. All electronic ballasts are built/assembled in China.

Better hope I don't with the lottamax....lol

 

[psilo]

A high quality ballast with those extra features would be very cool.

Would it be possible to have a flip relay built into the ballast?

 

[Olyver]

It would be easy to add the relay. If the ballast is going to be flipped cold every time, then a different style of relay can be used. The surge voltages and operating voltages would be the same, just no arcing. Shut off ballasts, wait 30 seconds, then switch A to B or vice versa, then wait 30 more seconds, power on ballast. Enough time for the bulb to discharge and any capacitors. For ETL and CEC/NEC it may have to use the same relay used in flips.

There's another flip box coming out soon, modular, interconnectable, and a multi-timer unit available to control upto 4 flips at once, with several differnet time delays. It has a plc installed and a selector switch with 8 selectable time delays. An Aube/Honeywell digital timer will control the plc. If more than 4 ballasts are used, the flips have 120v receptacle to daisychain other flips to it. It's acually a pretty kewl looking flip and it's getting certification now, and because it's modular, you can order the number of flips you need, from 1 to 100, and connect together. They have dual green LEDS and if the LED is really bright, it's an indicator the bulb is burned out or not connected. The enclosure size for the ballast would be about 4" longer to house the flip relay.

Posted a few pix of the prototype built last year. Hopefully going to have the enclosures built by Rose and Bopla, a German company.

 

[noone88]

I'm tired of using magnetics. They fail way too often for my tastes while it seems like the electronic ballasts either work for years+ or they fail on day one.

I would love the see a staggered-start feature like the solistek ballasts.

Main issue is the price. MSRP on e-ballasts are 330-399 (I don't have the wholesale sunlight catalog in front of me), but if you could match/beat the popular e-ballast, then I could see the advantage of a US-made E-ballast. The main issue, like marketing any product, is the promotional and getting it carried by wholesalers.

Lastly, you may want to move to SoCal for this type of venture... SoCal is such a huge distribution point for a lot of hydro supplies.

 

[Olyver]

May just offer the e-ballasts through mail order, direct from manufacturer, no hydro shops, so no major markups. For sure if a wholesaler wanted a few 100 or few 1000, then a better price can be give to them so they can make sure the msrp is the same as direct order.

Going to sit down withmy friend next month and see if we can make this happen. 1000s of ballasts sold a month and not one with a "made in US and/or Canada" marking, with CSA/UL approval.

 

[noone88]

One thing to consider is that if you're shipping from Canada to US, you have to deal with customs and tariffs. On a manufacturer-to-customer basis, it is a huge pain in the ass.

 

[fishwhistle]

what is the name of the new flip olyver?