ballast wire lengthening help?

[s13tsilvia]

I was looking at mounting the hid ballast near the battery and running an extended lead to the globes, but i have read that the wires are made differently for hid ballasts than you normal copper wire? would i be able to buy this special type of wire anywhere? or if it is at all possible, i want to make my handheld light as light as i can thus mounting the ballast near the battery would make life much easier. so just running an extra couple of meters of high voltage cable popped into my head? is this at all possible or would i lose to much voltage over the extra distance?

Cheers Josh

 

[Norm]

I'm guessing here but I think running a couple of meters of lead you may run into problems with the extra capacitance in the extension cable.
It may be fine but just doesn't sound like something you should do, something going around in the back of my brain about this but I can't get hold of the answer.
Norm

 

[jhellwig]

Every other Hid Light that I have worked on doesn't mind if the ballast is a long ways away. I don't see why the battery operated ones would be different.

 

[SafetyBob]

I would agree that the bulb probably doesn't care how far it gets it's power from.

You on the other hand should be overly cautious about how well protected those wires are from arcing or touching anything that you or your hand will be touching. That could be a very, very scary shock that will get your attention at the least.

Double and/or triple insulation/protection will be in order. You will probably lose a little light also with long lengths, but not if you didn't already have a similar setup to compare it without the extra length when you first test your setup.

Bob E.

 

[s13tsilvia]

what i really meant sorry was the wiring from the bulb to the connection to the ballast itself. Can those wires be lengthened without anything happening or do i need special type of wire?