Help, my Handheld HID lamp only flickers now!

I got a HID handheld spotlight. Everything was fine until the battery pack started dying, and I knew it was dying because the light bulb would beging flickering until it shut off for good. I turned on the light after a minute to drain as much power out of the battery pack as I could while the bulb was still flickering. Now I re-charged the battery pack, and tryed to turn it on, but all the bulb does is flicker. Did I mess up the bulb with trying to "kill" the battery, hence, is making the HID bulb flicker bad? (I took the thing apart, and the bulb itself is brownish in the middle section.)

Wow,

HIDfan, you are on the hairy frontier. I hope you get a positive answer to your question.

Wilkey

This is HIDfan under a different name. I bough another bulb, this time the Philips D2S. I turned it on twice and it still flickers for like 5 seconds then shuts off for good. I dont wanna keep doing it and possibly screw up the bulb. Can anyone tell me why it wont fully "ignite?" This was a 500$ lamp made by ccmaclel and it doesn't work now. Larry, anyone?

If it's not the bulb, it may be a problem in the ballast. If that is the case, you'll have to contact the manufacturer about that problem.
If you are in an adventurous mood, you may even try dismantling the flashlight to get to the ballast. Inspect it and try to see if there is a fuse of some sort. I know the UKE Light Cannon utilizes a thermal fuse and an electrical fuse, hopefully your HID light has some kind of protective measure before any damage can be done to the ballast.

Also, inspect the switch, the battery contact plates, and even the batteries themselves. I'm only stating the obvious, and i'm sure you've done these things already.

Good luck! HID equipment is expensive, i hope you'll find a solution soon.

The fact that it does the same thing with a different bulb indicates that it might be the ballast. Sound like it may not be able to generate the voltage spike to ignite the arc. Are all you connections in place properly?

Wilkey

I hope this helps. Excerpted from the Welch Allyn 18, 21 and 24 Watt Operation and Installation Manual, OI 004 Rev C, ECN #3-1796.

[ QUOTE ]

If the lamp fails to ignite;
1. Check input and output wiring polarity and integrity.
2. Attempt ignition a second time after properly resetting the ballast by disconnecting and reconnecting the input voltage.
3. Pre-set the input power supply current limit adjustment is at least 50% above the specified Steady-State Current in Section 10 table.
4. Pre-set the input power supply voltage adjustment as specified in Section 10 table and use the on / off switch to operate the arc lamp.

If the steps in 8.1fail to correct the problem;
1. Ensure the anode wire is not routed near any metal or other conductor.
2. Ensure that no arcing occurs on the ballast assembly in the area near the P1 connector. (A dark room enables visual detection of arcing).
3. Ensure that no arcing occurs between the ballast assembly and any adjacent subassembly within the system (components,subassemblies, wire
harnesses, etc.). A 9.53mm (0.375") air spacing (or higher dielectric strength) is recommended in the above mentioned areas.


[/ QUOTE ]

Wilkey

After going through the procedure mentioned above and it still doesn't work, perhaps you should contact KenRad. ccmaclel's light was built using the Auerswald EB035/50G01 ballast that KenRad sells here. There is contact information on that page. There is also some technical data about your ballast there. A replacement ballast/ignitor from KenRad costs $150.

Just curious but what kind of battery are you running the light with? Could it be the battery is damaged? Have you tried using a different power source such as your car?

Hey all thanks for your help but I have no idea how to check these connections, etc. I look at the inside of the light and everything is plugged in properly. It looks even brand new. Nothing is melted. The On/Off swich and 35/50W swtich all work alright. The ballast looks perfectly new on the outside, I dont want to take it apart because ccmacclel has a 1 year warranty I belive on the Auserwald ballast, hopefully I can exchange it for another, and if I were to take it apart, it would void any warranty. BTW I tried the light from my cigarette lighter with the new Philips D2S bulb, and it still flickers for 5 seconds, then turns off, so its not the external battery. I hope by exchanging a ballast it will work, but I don't even know how to take the thing off/apart to do it.

question: so im guessing it is the ignitor. is the ignitor inside the actual ballast?

I think you're right to suspect that the ballast is the problem. You seem to have eliminated all other possibilities and I agree that you should send the ballast and ignitor back to KenRad for warranty service. The ballast and ignitor are two separate units but are sold together as a package. The ballast is the larger black metal box and the ignitor the smaller box that has a socket for the bulb. I would send back both just in case.

So did they replace the ballast??


Mac

what battery did you use? i hope you test it for voltage drop when turning on the lamp. if the usable voltage for the lamp drops too far too fast, it could be that your pack was killed or an individual cell in the pack was killed as well.

you should definitely -never- drain a battery pack, especially past its voltage cutoff point, or when its voltage begins to drop quickly.