Help me trouble shoot my Mac's Mini HID

[yankeefist]

First I know nothing about HID's -- but I received my Mac's mini today and I can not make it work the person I bought it from said it worked b4 he shipped it so I am guessing the problem is me ---I think I have the batteries in correctly , the battery holder test at 8.32v with my multimeter - but the light won't fire up

How do I tell if the bulb is blown and what other causes could there be?

Thanks in advance

 

[karlthev]

8.32 volts??? What are you running this one on---I thought 17670s....or Pila 168s? I just took a reading on my Mac Mini and I have 12.3 volts.....wrong battery configuration here......?


Karl

 

[yankeefist]

2 17670's -- do i have the wrong battery holder?

 

[Patriot]

The voltage is too low Yankee. That ballast is rated at 10.4V but will easily handle over 12V. You're feeding it less than 8V. You need a 3rd battery for best performance.


P.S. Does you bulb have a secondary glass envelope around it or is it just the skinny bulb by itself?

 

[yankeefist]

it has a secondary glass envelope around it

tried it with 4 primaries giving me 11.45v and still no light

 

[karlthev]

Hmmm, FOUR primaries? Now, not saying that may here is right or wrong, mine has a 3 X17670 configuration holder. I would say that the 4 X would give you enough voltage to strike the bulb--contingent upon how you have the batteries inserted in the holder. Try some other confgrurations of battery placement, I have a feeling you're running a parallel and series setup incorrectly. It COULD be the bulb but....


Karl

 

[LuxLuthor]

I have a feeling you have a dead bulb....or God forbid, blown balast.

 

[yankeefist]

How would I know?

I have a feeling you have a dead bulb....or God forbid, blown balast.

 

[powernoodle]

I dropped my mini HID about 3 feet onto a kitchen counter recently, and now it won't work. I too and hoping for a bulb issue, though I have not yet looked into it.

Edit: I just tried it again, and now it works. :thinking:

 

[Patriot]

I once had a Mac's HID shipped to me and the bulb broke down at it's narrowest part by the waste. Mine didn't have and envelope so it was very easy to see and wiggle to verify that it was broken. Since you have an envelope around yours, you might be able to tell by the color of the arc envelope of the bulb. If it's a milky white or slightly yellowish color it's probably broken. If it's clear it probably ok.

4 primaries would have been enough to fire up your light so I'm leaning toward thinking that there could be a simple contact issue somewhere. Mac has stated in the past that he's never seen a failed ballast out of all those lights he's built and he speaks very highly of them.

What types of battery carriers are you using in your light and what kind of switch does it have...barrel switch or tail switch?

Also didn't the seller ship it with the original 3 X 17670 holder? If not can he ship you one to help you troubleshoot this problem?

 

[yankeefist]

yippie it works
took it all apart and put it back together
loaded it up with all fresh surefire batts ( was using no names b4)
and now it is amazing
still not sure about what the problem was

Thanks everybody for your help

 

[LuxLuthor]

Evidently it was a bad connection somewhere if that fixed it. Good news.

 

[Patriot]

Good deal Yankee! I'm glad that you got it working.

Just an FYI, it will run even better from three 17670s because it will provide the ballast about 1 more volt than 4 primaries, which drop to about 2.5V under load. Li-ions will also give you much better run time. You'll find that after about 20 minutes on primaries that they'll be sagging quite a bit and the beam will start to get soft on the bottom edge. That won't happen with the 17670s.

Anyhow, I'm happy to hear that it's up and running though. Enjoy.

 

[karlthev]

Well yankee, great news and know that you had some of the best technical support (Lux and Pat36) and some moral support--me!


Karl

 

[yankeefist]

Can I run it with 4 AW rcr123's or is that to much?

 

[Patriot]

Can I run it with 4 AW rcr123's or is that to much?

That's too much.

You can run it on 4 X 3.0V RCR123s, but they're actually higher than 3.0V. More like 3.2-3.3V hot off the charger. Do this at your own risk as they will push the voltage up 2V over spec for that ballast. I've been doing it without any problems though.


EDIT.
You can also use 3 x RCR123s plus a dummy cell.
http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1690

 

[yankeefist]

Thanks

I just cobbled together a 123 spacer and now it's running great on 3 rcr123's

I asked the seller about a 3x17670 holder but the body isn't tribored like my Torch so I'm not so sure it ever had one

 

[Patriot]

Not to alarm you, but I wasn't aware that Mac ever made any "mini"-HIDs that weren't tri-bored. He's been using the 3 x 17670 formula for as long as I can remember. He'd be able to verify that though.

 

[cmacclel]

Not to alarm you, but I wasn't aware that Mac ever made any "mini"-HIDs that weren't tri-bored. He's been using the 3 x 17670 formula for as long as I can remember. He'd be able to verify that though.

The first few runs of Mini-HID's where pretty much the same light as SilverLegacy and UFO Killers originally put together using 4x CR123 cells. With good battery's I believe they ran up to 1 hour and 20 minutes before shutting down.

The Solarc system bulb socket is not a very good design and sometime you need to push the bulb back into its socket to get a good connection. There is only an O-ring friction fit that hold the bulb into the ballast.

On the later lights I overcame this problem by tightly shimming / centering the lamps using kapton tape as shims.

Mac

 

[Patriot]

Thanks for the good info Mac. I've never seen one of your 4 X primary lights but it's nice to know now that they exist. It's also nice that you've since gone to 3 X li-ion's because I really think that's a great formula. I'm missing my mini mini since selling it but will most likely replace it with a 17670 light when the time is right. The greatly increased run-time could make it the ultimate, compact, utility HID.