P
PhillipM
Guest
Hi all, new to all this so you might have to hammer some of the information into my skull for it to go through :wave:
I've got a couple of automotive 35w HID ballasts I got nice and cheap secondhand, and after reading through a few old threads on here about overdriving them I thought I'd open them up and have a look.
They came with what were supposed to be 5000K bulbs but either they're pretty old or just cheap chinese crap because they do have a slight blue tint - so if I can get them shifting back toward a warmer colour tone and get more light from them, bonus!
Anyway, I split the units and have been faced with a board with a much denser component spread than I've seen in the other ballasts, so I'm struggling to identify the area I should be looking at/digging the potting compound away from.
If I have it right the block of 6 resistors here are for current sensing on startup only? So altering there won't affect the light output bar the first couple of seconds?
Interestingly, on the other side you can see those 6 actually have a steel heatsink bar soldered to the other side for heat dissapation:
Unfortunately, you can see why I'm having trouble removing the compound! There's several heatsinks and tightly packaged FET's so I can't just peel it off, I'm having to dig it out bit by bit with a fingernail.
So, can anyone point me toward the right area from those pictures, I haven't found anything resembling a setting pot or similar yet
I've got a couple of automotive 35w HID ballasts I got nice and cheap secondhand, and after reading through a few old threads on here about overdriving them I thought I'd open them up and have a look.
They came with what were supposed to be 5000K bulbs but either they're pretty old or just cheap chinese crap because they do have a slight blue tint - so if I can get them shifting back toward a warmer colour tone and get more light from them, bonus!
Anyway, I split the units and have been faced with a board with a much denser component spread than I've seen in the other ballasts, so I'm struggling to identify the area I should be looking at/digging the potting compound away from.
If I have it right the block of 6 resistors here are for current sensing on startup only? So altering there won't affect the light output bar the first couple of seconds?
Interestingly, on the other side you can see those 6 actually have a steel heatsink bar soldered to the other side for heat dissapation:
Unfortunately, you can see why I'm having trouble removing the compound! There's several heatsinks and tightly packaged FET's so I can't just peel it off, I'm having to dig it out bit by bit with a fingernail.
So, can anyone point me toward the right area from those pictures, I haven't found anything resembling a setting pot or similar yet
