Need Help with Lightmaker Ballast
 

A friend of mine has an HMI electronic ballast which has problems.

It is a Lightmaker 575/1200 electronic ballast Model II.

At a shoot, they turned off the lights, but left the Lightmaker ballast powered on overnight.

We now know that the way the unit is designed is that the internal fan does not come on unless the 1200 watt HMI light is on. So during idle periods there is no cooling, nor is their any cooling if only the 575 watt HMI light is lit.

The unit was left on 24 hours and would not work the next morning.

So far, we have learned that the Toshiba mg50j2ys50 IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolor Transistor) appears to be bad. We also have a few fried resisters (at least). Our current theory is that the IGBT overheated, had a meltdown, and 120 volts flowed out the sensitive input (gate) inputs.

The Toshiba IGBT is an obsolete part. We are currently searching for either an original part or a more modern replacement part.

We are also looking for a schematic for this ballast. It is just amazing to us as how much electronics is packed inside this electronic ballast!

Does anyone have experience with this electronic ballast?

Does anyone have a schematic?

Does anyone have a Lightmaker 575/1200 electronic ballast for sale, working or not?

We know that Lightmaker is currently out of business. Did another company assume their business or perform repair on their equipment?

A quick check on the web yielded these two for sale:

http://www.screenlightandgrip.com/html/equip.html

http://www.kayelites.com/lightmaker1200.htm

You might call them and see how much they want.

Good luck.

Thanks Richard,

We will check these out.