Retrofit lamps are pretty expensive. I think changing the ballast would be the cheaper option in the long run. At Seekonk Speedway, the owner wants to change out all of the mercs with MH lights. I've tried to tell him retrofitting them will be cheaper, but he said the cost of labor will make changing the ballasts more expensive (he buys the track lights from surplus places which is why there are a handfull of models and brands of cobraheads). I guess soon enough the 400W MV 60s M-400s, AE 25s, OV-25s, M-400 split-door, and one or two MH current GE M-400 will be replaced. He also insists the new(ish) 400W MH GE M-400s that replaced the remaining original OV-25 remote ballast are mercury vapor, not MH (the do have mercs in them, but they're definatly probe start MH).
Oh actually the 400 watt MV ballast are the most compatible with 400 watt MH of all MV wattages...and have him look at the GE ballast, I'll guarantee it will say 400 watt MV/MH!
I don't think he service them himself. I believe he has a track electrician. I've even offered to change the ballasts so he could avoid labor costs but I guess I'm just a stupid kid to a 65-70 year-old man. I guess the big reason I'm concerned is because he was originally going to get MH cobraheads, but my uncle knows him well and said he'll get the cheapest lights for the job that he can.
He found a listing for over a hundred brand new 400W MH sports lights last year for $5 a unit with the lamp! If it wasn't for the fact that they were the wrong voltage, the whole track would have been updated with sportslighters, which would be very glarey compared to the cobraheads. Plus, the audience is also lit by the cobraheads. If flood lights or sports lights are used, there is no light shineing on the audience to see.
here's a night shot of the track. It is on the dim side, but it does the job of lighting the track and stands. There are a few sports lighters stuck in with the cobraheads for extra light at the turns in the track.
Not my uncle. The track owner found the listing. I'm not sure where but maybe craig's list or something. Now you can see why he doesn't want to have the ballasts changed. Well, hopefully my uncle will ask him to set a few aside for me. I have no room though so they'd likely go to you guys though I'm not sure if he'd save any for me.
Sorry about that Darren. I'll try but I can't promise anything. At the very least I hope to get some vintage PCs like you asked before. But I still can't garentee anything sadly. I want to save them all, but I guess in reality it's just not possible to do so.
Thanks Ian for your patience, I hope to get it ready soon, I've been running way behind in everything lately. That would be great Michael if you can at least save me some vintage PC's,hopefully it will work out and you will be able to save a bunch of the fixtures.
Also it looks to be remote ballast...at those days they did offer empty shelled cobraheads to replace clamshells
Maybe they even added a ballast in the M-400 when they retrofitted it to HPS and bypassed the remote merc ballast.
i'd bet more towards a diffrent ballast...but who knows...
He found a listing for over a hundred brand new 400W MH sports lights last year for $5 a unit with the lamp! If it wasn't for the fact that they were the wrong voltage, the whole track would have been updated with sportslighters, which would be very glarey compared to the cobraheads. Plus, the audience is also lit by the cobraheads. If flood lights or sports lights are used, there is no light shineing on the audience to see.
here's a night shot of the track. It is on the dim side, but it does the job of lighting the track and stands. There are a few sports lighters stuck in with the cobraheads for extra light at the turns in the track.
Hope you can get those lights Mike.