extending an CFL electronic ballast

[flippityflop1]

i`m thinking of buying this ballast
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200971855385

to power 2 of my 2pin 9W UV CFLs:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331138643631


it says it can drive two 9W CFLs at the same time.... but i wanna push it and probably drive more (maybe 4 in total??)... can it be cheaply done? maybe a separate starter for each new lamp added and then have them parallel for each output.

i have a feeling the answer would be no, hey, i still gotta ask.

 

[audioguru2]

The photo on the ballast shows two CFL bulbs with 4-wires each. But your OLD CFL bulbs have only 2-wires each.

The ballast starts the bulb by heating its filament at each end. Your OLD bulbs do not have filaments, they are started with an OLD starter thingy that creates a high voltage spike.

DO NOT overload a ballast with too many bulbs because then it will get hot and burn out or catch on fire.

Why not buy modern inexpensive CFL light bulbs that have a small electronic ballast attached to the base?

 

[flippityflop1]

The photo on the ballast shows two CFL bulbs with 4-wires each. But your OLD CFL bulbs have only 2-wires each.

i don't think you read through the listing page description:

Lamp Configurations

       (2/1)  CFQ/M13W/G24q
       (2/1)  CFQ/M13/GX24q
       (2/1)  CFS16W/GR10q (2D)
       (2/1)  CFS10W/GR10q (2D) 4-pin lamp
       (2/1)  CFT9W/2G7
       (2)     CFT7W/2G7


- it lists CFT9W and 2G7 together. google'd it and found CFT9W are  2-pins, while 2G7 are 4 pins. maybe it can accommodate (2/2) same types or two CFT9W and one 2G7 (2/1), so it has a total of 8 wires??

 

[Hero999]

The photo on the ballast shows two CFL bulbs with 4-wires each. But your OLD CFL bulbs have only 2-wires each.

The ballast starts the bulb by heating its filament at each end. Your OLD bulbs do not have filaments, they are started with an OLD starter thingy that creates a high voltage spike.

Oh yes they do have filaments. They use a switch startler, like old fluorescent lamps do but it's built into the the fitting. The high voltage pulse is produced by the inductive ballast.

DO NOT overload a ballast with too many bulbs because then it will get hot and burn out or catch on fire.

Why not buy modern inexpensive CFL light bulbs that have a small electronic ballast attached to the base?

There's no danger of that happening. If you try to connect two lamps in parallel, the one with the lowest ionising voltage will start, leaving the other one off. It won't work but won't kill the ballast either.

i don't think you read through the listing page description:

Lamp Configurations

       (2/1)  CFQ/M13W/G24q
       (2/1)  CFQ/M13/GX24q
       (2/1)  CFS16W/GR10q (2D)
       (2/1)  CFS10W/GR10q (2D) 4-pin lamp
       (2/1)  CFT9W/2G7
       (2)     CFT7W/2G7


- it lists CFT9W and 2G7 together. google'd it and found CFT9W are  2-pins, while 2G7 are 4 pins. maybe it can accommodate (2/2) same types or two CFT9W and one 2G7 (2/1), so it has a total of 8 wires??

No, it doesn't work like that. I suggest you read up on how fluorescent lamps work first.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/flamp.htm#fb
http://home.howstuffworks.com/fluorescent-lamp1.htm

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[flippityflop1]

i`m going with your suggestion, hero999. btw, i`m using this for a UV exposure box.

 

[audioguru2]

ALL household compact fluorescent light bulb circuits I have seen show 4-pins glass bulbs. They have a filament at each end to heat the gas and reduce the starting voltage.

Sams talks about a 2-pins glass bulb with a starter that shorts it then opens when it heats. The ballast makes 500V to 600V when the starter opens to start the light.

 

[flippityflop1]

The ballast makes 500V to 600V when the starter opens to start the light.

i ripped an electronic ballast from a portable desk lamp that was going to be thrown away. i posted a question in yahoo answers where i mentioned measuring a voltage that goes up to thousand of volts (most likely AC, since it registers for both DC and AC, but goes higher than what my multimeter can take) ... it's most likely because i used an incompatible DC power supply.

see, the old portable lamp had a wall wart providing 9V @ 1A. i have long burned that out in my electrochemical experiments... so when i tested the said ballast from the portable lamp with the 9W that i got from ebay, i used another wall wart which is 16V (from an old printer). that's probably why the voltage almost doubled (i was hoping it'll be pretty much the same). right now, i can't test any other DC supply (i haven't got to building my 0-30V variable power supply) and all wall warts i got here and there were all burned out from electrochemical experiments a long time ago. the only reason the 16V wall wart from a printer is still kicking is that it shuts off whenever it exceeds current ratings (well, it was from an HP printer)