Electronic ballast (?) problem

[Mark F]

VEB82234 drives two circline bulbs, FC12T9 and FT16T9
Very short bulb life, one fixture refuses to start at all,
replaced bulbs in two, died almost immediately.
Pulled a ballast apart, brown gunk leaked from somewhere,
couple of electrolytic (68uF / 200v) caps seem to be a bit
swollen....

Is it worth fixing / troubleshooting, or simply take my
100 dollar lumps (home depot canada pricing) and use
something different...
thanks / mark

 

[Mark F]

VEB82234 drives two circline bulbs, FC12T9 and FT16T9
Very short bulb life, one fixture refuses to start at all,
replaced bulbs in two, died almost immediately.
Pulled a ballast apart, brown gunk leaked from somewhere,
couple of electrolytic (68uF / 200v) caps seem to be a bit
swollen....

Is it worth fixing / troubleshooting, or simply take my
100 dollar lumps (home depot canada pricing) and use
something different...
thanks / mark

It gets worse - all the diodes are open (bridge input),
so I'm betting on a power spike. Caps were just
victims of this / mark

 

[Victor Roberts]

VEB82234 drives two circline bulbs, FC12T9 and FT16T9
Very short bulb life, one fixture refuses to start at all,
replaced bulbs in two, died almost immediately.
Pulled a ballast apart, brown gunk leaked from somewhere,
couple of electrolytic (68uF / 200v) caps seem to be a bit
swollen....

Is it worth fixing / troubleshooting, or simply take my
100 dollar lumps (home depot canada pricing) and use
something different...
thanks / mark

It all depends how much your time is worth. You may be
able to fix it, since the ballast still powers the lamp, and
also turn it into a learning experience; but it may take
many hours to find and repair all the problems. And,
without a circuit diagram there is no assurance you will be
successful.

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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