Trouble with fluorescents

WeekendGI51

Hi, new to the site! Just wanted to pick the brain of the pro's out there. I have two radionic fixtures four t12 bulbs each with two ballist each. They both stopped working at the sametime, so i started by checking power up to the fixtures. I am getting a hot signal from my hot stick when the three way switch is in the correct position up to all four ballist. I also am getting a hot signal on the wires leaving the ballists. I checked all the connections thinking I might have lost a nuetral, and they are all good. I'm not sure what else to check besides just replacing bulbs and hoping im overlooking something. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
WeekendGI51

AltaSparky

First thing I would check is the voltage from hot to neutral. You should have ~120V. The lamps, all the connections, ballasts, and tombstones could also be the problem, but if you have 2 separate fixtures with separate ballasts and everything then I would look and make sure you have the proper voltage coming in.

I find many "pen style" non contact testers have poor accuracy.

ionized

Rapid start?

A solenoid tester or an analog VOM work better to test voltage in these situations.

You lost both at once so the ballasts and bulbs are good. You lost power or maybe ground. If the neutral and hot check out, test the ground. Some fluorescent ballast/bulb combos will not strike unless the case ground is good.