Hey guys. Me again. Been a while since my last post. Been busy with uni stuff but more pertinent to this forum I've been waiting on everything for my SOX lamp. Now it's so close I can almost see the 588nm light coming off the lamp. Still waiting on ignitor and the bayonet socket (of all the things I was so surprised how hard this is to find here, had to end up ordering off ebay as well when back home they were pretty common)

Anyway I just wanna check this wiring is right for the ballast as the symbols are quite worn off. I'm attaching it as a picture to this post along with pictures of the SOX lamp. For reference sake, the maroon is where mains will be going, then the red dotted line (as also printed on the transformer / ballast) is the separation between primary and secondary (I assume), and finally the blue is where I presume one connects the SOX lamp in parallel with the ignitor. If any of this is wrong please correct me.

I'm also uploading some pictures of the lamp itself. it is absolutely beautiful NOS.

You can use a fluorescent starter like Philips S10 one, to start the lamp.

This ballast is "just" a series choke, so no "primary" nor "secondary" here. The two mains voltage taps just change the inductance so the current remains the same at either mains voltage system. It is to be wired according to which voltage is the closest to the real voltage at the place of installation.

You may try it with the fluorescent starter, but there is quite a large probability it still won't start. The isn't able to feed enough current to the discharge in cold cathode mode (with elevated OCV), so it would start only when the mains happen to be enough (by pure chance; lamps are not designed that way).
The ignitor generates (with the ballast inductance) medium-to-high frequency AC superimposed on the mains voltage, that way there is almost double OCV with almost 1/2 of the rated current capability to support and feed the cold cathode phase discharge with enough power to actually warm the electrodes up (the first 0.5..1s just after the initial gas breakdown).

You can use a fluorescent starter like Philips S10 one, to start the lamp.

For a 10W or 18W lamp, this may well work, but I am not sure it would for anything higher like 26W. Anyway, the OP has an ignitor on order.

Right, wiring. The ballast is a series inductor, not a transformer. It is connected in series with the lamp to the incoming supply, choose the connection that most closely matches your incoming supply voltage, I am guessing for mainland Europe it will be somewhere between 220 and 230V..? The terminal on the lower right at the front is the connection to the lamp. The ignitor then goes in parallel with the lampholder.

I wish you had mentioned you needed a lampholder, I have a boxful of those..!

Anyway, good luck and remember this lamp must never be operated with the cap down.

S10 is 4-65W and I think it is relevant also with SOX lamps, especially when these have neon-argon instead of just plain argon or even argon-krypton like fluorescent lamps.

Dor, the starting method of SOX is different to fluorescent, it is cold starting, not pre-heat. The starter may work, but it's not guaranteed, and anyway as the OP said he has an ignitor on order so it's irrelevant.

The ballast is a series inductor, not a transformer

Oh is it? I was reading the lamp spec sheet and noted it runs at 67V (iirc) so I just assumed it was a transformer to step the voltage down with the correct inductance to also limit current. Interesting

And I'm so confused and upset about the lamp holder since it's super common in ZA as well. So I didn't think it would be any trouble to find. But apparently, mainland Europe just doesn't use bayonets. I went to some shops asking for it and would just get strange looks. And thank you very much for the clear wiring instructions. It is greatly appreciated.

As for running it cap down, that's luckily *the one* thing I know about SOX lamps. I'm so paranoid about angle I'm gonna run vertical with cap down (also helps that it just makes overall lamp construction nice and easy)

Ah, the wonders of discharge lighting..! Discharge lamps usually run at a constant current, the voltage can vary as the lamp warms up and stabilises. I'm not an expert, I strongly recommend you read the information on James Hooker's excellent website Lamptech where you will find more useful stuff than you ever knew existed 

Specific to SOX lamps, see this page and for descriptions and pictures of individual lamps, see here.

Regarding burning positions, I usually run mine horizontal, as that's what the larger lamps generally demand. I found the best way was to use either one or two (depending on lamp length) laboratory retort stands, which are generally available very cheaply on eBay. See here for an example using a 140W SLI/H linear sodium lamp.

Hope this helps,

Ria 

Running a SOX lamp with the base down, may cause liquid sodium to accumulate at the arctube sealing, attacking the seal, and causing sodium leak and premature failure.

I just re-read that, yes DO NOT run it base down, I hope that was just a typo 

Oh yes it is a typo. Dammit it's been a long day. Yes cap up I meant. And thank you for the website. Definitely has info I need.