TudorWhiz
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I have noticed something........ But first I want to see what you all have to say.... Which brand Cobrahead Fixtures seems to have a "cycling problem" (or cycles too early in specific brand cobrahead fixtures) ? This would be for HPS only....not for other kinds...... (this question is mostly for USA fixtures....so if you don't have any experience on USA fixtures or anything...but this post gives you an idea for your country's fixtures...feel free to make a new topic )
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chapman84
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From what I've seen, I'd have to say the newer GE ones do.
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J-Frog
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Hmmmm to me it seems the AE's may cycle more than the GE's....
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Jeremiah The Bullfrog
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chapman84
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Isn't it down to the actual gear, not the lantern?
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chapman84
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Actually "cobrahead" means lantern.
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TudorWhiz
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No....Cobrahead is a TYPE of lantern we use in USA........examples are GE M-250s, GE M-400s, AE-115, the famous silverliners, Tudors, McGraw Unidors....
The clamshells are not cobraheads.....clamshells are like Form 400s, OV-20s, OV-10s, and those clamshell Revreses
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Silverliner
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I have noticed the Coopers seem to have problems with lamp darkening and cycling. The reflectors may be a bit hard on the lamps, since HPS lamps don't like excess IR rays reflected back to the arc tubes. Nowadays it seems to no longer matter because the HPS lamps are of low quality.
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chapman84
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@tudorwhiz, I know clamshells aren't cobraheads, what I meant was that the topic was about newer cobraheads (integral ballast fixtures) that have the most problems with cycling HPS lamps.
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TudorWhiz
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Dave, you are right.....Coopers are the fixtures that is the ones that I noticed seems to cycle the most........even I noticed in early 1990s there was a group of older Cooper OVZs near my house that seems to always cycle.......I mean I am having a hard time remembering (after 18 years) that there was a time those fixtures DIDN'T cycle!......................
My neighborhood has mostly AE 113 which is the same age as the OVZs near my house and those AEs RARELY cycles!
Also TODAY CURRENTLY a lot of the OVX's on our Maryland's traffic light system...about 75% of them are currently cycling....but the GEs on the same system are not cycling as much! It is mostly the Coopers that cycles more!!!!! The design should be fixed!
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J-Frog
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I can see why Don and I don't like the Coopers much! The reflectors need to be redesigned AND they need to use GE HPS lamps, I believe those are still good...
It may also be the ballast in the Coopers putting out a lower voltage or something...
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Jeremiah The Bullfrog
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TudorWhiz
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Also I have found out from Steve when we both were at Tubby's last week where powerbracket used to be.....we discussed a few things...he mentioned to me that acorn fixture with a metal house side shield inside with a 150 watt HPS and a 150 HPS bulb would have the early cycling problems....but not the rest of the wattage....he specifically told me and I explained to him about it.
But why only 150 watt HPS? He didn't tell me if it was a Sylvania bulb or a Philips bulb...
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J-Frog
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I think its a combination of the size and position of the arctube in a 150w lamp and the house shield that reflects a great amount of IR back to the arctube and thus ruins the lamp, making it cycle...
Another theory is that it's a Philips HPS, which have quality problems anyways and seem to suffer most from the IR of any lamp brand...
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Jeremiah The Bullfrog
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streetlight98
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Mike McCann
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I have to say also that Cooper is of low quality, because on the Route 6 Expressway, they installed OVFs and a year later, half of them are out. RI used to always install OVFs for replacements, but now they use M400R3s in Rhode Island.
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joseph_125
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I think that Cooper fixtures seem to have the most problems with cycling too. There's two OVXs using 400w HPS lamps that started to cycle after I think about a month after they were installed, one of these has since been relamped but the other is still cycling.
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Medved
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If you read usage manuals for HID lamps, there is stated, then the lantern should not reflect IR back to the lamp. It is there, as unlike on MV, the radiation is the only significant cooling mechanism for the arctube, as the outer bulb is evacuated. (in MV the arctube run cooler, so significant portion of dissipation goes via gas convection and not as much is radiated, so possible to reflect back) As i know many fixtures, this requirement is very often not fulfilled (mainly on fixtures originally designed for MV), so no wonder. Furthermore, new arctube designs are smaller for the same wattage (to yield higher pressure, so better CRI), so much more sensitive for such reflection.
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