| Well, I don't know any details about the mentioned ignitors, but generally there are two incompatible basic topologies for a semiparallel ignitor (incompatible, because each requires different position of the tap on the ballast):
- Capacitive discharge pulser: A capacitor is charged via a resistor to nearly the ballast OCV, then a SIDAC turns ON and discharges this capacitor into the few turns between the tap and lamp end. The ignition voltage is then the SIDAC breakover voltage (so what voltage the capacitor reaches) times the turns ratio CompleteSecondary/TapToLamp of the ballast winding. Because the voltage could be up to 120V for a series choke ballasts (assume 120V mains), to get about 1.5kV the tap has to be in the 8% from the lamp end. These are the very simple pulsers - generally containing just the capacitor, SIDAC and a resistor (and maybe a separating inductor to increase the "resistor" impedance for the short time HV pulse). These generate the pulse energy in rather inefficient way, so the pulse energy is rather limited, so are usable only for ballast placed near the lamp (no more than 2m). From what I've seen, these are the most common in the US.
- Semiresonant voltage booster (e.g. SN57 is an example of this). There the capacitor is connected using a triac to form a resonant circuit, which generates half cosine for each mains halfwave. The resonan t frequency is rather high, but the triac lets to pass just one half period each time it gets triggered.
This resonance boosts voltage to about 700V (maximum, where usable triacs are still available), so the final ratio of the ballast secondary is just about 5x to reach 3500V pulses, so the tap has to be in 20% from the cold end (so 80% from the lamp end).
These are more complex, but because of the resonance, they are not influenced that much by the wiring capacitance between the ballast and lamp, so allow long cable in a remote ballast configuration, so are often marketed as "long range" ignitors, allowing 10's m of cable between the ballast and lamp.
But important is, although the wiring looks the same (one wire to N, one to lamp, one to the ballast tap) these two styles each requires different position of the tap on the ballast winding, so are incompatible with each other (ballast wound for a capaitive discharge pulser wont work with the semiresonant ignitor and vice versa).
Plus the pulser voltages may vary among makers, which may need different tap positions (ignitor using 100V SIDAC needs its tap in 5% from lamp end in order to get 2kV pulse a given lamp may need, other pulser/ballast brand may be using 200V SIDACs and 10% tap position, again yielding the same 2kV for the same lamp)
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