YAY! Explosions!

[jufam44]

Hello All
We were running a performance of Electricidad this weekend, and our flourescent system had a little accident: somehow, electricity was allowed to free-flow from the anode to the cathode of the flourescent. This Arc blew the glass up, melted the base plastic to a slop, and then continued to burn until a 2 second burst with a fire-extinguisher put it out. Then the ballast started burning. All in all about 5 seconds of fire extinguisher use, and about 1.5 hours of fire extinguisher cleanup. All of this right before a show! Anyways, here's the picture:

Any ideas/comments, other than mis-installation of something?

Thanks guys (and gals!)

 

[jufam44]

Bump! Please help!

 

[soundlight]

Use a multimeter to check all the way through all of the wiring. That's what I'd do. See if anything is out of place in terms of voltage or current. Check the ballast as well (you'll need a new one anyway, the old one's toasted).

 

[Chris15]

And the ballast is currently a fire hazard...

Please don't bump after only 4 hours, we know this needs timely attention but we don't appreciate being pushed.

Check all the wiring and components for signs of heat stress or damage, something else might have been damaged in the process...

 

[Hughesie]

Reasons for time between replies

1. we might be asleep (yes tech's sleep to)
2. we might not know exactly what to do so instead of giving you a suggestion that might kill you, we hold back
3. We might be currently hunting small critters in Australia

apart from that sometimes it helps to be patient and sometimes, just sometimes you get the worlds most detailed description of what to do from a senior member like ship or gaff.