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Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 2:00 pm
by Alex
Hello everybody,

so for whatever reason, since Kevins meet i have the desire to kill my scarce free time by designing and then building a high reactance Leak transformer for the 200W SLI/HO lamp. If that is successful i plan to produce a small series of them to trade or sell to other collector interested.

I know the general lamp specifications as:

200W
145V
1,55A

what would be good to know: The original open circuit voltage of the ballast-maybe someone is happy enough to own one and can measure it?

My plan ist to first build a fem model of the transformer in Matlab or a similar software, based on some standard core. i plan to simulate the lamp as a voltage source with the shape of a SOX lamp voltage on leak transformer having an RMS value of 145V. Once these simulation look successful i would try to build a first prototype. Once that is complete i pan to do some real life test and if those are successful i will try a small batch production as i think there is quite some interest in these...

Re: Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 10:38 pm
by Kev
Pete Greenhall would be good to speak to about these

Re: Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2026 11:34 pm
by Nick217
I think I have a ballast about somewhere. Should have asked could have borrowed it for testing. (However I've not tested it yet myself)

Re: Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2026 10:32 pm
by PeterG
I think I have a ballast about somewhere. Should have asked could have borrowed it for testing. (However I've not tested it yet myself)
Nick if you've got one that'll run HO 200w SLI that would be good to get readings from. Mine is a standard 200w choke and won't run 200HO lamps

Re: Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2026 11:32 pm
by Slyspark
I have a proper 200w SLI/H ballast (somewhere) tho it might take me a long time to find it, given I can't actually get in any of my sheds or containers due to the amount of stuff crammed in them...

Re: Leak transformer for 200W SLI/H HO

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2026 11:52 pm
by Ash
The exact Voc is not critical as long as it is sufficient to start the lamp. I would expect anything between 400...600V - Guess out of the blue, no actual knowledge of the specific lamp here

Then the series impedance (the leakage) is chosen to keep the correct current with this Voc