Rewiring Lighting Ballast

[WesleyCrusher]

Disclaimer: The most advanced electrical work I've ever done was to modify a 12V adapter to work as a power supply for a 120mm computer fan! In other words, I'm not an electrician, and I apologize if the following questions are inappropriately stupid...

With that out of the way, I recently purchased a digital ballast for use with a 600W HPS light bulb. I was under the impression when buying it that it would be a remote ballast, ie. that there would be a cable extended between the ballast and the socket. Turns out that wasn't the case, so I've been thinking of rewiring the ballast myself to make it a remote ballast instead of going through the hassle of returning it, provided that it's a) relatively easy to perform the rewiring, and b) doesn't carry with it increased risk of fire/malfunctioning etc.

I took a couple of pics to show how the socket is connected to the ballast:

Different angle:

Intuitively it looks like all I need to do is to get some wire and a couple of those white connector thingies to extend the cabling, but...

1) Are the "white connector thingies" (sorry for lack of correct terminology lol) as simple to figure out as it looks? When connecting cables with them, do I need to strip the wires before inserting them or something? I figure they're not listed as "white connector thingies" in online shops, so if any of you guys know exactly what they're called that'd be very helpful!

2) Seems like the wires going from the connectors to the socket have extra protection. I assume they're protected for a reason, so I'm guessing I should get a similar type of wire for extending. Do you know what type of wire I should order to get the same as in the pictures?

3) Earlier, digital ballasts used to have a pretty big problem in that they emitted a lot of RF interference. This ballast should be RF shielded, but I'm not sure exactly how that works. By modifying the ballast by rewiring, would that potentially damage the RF shielding?

Again, sorry for stupid questions, and thanks in advance for any and all help!

 

[pushrod]

Not really familiar with this subject (just a beginner) but from the design of the casing it looks like heat dissipation might be a bit of an issue.You can get wires that are heat resistant and also sleeving to go over wires to protect them. The wires can be joined using ratchet crimps - whether or not those white thingies are heat resistant i wouldn't know. Maybe someone in an electronics suppliers (maplins?) might recognise the type of wire and connector. Sorry not much use at all.

 

[Had8Lives]

Can't see a problem with extending the lamp holder wires as long as it's not an excessive length as you might get voltage drop which could lead to the Tube or Ballast overheating and cutting out. You will probably invalidate any guarantee by modifying the wiring, but them you've probably already lost that by opening the enclosure.

 

[mrloy99]

The cables used to go from the ballast to the lampholder are fibreglas insulated.I would use 1.5mm heatresistant flex to extend your wiring.Three core is probably best,then you could also earth the shade of your grow lamp.You could snip the white and black wires and if you are concerned about the heat you could use porcelane connecter blocks.You don't need to worry about getting the same kind of connector thingys-(wirenuts).Also note that your new wiring cores will be a different colour so take a note and correspond to suit