Patent ID: 7282869

Claim:
A high intensity discharge (HID) lamp ballast and lamp tester connected to output side of said ballast and not requiring a specific line voltage for continuously monitoring the status of an HID lighting system comprising an HID lamp and ballast circuitry, providing a visual indicator of HID lamp and HID ballast failure, said ballast and lamp tester, in combination, comprising: (a) an HID ballast including ballast circuitry providing an output of a relatively high amplitude open circuit voltage as a series of high voltage pulses to an HID lamp and a lower operating voltage to said HID lamp as a pulse AC power source and a lower operating voltage source; (b) a voltage divider network of two resistors comprising a voltage dropping resistor and a load resistor to drop the voltage and provide a circuit load for said operating voltage of said ballast and said open circuit voltage of said ballast output; (c) a full wave bridge rectifier circuit across said pulse AC power source to convert pulse AC power output voltage to provide a DC current power supply voltage to charge a filter capacitor as a series of DC voltage pulses; (d) a trigger circuit comprising a bi-directional silicon switch diac in series connection with said filter capacitor; (e) a light emitting diode (LED) in series connection with said trigger circuit, said bridge rectifier circuit, said voltage divider network and said HID ballast wherein said relatively high magnitude open circuit voltage over operating circuit voltage of said ballast of said ballast output present as an AC pulse voltage is rectified to a DC voltage to provide a charging voltage on said filter capacitor to overcome breakdown voltage of said diac and trigger illumination of said light emitting diode as a momentary flashing of light on discharge of said capacitor.