[jshorva65]

I've been working with Big Dave since 2009 toward developing commercial replacements for the still-available Amperite 17A485459 and the Unobtainium 7A470303 into which we plan to incorporate a few advanced features. The goal we have set for ourselves is to achieve the ability to offer rebuilding of customer-supplied "dud" ballasts of either version by the end of this year. We have four proposed circuits (two for each VT-71 Ballast type) undergoing evaluation for use in the final version. We plan to include some pretty slick features in our final version: inrush limiting; overload protection; visual fault warning; and provisions for servicing instead of outright replacement in the event of a Ballast failure. The technologies we are evaluating for performance-to-cost ratio are Reactance versus Rectification, however, field trials of both technologies are still in progress.

Since most of the work we do is for set owners who are not experienced at post-Restoration troubleshooting, we hope to make subsequent Tech Support as simple as possible and eliminate as much Shipping as possible. Hopefully, developing the ability to determine by phone or email whether post-Restoration servicing (during or after warranty) will require the entire set or only the Ballast Tube to be returned for servicing. With a bit of creativity, we hope to make it easy for the customer to provide meaningful feedback based upon Ballast appearance to facilitate quick troubleshooting of a variety of Fault conditions for which some manner of visual indicator has been built right into the Ballast Tube.