QUEENSEMT said:
I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet. But I'm looking into buying a ballast liberty lightbar. What exactly are the differences between the two. I know that there are ballast and passive modules. But can you use a passive module in a ballast lightbar? Again I'm sorry if this has been posted before just want to make sure I'm not making any mistakes.
It has been discussed at great length in years past. I know, because I asked the same question about 5 years ago and got several excellent responses. I did not find that thread in search, but I will continue looking and post it, if I find it.
Thay said - here is some info I have found over the years:
The ballast Liberty bars were made up through 2004. The passive bars seem to have started in 2005.
A ballast bar is almost worthless in resale. A passive bar retains an excellent resale value.
A ballast bar uses a ballast to drive (power) the LEDs. It converts 12 volts to 24 volts and sends 24 volts to the individual LED modules. The ballast is in a large plastic box under the top cover, adjacent to the I/O board. The ballast LEDs are a 500 series, but are a LIN8 (not a LIN6 as used in a passive Liberty) containing 8 LEDs. The LIN8s will not work with 12 volts being directly applied so they will not work in a passive bar. The ballast bars are noticeably heavier than the passive bars.
The passive bars use LEDs that are powered by 12volts. The modules are 500 series that are also used in many other whelen products. The passive 500s are called LIN6s (they have 6 LEDs, although economy versions have fewer LEDs). The passive liberty bars I/O board contains improved functions and does not use a ballast to drive any portion of it. There is no ballast in a passive bar.
This photo shows the ballast, the I/O board, and the wiring used in a ballast bar that I disassembled yesterday:
This photo shows a passive I/O board and related harness:
more to come (hopefully)