[XCSSA] Blowing Fuses and Unsure Why

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

On Wednesday 07 January 2009, X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
[...]
> Unfortunately, I ran out of pico fuses. Whoops :) Guess I should use
> those in a final design since they are sort of a pain in the ass to
> replace, doh!

Hey Tim.. 

A Little electronic bench t-shooting tip from my pro-audio tech days:
When you have a prototype circuit (or just something you have on the bench) 
that keeps blowing fuses.. Instead of continually replacing them or doing 
pico fuses.. (or foolishly hard wire bypassing the fuse <ug>)... Instead, 
just wire a 150-300 watt light bulb sock in series with your AC cable and 
screw the bulb socket down to the bench (maybe throw a 15A light switch in 
line with that too):
	http://images.hardwareandtools.com/P/u251470.jpg
	http://www.cacheboxstore.com/images/Large/Light 
Bulb/lightbulbfixturelarge.gif
	http://images.marketworks.com/hi/58/57750/EA293V-BOX-10pk-2.jpg

That way you can draw up to an amp or so just fine.. but over that.. you just 
light the light bulb instead of blowing a fuse.  What this also does is it 
gives you time to track down the short (while the bulb is lit).  Whatever 
component (or wire) is shorted, it will end up getting rather toasty 
(usually) and emit a "distinctive smell" which you can then either track down 
by smell or by touch (ouch!). :)

Hope that helps..

Tweeks




> Oh well. I'll order some more of those once I know 
> what's going wrong.
>
> Thanks, as always, for the help!
>
> Tim
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> XCSSA at xcssa.org
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