Re: absolut mess

[Bret <echoplex@yahoo.com>]

Z.
Many months ago I had a problem with blowing fuses in
one of my echoplexii.  

I bought the same size replacements (i forget, is it
1/4 amp?, and they blew too.  I dissasembled and
inspected the echoplex for any shorts, found nothing
wrong.  I noticed that the fuses would not necessarily
blow right away, but might take several power cycles
to blow.  I watched several fuses on power up and saw
that they emitted a flash of light on power up (but
the fuse was still intact).  When I measured the fuse
resistance before and after a flash, I saw that the
resistance was increasing on the fuse, after it
flashed.  Next time or 2 I powered the edp up the fuse
would blow.  I tried different brands of fuses,
nothing seemed to work very long.  

I took a fuse out of another working echoplex (factory
original fuse), put it in the offending echoplex, and
no problem, the fuse did not blow.  I put a
replacement fuse in the good edp, and the replacement
would blow just like in the other edp. I could not see
any difference in the factory original fuse that
worked and my replacement fuses that blew quickly.  

I measured the current draw from the edp that first
blew the fuse, and my other 2 edp, and saw no
difference in current draw.

In desparation I installed a slightly larger fuse
(kids don't try this at home).  It worked then, and
has worked fine for months now.  

My only guess is that the edp is drawing surge current
(on power up) very close to the original fuses limits,
and that the 1/4 amp replacements I bought were on the
low end of the distribution (of current req'd to blow
the fuse). 

Disclaimer:
Your mileage may vary, proceed at your own risk.  It
is dangerous to put in a larger fuse than the
manufacturer recommends.  Don't blame me if your edp
really has a problem, and it burst into flames if you
put a larger fuse in it.
bret

--- wb5150@earthlink.net wrote:
> My EDP has inexplicably blown two fuses in the past
> week. Has anyone
> else suffered through this dilemma? If so, were
> there strange causal
> factors involved? Also, which intoxicants seemed to
> work best during the
> downtime?
> 
> Z.
> 
> 

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