You could try replacing the fuse temporarily with a "suitably rated" filament lamp.
You'll need to figure out what volts/power etc, from what the fuse is protecting, and the fuse's rating. But, if done (and it's not too difficult) you end up with a self indicating current limit! (Of course, you could design and fit an "Electronic" fuse...) When you've found and removed the overload, often the device/instrument will start to work (maybe not very well) with the bulb still in there, but said bulb will not glow as bright, if at all. Filament lamps have the nice PTC feature, that when cold they have a lower resistance than when hot, so for no fault conditions, things can actually work quite well. When the fault happens, the lamp lights, "Indicating" the problem, but not letting too much current flow to cause more damage. It's a simple trick, but one I've used on many an occasion, from 12V vehicle electrics, right up to 240V AC House electrics with a 60W lamp! (Unscrambling a nightmare caused by a so called "Professional" electrician, who walked away from the job, leaving multiple shorts in the lighting circuit.) I make no claim for originality, as I learnt the trick when working for BT (the Telephone co in the UK) years ago, but it's stood me in good stead on many occasions with various "Barsteward" electrical woes... I even used to have an old television of my own (I was given it!) where I ended up with a 24V bulb in series with the DC feed to the line output driver transistor, because that used to "Pop" on odd occasions. I never found out why (neither did the TV repair guy, which is why I ended up with it I guess) but for some years (until I donated the TV to a local hospice) if you turned it on and got no picture, just cycle the power and it'd come up OK the next time, not needing any surgery! That used to happen on average about once every week or two from memory. Cheers. Dave B. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
