To fuse or not to fuse....

[adeshers]

Spule 4 posted this in the previous thread 'Nasty Surprise'.....

"Quality, that is why if you build your own, you know what you have put into it. My next step will be both volt and ammeters. Oh, and I did forget one bit, even tho my throttle (Aristo TE) has its own fuse, I have added one on the output, "just in case"."


What are members thoughts on adding fuses and where in their circuitry. 8|


I've yet to wire my railway permanently and would like to add some extra protection. I'm using 2 x train engineer receivers fed from separate transformers which only have fuses in their 13 amp plugs (AFAIK).

 

[Alpineandy]

My transformer is 5 amp and I have fitted a 3 amp inline fuse between the track and TE receiver.
I can run any of my stock (mostly LGB) without it blowing but provides protection against a direct short out on the track. Hope this helps..

 

[bobg]

My thoughts are that fuses add, not only equipment damage protection, but safety as well. The most likely thing to damage equipment is overloading, i.e. trying to draw more from it than it was designed to provide. This can be from over exuberance on your part, running too much at once, or from a short circuit. (That is not to forget that some equipment is already fitted with overload protection by the manufacturer.)

There is little point in fitting just any humungus great fuse in any circuit. Any fuse must be rated to the envisaged load, plus a extra amount/percentage to cope with sudden surges in demand. Therefor for a motor that draws say 4 amps max a suitable fuse would be around 5 amps (they do have some built in overload allowance). Fitting them to the output of your transformer will add protection to the secondary winding. Other than that it will depend entirely on how the rest of your setup is set up.

There are several other types of fuses, such as slo-blow and anti-surge, which allow a larger amount of overload.

From the safety point of view any equipment running at beyond its capacity will be overheating; it might just catch fire before it fails.

 

[spike]

Spule 4 posted this in the previous thread 'Nasty Surprise'.....

"Quality, that is why if you build your own, you know what you have put into it. My next step will be both volt and ammeters. Oh, and I did forget one bit, even tho my throttle (Aristo TE) has its own fuse, I have added one on the output, "just in case"."


What are members thoughts on adding fuses and where in their circuitry. 8|


I've yet to wire my railway permanently and would like to add some extra protection. I'm using 2 x train engineer receivers fed from separate transformers which only have fuses in their 13 amp plugs (AFAIK).

I just fit quick blow 10Amp fuses in the TE, no extra ones.

Quick blow can handle the10Amps no problem but the slightist sniff of a short and they pop.

 

[trammayo]

Fuses are a good idea. My trailer layout runs off a 12v battery and, although my control will give a peak of 5 amp, I use 3 amp quick blow fuses. 3 amp copes with three Big Haulers all day long - no probs. Prior to that, I used 5amp and a derailment could, and did, blow the transistor in my home-made controller. No probs since.

Mick

 

[MR SPOCK]

Fuses are a good idea. My trailer layout runs off a 12v battery and, although my control will give a peak of 5 amp, I use 3 amp quick blow fuses. 3 amp copes with three Big Haulers all day long - no probs. Prior to that, I used 5amp and a derailment could, and did, blow the transistor in my home-made controller. No probs since.

Mick

[align=center]Definately would never run on any track that was not protected, I use cheap car fuses, that said I have had one fire , almost was a six o'clock news story when the track set fire to the baseboards, and there were no trains running, a good idea is to use marine trip switches from a chandler, they are rated at low voltage are reliable and are easily obtained, car fusing are the next best option, and are better than nothing at all,
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[ntpntpntp]

The weatherproof switch boxes I've used for the "section switches" on my line for when running analogue DC were originally intended for mains use with pond equipment etc. and so they came with a fuse built into each box. I fit 6 amp or 10 amp fuses.

A couple of times I've blown a fuse due to derailment or running the wrong way into a live frog point, but generally my DCC system trips out before the fuse blows.

 

[MR SPOCK]

[align=center]Brilliant idea using pond gear all ready made up, I was thinking of yatty stuff, but your idea is better methinks
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[ntpntpntp]

[align=center]Brilliant idea using pond gear all ready made up, I was thinking of yatty stuff, but your idea is better methinks
[/align]

Bought mine from seller "mr-switchbox" on ebay. £36 each, free postage. Just search for "weatherproof switch box" to see a selection of useful items!

 

[beavercreek]

TE receivers have car type fuses and are set at 10 amp protection max. If you would like to use a lower setting to prevent short circuit catastrophe damage to locos (as in a points incursion) you could use lower value fuses in the TE receiver such as 3 amp car fuses etc. Of course if your loco and lighted rolling stock can draw more than three amps in normal operation then this fuse would be too low and you would have to use a 5 amp etc.

You could also use something like the weatherproof switch boxes already mentioned but if you use, for instance, three separate receivers for three separate sections of your layout (like meself) then 3 gang fused boat panels would give you fused protection independently for the three section after the feed from each receiver.
Here is an example of a waterproof boat panel..nice and cheap too:
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/12...GANG BLACK VERTICAL BOAT SWITCH PANEL ( 018 ) < Link To http://stores.channeladvi...ANEL%20%28%20018%20%29