Inside self-indicating vehicle fuses
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- A look at a novel fuse designed to make troubleshooting easier by indicating the its location and blown state. That could save a lot of time in some applications where an overload on a circuit is common (vehicle appliance socket?). Or one of those very rogue intermittent faults.
These fuse are only for low voltage use, but equivalent circuitry exists for higher voltage use.
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Hi Clive, some years ago you dedicated a video to heart attacks and talked about the benefits of carrying aspirin in a little keyring dongle called an Aspod. Following the video I bought one and told one of our neighbours about it, he did the same. Just to let you know that that was the best video I ever watched! A few weeks ago my neighbours were away for the weekend and they booked into a travel hotel, my friend started to feel ill with pain in his jaw and chest. His wife rang 999 and then gave him the aspirin before the ambulance arrived. After he was treated in hospital the doctor told his wife that if he hadn’t had that Aspod with him she would be a widow. So thank you Clive, sometimes RUclips videos do make a difference to peoples lives. It might be worth re-posting the video Clive? 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
That's great to hear.
ruclips.net/video/ZXMlUqGTIEI/видео.html do you mean this one?
Now carry aspirin since my minor heart attack.
@@gordonirving24 Trouble with aspirin is it crumbled to dust, but the Aspod protects them.
Clives a hero. About 3-4 years, I had a mate who was a manager at an electrical wholesaler, there was a bit of panic going on. Lucky I had aspirin on me for my dodgy ticker. He fine now. Also Clive's anti smelly feet advice worked like a charm too. Now I am diabetic, good feet is important. So Clive, your a life saver at least twice over and a limb saver. I should have let you know Clive.
I was sceptical when I saw these 2A fuses on Temu and decided to give them a try. They sustained 10A until the plastic started melting. Never popped... Super durable, high quality material
High quality fuse, protects itself by eliminating the circuit it's connected to.
The same very high quality fuses found on Amazon, I see!
...note to self: Remember to test some of your cheap-butt glass fuses to destruction this weekend to see how many 'mini-heaters' I may now own instead of fuses! TEN amps, on a TWO fuse...and not transient, but sustained?! I'll just see about popping a few of each of mine at random just to see if any play 'lightbulb' on me. That's not a failure mode I'd considered before. I was always thinking it was risking being LOWER in capability, not wildly-higher.
@@EShirako I think being lower is the best failure mode here and I've never thought a fuse would be lower in capacity as that's safer anyways (but annoying if it pops whenever)
I see a bunch of people here have seen Louis Rossman's video of when he was testing some cheap fuses.
Long ago, I was employed as a technician servicing commercial alarm systems. One day I walked into the storeroom to refill my kit, only to find the "storesman" carefully measuring glass fuses with a multimeter, and tossing each one in the garbage. I inquired, "Exactly what are you doing?" His reply was - "Checking these fuses. They're all bad!! Every one of them is shorted!"
True story.
Edit to add - Thanks for the video, and the bringing back of an amusing memory!
LOL
i was fixing somebody clothes dryer and he was calling the parts store to order a new heating element. the guy on the phone keep telling us to check the resistance AFTER unplugging the element from the machine. i keep saying that the electricity wont flow more after i unplug it! as if unplugging it somehow would have yielded a different result (open circuit). anyhow i was very frustrated by their ignorance and to this day i am pissed off just thinking about it.
Plugged in, you're measuring the resistance from one terminal to the other, via whatever paths may exist - perhaps there's a second element or a light or some such in parallel with the one you're measuring - or heaven forbid you have the thing plugged into live mains and only the open circuit is preventing current from flowing, you'd then risk closing the circuit via your measuring tool - your measuring tool might not survive that.
@@jnawk83 i was measuring directly on the element itself and it was an open circuit. no matter if it was plugged in or not, since it was an open circuit absolutely no electricity was flowing thru the resistive element, thus it is broken. unplugging it is useless.
similar to if your car doesnt start, taking the engine out wont make it start more.
@@Francois_Dupont My instructors would have failed me by not isolating the part or wire to be measured. It's just best practice. I get, in your case, that it wouldn't have made a difference as long as it was not plugged in. I would still have measured it out of the circuit to be thorough. I was trained that way.
Standard blade fused are rated ro about 32V
They do make higher voltage versions for things like forklifts that can be 48v, 72V or 80V.
At a glance they look like a normal blade fuse but opaque - they're sand filled like most high rupture fuses.
Discovered in my early days of being a forklift mechanic that if you put a regular automotive blade fuse in a 80V machine that an arc can be sustained between the two blades if the fuse blows.
Arc-Fuses could be a brand name. Also fascinating, I would not have expected that at all.
I thought you'd need a couple hundred volt at least to bridge a few mm, not 80.
@@BloodyMobile i assume the initial gap would be pretty insignificant in size, get the arc established and then it would consume that smaller material, causing the gap to widen until the arc cant be sustained by the voltage thats running through the circuit?
Makes sense to me but im a dummy and mostly deal with 120-480v, and admitedly dont know enough to speak knowledgably on this, mostly asking a question to see if someone has a better answer or can tell me mine is wrong lol
Some models of late 70’s Mistubishi cars( the ones called ‘Sigmas’ in this country, not certain what the ROW model was) had a ‘test light’ system with a slider knob and a detent with fuse numbering incorporated in the fuse box cover which you could slide along the row of fuses to determine which fuse had blown without any tools (or opening the cover).
It simply had a set of contacts on the circuit side of each individual fuse and the slider completed the circuit to the test light.
Neat. I wonder what % of these are purchased just to purposefully pop them and go "Neat".
I think Clive should make a 'short' video for this.
lol. Good one.
@CollectiveSoftware Me! Me! Teacher, pick me!
You forgot to mention that the little pins that extend to the top of the fuse are for quick probing of the fused connection without having to remove the fuse. Very thoughtful design!
These are genius! Taking a century old idea, giving it a tiny boost and you have yourself an idea that makes you think how we didn't think of this generations ago...
Well a lot of people did.
I could go on with my life without this modified fuse.
@@the_kombinator theyve existed for longer than ive been driving, and ive yet to purchase a single one. Ive known of these "smart fuses" for nearly 20 years by now if i had to guess.
Always loved the telco 48V DC fuses with the spring and the little plastic stick that stuck out the cover.
Or the ones where the input side sprung blade bridged to a dedicated bus bar in the fuse enclosure when the fuse element ‘blew’ and put the warning lamp on at the end of the affected equipment rack. And rang a warning bell iirc ( been 50 years since I had anything to do with telephone exchange equipment)
They were called Rat Trap fuses when I worked in an exchange in the 1960s
@@OZCamperTravels
Yesss! That’s the ones. I only ever worked in SxS (‘Strowger’) exchanges (apart from a sight seeing tour of a 7A Rotary one) so I’m not sure if that type of fuse carried over into the crossbar/digital age.
Edit: I see some other commenters have mentioned this arrangement. Must be a few ex-exchange techs on here!
@@RB-qq1kyI have an old PBX that has a few. They are quite hard to get nowadays.
Still used fairly widespread on the UK rail network on our 50v signalling busbars in relay rooms. We sometimes call them Post Office fuses (or Self Indicating Fuses) because we borrowed the design from the General Post Office, who ran the UK phone network back in the days before BT was created.
Great for quickly narrowing down where a fuse has blown as you walk in the room and confronted with a red lamp on the indication panel (providing the lamp itself hasn’t blown).
I like the reverse-parallel LED connection. Polarity-agnostic and works with AC as well as DC. Simple and elegant.
Personally I'd rather have the indication built into the holder, leaving the fuse to be just that.
Some fuseholders that are used in industrial equipment have exactly that feature.
That'd be the true genius approach, but it'd cost 10$ more in production per car, and we have to think of the poor car industry that's barely making a turn over.
In my youth as a young and slightly green trainee comms engineer most, if not all, of the equipment I worked on was powered by 50V DC. These were in banks and there was an alarm system triggered by the spring loaded tags in the fuse body which would contact the 50V rail with a strip under them. This gave a visible indication from a lamp above the holder and an audible alarm off a comm buss. I always thought this could work on mains driven systems if someone worked out a way of detecting the blown fuse. I did actually sketch out a method using reed relays but I had difficulty making the isolation good enough. These days I reckon I could do it, but when you’re in your twenties and relatively new to the job you don’t have the experience.
@paulusthegrey
There is a solution! Keep work on it.
Think about detecting a change, not just a single state.
I used to work in a Strowger step by step exchange, exactly the same system, going back 50 odd years....
Car fuses , like the ATC / ATO one at the start of the vid , has a 32 V limit ( No mention of if AC and / or DC ) . Some tubular industrial fuses have a pin that pops out if the fuse clears.
Note that a fuse can wear out if it is run close or slightly over the posted rating.
And, if a see through fuse has a silver spot on the housing after it clears, it failed due to a high current event. If the link is just melted out, it was a slight overload over time.
I'd not come across those before, thanks for sharing.
Now I'm restricting the urge to upgrade all my fuses to this LED indicating type, even though a blown fuse is 1] rare and 2] the first thing to check when the circuit stops working.
Self indicating fuses (especially tungsten ones) kill batteries if you have a wire harness fault on a parked car.
It adds a phantom drain that is not insignificant to the blown circuit.
The quartz clock in my old car pulls about 30mA, which isn't really an issue, but i'd agree if you have a choice between the LED and the filament fuse, choose the former particularly if you don't drive the thing every day.
As an example, 200mA quiescent drain on a 44Ah battery managed to flatten the battery in 10 to 14 days. I found out that i'd plugged a relay into the wrong socket, and it was 'on' full time. It got quite warm..
I have several 2-way radios in my car that are notorious parasitic drainers; I got sick of replacing my battery so I installed a blade fuse on the ground lug.
Buy a solar panel for your car if you are worried about minor drain. I hardly use my car, so I have put a solar panel on the dash. It's not powerful but enough to just keep the battery topped up
Yes but little flashing alarm LEDs and computer / sound system memory backup don't kill batteries because of auto industry magic
@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG
All radios must be duel fused, one on Positive lead, and one on Negative lead. One is DC, and the other RF.
Nice, I have used the same idea with a neon indicator across a light switch, the neon glows through the plastic of the switch to show where the switch is in the dark.
Commercial light switches or add-on surrounds are available that do just that.
@@zebo-the-fat: my dad, an old fashioned watchmaker had some old fashioned radium paint he put in pinholes on the staircase light switches "for emergencies" LOL 🤣
PS yes, he knew about Radium, it really was a very tiny amount, in truth too tiny to even see in the dark 😉
Automotive fuses are rated for 32 volts. You look up the spec sheets from a reputable manufacturer like Buss or Littlefuse they state that. Also high current glass fuses are only 32 volts. At higher voltages you need the ceramic body to control the energy since a 15 amp glass automotive fuse will explode at 110/240 volts.
We use the mini style fuse on some 48v circuits at work and they are available with a rating suitable. Normal automotive standard ones are not rated high enough
@@randycarter2001 the Voltage rating is basically the point where the fuse starts arcing. This depends if this rating is AC or DC.
But: The voltage isn't everything you need to know. Every fuse has a rated breaking capability. This is way more important in cases batteries are involved. Because they can often easily reach 10kA or more short circuit current. So beside the bare static rating the dynamic ratings are way more important often times.
I was the self indicating fuse yesterday. 230v through my finger. When working with "smart bulbs", just because they do not light, does not mean the power is off. ⚡
I only use dumb bulbs. :)
I've found out that remote controlled sockets also don't cut both legs, and since I have schuko sockets it cuts either the live or neutral
My smart socket (based on the Chinese Tuya design) also only cut one line of the output, so depending on which way it is plugged to the mains, there's a 50% chance that OFF isn't OFF, I figured that out the shocking way.
A problem that should have been fixed bt simply using double relay or single 2PST relay
I have used blade fuses for 40 years and have never seen these before. It's always a good day when you learn something new 😊
My kneejerk reaction is "This is great!", then the troubleshooter in me realizes that I'm still going to have to check each fuse with a voltmeter to verify before moving on to another area to test.
For something as simple as fuses, you could probably save some time and just replace it. If it’s fixed, great! If not, continue the troubleshoot. Of course that is only realistic if you happen to have replacements on hand.
@@katestramenos929 I guess you've never replaced a bad fuse with another bad fuse (one that had a tiny crack)
In my RV, i have fuse holders with LEDs that indicate the blown fuse. Great stuff, but if a fuse blows you still get a bit of voltage on the blown circuit (trough the fuse indicator). So last time i had an issue with a fan i checked the supply voltage. I was led down a rabbit hole (fan was not running, but voltage to it seemed ok). Be aware that indicating LEDs in fuses or fuse holders will put a voltage on the circuit even if the fuse is out. The old thinking of "If there is voltage the fuse is ok" is no longer valid. Like Eric at SMA teaches: The circuit needs to carry current (like a incandecant test light), not just voltage (like a multimeter).
@@nordishkiel5985 Eric is a great tech.
@@nordishkiel5985 that's the best way of checking fuses
Put a test light on ground and just touch on each pin
Come across this in the early 1980s on rally cars. Open fuse box mounted on the dash, with small incandescent 12v bulbs and spare fuses ready to go.
Pheonix Contact makes a fuse holder for din rail that includes this led in the holder. They light up if the fuse is blown or when no fuse has been installed in the holder. Letting you reuse the led is nice
Much of the equipment I work on has exactly these. They are handy.
Cool, didnt know these existed
Things I never knew existed and now want in my life: these! This is such a genius idea.
When I blew a fuse in my car a few months ago, I had to dig the chart out in the manual to find out which was the one I blew.
Instead of taking the time to remove them and inspect?
@@the_kombinator in my case it was easy because I knew what blew out, just not which fuse that was. That's why I needed the manual.
But when you /don't/ know /if/ anything blew at all, do you really want to plug out ever single one of the 20+ fuses?
I'd happily pay extra to NOT have to do that. So all fuses I'll replace will be lit ones from now on. If I can find non-sketchy ones that is.
@@BloodyMobile Right so there's a label on the fuse panel that shows what circuit is protected by the fuse. IMO, not hard to read it and find the culprit. Even if I were to remove each fuse, it would take what, a minute tops?
@@the_kombinator not with mini fuses and modern cars.
Ive met automobiles built in the last 15 or so years that have had 2-4 fuse panels and a hundred circuits.
A test light would be the fastest way above either of these methods.
Also Ford is notorious for only putting circuit identities into the owners manual and only labeling the lid with numbers that correspond to the chart in the manual. Theyve been doing that for something like 30 years.
@@goosenotmaverick1156 The average age of my fleet of cars is 27.5 years. I may be biased here :P
Oh wow, something again ive never seen before but makes so much sense, very awesome idea for a fuse
My A-level electronics teacher always called them "blubs" too :)
Well these are about as complex as I imagined. Of course they may not light up if your load is switched off :)
These are awesome! Such a simple idea, yet I've never seen one of these in action in my entire life. These should just be the norm.
I had no idea these existed! Very cool.
Slow flash leds would look great in these!
Please, no. There's enough e-waste in there already. Just put the flashing LED in the fuse holder instead.
@@BrendonGreenNZL I insist on an SOS flashing self-indicating fuse
@@abitofabitofabit4404 SOS? Smoke on silicon?
I've bought a few of these and installed them in my car and I had some installed on my motorcycle. Nifty little things, especially handy for an old car and bike.
The indicator lamp across the load is actually quite common and is sometimes called a "power on" indicator; you'll often see "POWER" (usually in large, friendly letters) on the panel. It's hard to find equipment that doesn't have it. In guitar amps, they're usually called "pilot lights" (I guess that's just a term of art).
I had no idea there was even such a product! 🤦♂️ I had never really thought about it tbh, if I fuse is blown, it's normally easy to spot, but with some of the newer cars it can be an issue, but now I do think about it, what a great (and simple) idea. Thanks Clive 👍
This is Genius. I need to change all my bike fuses right now!
My 2014 bmw bike doesn't even have fuses. . My car has 4 fuse boxes. 1 under the bonnet. 1 in the boot. 1 in the glove box, that flips down to reveal the 4th fuse box. Most of them are weird fuses. Not like these. I looked at these years ago priced up changing them all for these and it just wasn't worth the cost.
I've actually seen some industrial control panel fuse holders that had tungsten fault indicators in the cap of a (relatively) small format tubular fuse holder.
I had forgotten about those. I loved them, but I have only used them in cars and haven't blown a car fuse since the 80s.
Ive seen these similar style self indicating fuses used in oil refinery server rooms. They have normal glass fuse inside the housing and two leds in paralel with a resistor.
My company built an electrical panel for a client and used indicating fuse holders for 4-20mA instrumentation… it did not go well, we struggled the figure out why it wasn’t working. Works well for solenoids but not for instrumentation.
Bonus we had gotten a dodgy batch of fuses from a supplier and while I was doing continuity testing with a multimeter I’d be blowing “50mA” fuses. We scraped all fuses under 100mA in those panels and replaced them with a fresh batch
These things a 50% wirchcraft. I had one in a machine with a 12v outlet. + from the outlet to + of the battery was 0V, ground out to ground battery was 0v, but the outlet showed ~10,5V, while the battery was at 12,4V. Took us 30 min to figure out, that the fuse was blown, and only after checking the outlet with a load. Without the load, they won't light up (in addition to this one being in a non transparent box).
So great to find a short, terrible, if the offending device was already removed.
@@clockworkvanhellsing372 I try to explain to non electrical people that if you run a 220VAC to an open limit switch that is 50m away and you can measure 90VAC between the return wire and neutral. They look at me like I’m mad. It’s enough to make an interface relay hum and you can measure it with a multimeter but people refuse to believe it because it’s an open circuit and should have no voltage
@@garnergc- try working on long distance (as in hundreds of yards or more) systems where multicore cables carry mains AC, or unsmoothed DC circuits, or which run in the same cable run as a mains cable. All kinds of stray induced voltages can occur even if both ends of the core you are testing are disconnected...
@@garnergcWelcome to the magical world of self-inductance!
Love the channel Clive. Some of the topics are like watching a surgeon, haven't a clue but still love watching.
@@chrishill5166 so you have seen his brother’s stuff…
I had a worn brake switch which caused the fuse protecting this circuit to release blue smoke. I bought a pack of these indicating fuses until i could source a new brake switch. It made locating the fuse fast. I liberated one of the modules and placed it on a nearly spent 9V battery from a smoke alarm. It emitted light for a few weeks
You can also get fuse boxes with indicators LED next to each fuse to show failure.
Mind you it can cause confusion when fault finding because a lower (voltage say 10.5) still passes
I did that 30 years ago with a small light bulb and a blown fuse to use as a short detector. When I would find the short the light would go out. It was very handy!
Decided to test my aliexpress fuses i bough years ago. run short circuit with current limit on PSU, The 5A fuse didn't blew until i reached 45A(!!!) , and even then, the fuse didn't blew, but the plastic started melting around it(about 30 sec). great fuses. much strength
The maximum voltage rating of a blade fuse is 32V DC
I was just looking this up. Littelfuse also offers the MAXI 58V & MINI 58V which are rated to...58 Volts. I'm guessing this is designed to meet the needs of the new 48V automotive systems. All the other blade fuses are rated at 32VDC.
Could just use a penny
also seen them rated for 80v dc used for forklifts
current available also matters, those fuses are no business in 48v battery systems etc. try with welder if you want. the problem is the arc. if arc doesn't break, fuse is useless
@@bob1505 There's more to the world than just cars, you know. Blade fuses are also used in all kinds of industrial and other applications too, many of which are 48V DC.
That's such a good idea, I'm shocked to see this for the first time.
I wonder if they blow even close to their ratings! Louis Rossmann wants to know!!
I wish I knew those existed when I did car stereos, instead of poking around on my back on the driver floor lol, great vid!
I wish all our car makers knew of these when they made our vehicles! (or I guess I should say... would pay the extra .00093 cents per fuse and add these at the factory)
When I did car stereos, I liked to use the big showy AGU fuses, which were available with LEDs to show when it they were blown.
The total material cost is probably cents per fuse, not fractions of a cent like you suggest. But your point still stands.
It seems like these might be a new thing. At least I’ve never seen one before.
But if they start adding up to an additional 100-150mA constant parasitic power draw, in addition to the typical 30-70mA, you're far more quickly gonna end up with a flat batt or unable to coldcrank in cold winter. Disconnecting the battery of you're going on holiday for a week is a much bigger ordeal and headache afterwards with cars these days, than those from 15+ years ago.
I got a bunch of flag-type indicating fuses. The contact wire is bent over and held in place by the element. When it blows, it "unsprings" and the flag pretty much waves in the air.
Picture a 108" whip antenna that's pulled over and latched to the hood (eg, when going into garages, etc.). That's the intact fuse. Fuse blows, it's like unlatching the antenna and letting it spring upright. That's the blown fuse making a very clear indication of such.
They're all automotive (low-voltage) grade, no more than 32V, so little if any chance of shock.
I love sticking LEDs on my project for Diagnostic purposes, and it adds that retro look when they are lit.
I've seen them in stores for a while now, and I'd always wondered how they worked. Considering the massive price difference (at the time), I expected them to be more complex. The cheapskate in me could never justify buying a pack to investigate. It's likely I'll never need to buy them - every car I've sent to the scrapyard has had relays, fuses, and bulb sockets scavenged in the event I need them for the next car. I can't even remember when I last popped a fuse in my car due to my own errors, so I've got a collection of ATC fuses from 3.3A to 30A. 😆
My Cavalier popped the dash illumination fuse when the PWM dash dimmer's power transistor failed shorted, but that was an actual circuit fault, and that was around 2008-2010. When I bought my Camry in 2017-ish, the Accessory Power Outlet fuse was pre-popped for me, but that's the chance a previous owner took by not closing the little plastic flap over the outlet! (The flap is not only for aesthetics.)
I upgraded the fog lights of my 1985 Corvette to use HID.
The factory rating was a 10amp fuse and id replaced all the fuses with bussman LED light fuses.
With only one fog light the fuse didnt trip, with both running it caused the 10 amp fuse to blow. However, I didn't get any illumination from the fuse, maybe the LED was the wrong way and only one in this fuse.
Anyways, upgrading to a 15 amp fuse restored the lights to working order, everything looks so bright now.
I bought a new wiring loom for my MGB a number of years ago that came from the US and it had these fuses in it. I remember thinking that was a great idea back then. But I've never seen the indicator fuses commonly on sale here in NZ. I haven't looked very hard admittedly.
These would be great for my daughters car. She's a new driver going to uni soon. Some strategically placed ones will really help to remotely diagnose faults easy.
The maximum voltage for standard blade fuses is 32Vdc. For higher voltages (i.e. in a 48V battery system) you need special fuses for up to 60 or 70Vdc
Those will be very handy indeed! As you say, unsuitable for "Mains" voltage use ( arc over voltage of a "blown" 20A blade fuse is around 110v for example - a test I did years back with an old hand-cranked "Megger" tester)
Hint in case someone out there didnt know; you can check an automotive fuse while it is still in the holder as there is a tiny bit of the blade exposed you can reach with a meter probe.
05:19 I like how you said 'blub' there..! My other half and me are lighting collectors and we're always saying 'light blub' 💡
A friend of ours on one of the forums is called Bulbman and he hates it when we call him 'Blubman' 🤣
I had never seen those before, thanks for the education! 😉
Anybody else misread the title as “self-lubricating”?
Just me?
Anyway, I must concur with those who are lukewarm on the idea. It makes locating a faulted circuit much easier but at the same time amounts to a phantom load that can slowly drain a car’s battery. Yes, a few milliamps is a very small load on batteries rated in the dozens or hundreds of amp-hours but any idle draw is not the best of things to have in a vehicle.
Self lubricating?
You're thinking about something else 😂.
Yes, that was just you :p
I have installed banks of these on boats I have wired. Very useful they are. Also handy to have a blown one to put in before a good one without the load connected to prove the wiring then short out the pair and see if it lights. Bingo I have the right wire!
Genius in simplicity, Just the opposite of where the whole car industry is going.
unfortunately theres no market for simplicity these days or everyone would be driving Tercels
Re: Max Voltage - If I recall correctly, ATC (standard blade-type) fuses such as these are usually rated for 32VDC, although some are rated for up to 42VDC, which makes them fine for so-called "normal" vehicular DC voltages of 12-24 volts DC nominal. They're rated higher because they are often used for non-vehicular purposes, and occasionally for AC-voltage applications of up to 120VAC... At least, over here on this side of the pond they are. I recall having a rack of VFDs on a show automation rig whose AC outputs were protected with 30A ATC fuses. HTH, HAND, &c...
At work I have some fuse holders with indicators on the power input to some gas burners, it's some chinese fuseholders for 6.3x32 fuses, the clear plastic handle that's used to remove and insert the fuse and cover the contacts has a neon bulb inside of it
Great video. Never seen these so thank you! You know though, this has me thinking, why not put the LED, or lamps, right into the fuse panel? That would be handy. A loose fuse would light the lamp then as well a blown fuse.
Preblown is definitely my favorite state of life.
Really? There’s plenty of joy the other way too.
LEF: Light Emitting Fuse :)
But will it win against a smoke emitting diode?
Wow. Such a simple yet smart idea. I like it.
Me, being oldskool would opt for the incandescent ones :)
I guess the mains voltage equivilant might be to have a small neon indicator and resistor in series accross inside the glass tube, next to the fuse-wire.
A neat product but if you have a fuse blowing so often you need to install a visual indicator of where it is you have bigger issues to resolve.
Wow. Thanks Big Clive. That's a super simple and useful little fuse. I have never heard of them but can see they'd be really cool to use. In the car's fuse box and like you say, for many other applications.
One has to remember what you pointed out that the load would need to be active for the fuse's indicator to light. Still. I'm going to have to get some of these. Now I wonder why they all haven't been like that all along? 🙂
Clive, “No thing under the sun is new” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
The idea of adding a neon and ballast resistor to a fuseholder (thus indicating the fuse has opened) was patented in the UK by A.F. Bulgin and Co. Ltd. (List· No. D.F.826fV. GB Patent Number 930330. U.S.A. Patent Applied No.l86f676.)
This was advertized in Wireless World (January 1965 pg 55) with the tag line "When it blows it glows"
"Instant indication of blown fuses allowing quick replacement when used in multiples"
5:43 yeah. The first thing I thought: for the horn, the wipers, or the headlights it will only indicate if they are turned on (assuming they have their own fuse).
[6:42] Props to big Clive for mentioning Louis Rossman here.
You start off with a blown fuse that feeds something insignificant and end up with a flat battery 😂
We have sensors on the machines i work with here, they are reed switches & hall effect devices, the reed switches have leds to show their status.
I do like the aesthetic of automotive fuses.
I have connected neons across the light switch on my bedrooms, landing and hallway.
So when the light is off and it's dark ; I can find the switch.
Ideal for the nocturnal visit to the the toilet.
Ofcourse, flip the mcb for any maintenance.
They also make resettable blade fuses. It pops a flag. Press it back in and it's good to go, unless it pops back out again. It means something is seriously wrong.
I wonder for how long those have been marketed and sold. When I was still a kid, many moons ago, I remember asking my dad if there wasn’t an easier way to know exactly which fuses had been blown. He showed me one that was clearly blown with a comically big (like about 4mm in size) red LED soldered to it that he got from a nearby car shop that they used to test if the wiring for the fuses was set correctly.
That's pretty cool. I can't believe it took this long for someone to invent these. The tungsten bulb might cause a problem with running down the car battery if used on a circuit that is always on, though.
They only light in the event of a blown fuse and a continuous load.
Think I first saw them about 20 years ago. Unfortunately all my vehicles are decrepit and old with torpedo fuses, recently when doing my own electrics I was a bit surprised indicating blade fuses haven't become standard. Maybe the slight higher expense and making it to easy for normal people to identify faults 🤷♂
When I worked at an auto part store we carried some, but they were so much now expensive no one ever thought about buying them
I like the self indicating fuses that go black and burny to let you know they are blown
What a Great but simple idea.😊
No mention of the test points?
The holes in the top for each blade...
I have a few fuses similar to these but they look like they are prototyped like they put a SMD resistor and LED onto the test points of a normal fuse and then covered with either resin or some type of plastic. These would make a nice light so I'd keep them and use them as such.
My friend had this idea back in the early eighties. He made some attempts to market it, but it didn't go anywhere. I think they deemed it an expensive novelty.
RS ( UK ) used to do many panel mounted [ GLOWS WHEN IT BLOWS 😝 ] range of fuse holders ( sadly no more , it seems ? ) .... all of us in our design department used to specify these for general test gear and products ( much to the annoyance of the buying office , because they cost quite a bit more ! ) this was back in the good old days , when men were men and sheep were afraid ( ? ) ................ DAVE™🛑
1:51 I've seen these (basic without LED)embedded deep inside a Craftsman's 120v ac pancake air compressors. Darndest things to replace if it's ever required.
This reminds me of some large current fuses that had a red bead in a recess. Once the 400 Amp or whatever rating blows, it pops the wire that holds the bead and it falls out, indicating the failed fuse.
I've actually seen some that use this design in a small blade fuse, but they weren't quite compatible with automotive mini fuses.
I believe they were an older telecom standard, but I've never actually seen the equipment they would have been used in.
Those automotive fuses are usually rated up to 32 - 36 Volt. Anything above that should use a different type of fuse.
He said that
@@flyerphil7708 Clive did indeed mention that. I thought it was a good idea to repeat it in the comments.
thank you for sharing this. i think the LED version is more reliable. but i wounder why they just took the power source directly from the fuse it self? (LED being cascade on the thin fuse line)
We have fuse holders that have a LED blown circuit indicator built in. Any fuse can be used, fuse blows and these light up.
These are brilliant.
Can’t wait for these to be available on AliExpress so I can get a bunch for cheap
You can use a 10AMP ATO fuse to test ground rods, if 120-240V won’t pop a 10Amp fuse you don’t have a good enough home ground.
I'd guess the maximum rating is something like 60 VDC: Can remember the many Hirschmann coaxial products (amplifiers and 'inkoppelfilters' in Dutch, no idea what that is in English) used these fuses in the 48 Volt supply. There was nothing in the manual (nothing that I recall anyway) stating that you could not use ordinary vehicle fuselinks.
A video showing the current required to "Blow" different types of fuses would be interesting. a 15 amp Glass fuse and a 15 amp blade for example blow and very different current flows.
These are called "Smart Fuses" in the states. I have my Toyota fully loaded with Chinese Smart Fuses for over a year now, So far, all is good.
Narva make a fuse holder that has LEDs to indicate when a fuse is blown, we had one blow on a machine and the led must have been faulty as it wasn't illuminated and was still supplying a small amount of voltage causing all sorts of problems, the guys weren't auto elecs so nobody bothered to check fuses, I pulled all those fuse holders out and threw them in the bin.
I think a lot of cars are going to use intelligent fuses, but otherwise it would be quite neat if this concept was build directly into the fuse box
Lamp and LEd will be rated for the 32V rating of the automotive blade fuse. However I have seen them used in mains applications, even in things that actually had to pass a proper CE testing regime.
would there be any negative consequences to having current flowing through the load via the LED when the fuse is blown?
Not unless the load can be damaged (any more than it already is) by 1mA to 30mA of current.
I have an old car and it indicates if bulbs are out without any active electronics. It uses a wheatstone bridge with an LED (this was the 70s!) between the bulb and a parallel circuit.
of course as a techie you overlook the need to check why the fuse blew in the first place. Fuse should not blow normally
Electricity is interesting! 😉👍