electrical engineer help

[Omegachi]

in a general electrical system, where are the best location to place fuses for component protection?

 

[Analog]

Fuses are generally put before the transformer or just after the mains power switch. Some systems fuse both legs, most systems just fuse the hot leg.

 

[Omegachi]

whats are legs?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

remember, fuses actually prevent the X-guage electrical cable connected to the main power supply from shorting w/ another or burning...i think?... 😕

i guess put it in btwn the main power supply/switch and the main circuit.

btw, isn't this more of an electrician help than an electrical engineer help?

electrician = wires and lights and lines and breakers and fuses...

EE = motherboard, computers, networks, chip design, integrated circuit design, etc..

 

[Omegachi]

no wonder i don't konw this stuff... i am an ee student... 😛

so i guess i put a fuse between the power source and the rest of the electrical system? just one for the whole circuit?

btw, are there any power lost going through the fuse?

 

[Spencer278]

just make sure you don't put the fuse in parell.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Omegachi
no wonder i don't konw this stuff... i am an ee student... 😛

so i guess i put a fuse between the power source and the rest of the electrical system? just one for the whole circuit?

btw, are there any power lost going through the fuse?

well depends on the guage of the wire. You don't have to worry about the circuit. If you knw what kind of power is required for the circuit, then you'll knw what guage wire is required for the main supply. If you knw the guage of the wire, then you can figure out what fuse to use.

there's no power loss.

i think a fuse is just a thin wire w/ some gas inside of it. If there's a surge, it breaks. And no power goes through, thereby saving the wire from a burnout, which means saving the circuit as well



I have a water cooling unit set up for my computer.
and I use i think a 12 or 14 guage wire for the pump. (just estimating, i just used the three wires that was stripped inside the power supply wire insulation.) For that, I just guestimated a 15amp fuse would do it.

The higher the guage, the lower amp fuse you get.
There's a chart you can probably find on google..heh

 

[TuxDave]

I can tell you in terms of integrated circuits, ESD protection is usually done at the pads....

 

[Omegachi]

the power drawing from the circuit is very small. like << 2amps. at worse case the system draws about 5W. Is there a table or a chart that i can use to determine the wire gauge size or fuse selection?

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Omegachi
no wonder i don't konw this stuff... i am an ee student... 😛

so i guess i put a fuse between the power source and the rest of the electrical system? just one for the whole circuit?

btw, are there any power lost going through the fuse?

well depends on the guage of the wire. You don't have to worry about the circuit. If you knw what kind of power is required for the circuit, then you'll knw what guage wire is required for the main supply. If you knw the guage of the wire, then you can figure out what fuse to use.

there's no power loss.

i think a fuse is just a thin wire w/ some gas inside of it. If there's a surge, it breaks. And no power goes through, thereby saving the wire from a burnout, which means saving the circuit as well



I have a water cooling unit set up for my computer.
and I use i think a 12 or 14 guage wire for the pump. (just estimating, i just used the three wires that was stripped inside the power supply wire insulation.) For that, I just guestimated a 15amp fuse would do it.

The higher the guage, the lower amp fuse you get.
There's a chart you can probably find on google..heh

Isn't the guage of the wire irrivent to selecting the fuse. The wire should be able to hold more voltage/current the device and the fuse should be the correct amp/voltage to prevent the circuit from being damaged.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

well, theoretically, any guage wire can conduct any amount of potential volts through it....Just that the lower the guage, the more tendancy that due to the high voltage, the current can jump out of the wire and short.


since it's only < 2 amps...assuming battery powered...

i don't think u need a fuse or anything. A voltage regulator circuit will do just fine heh...i think...

u guys can correct me if i'm wrong.. 😕

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Omegachi
no wonder i don't konw this stuff... i am an ee student... 😛

so i guess i put a fuse between the power source and the rest of the electrical system? just one for the whole circuit?

btw, are there any power lost going through the fuse?

well depends on the guage of the wire. You don't have to worry about the circuit. If you knw what kind of power is required for the circuit, then you'll knw what guage wire is required for the main supply. If you knw the guage of the wire, then you can figure out what fuse to use.

there's no power loss.

i think a fuse is just a thin wire w/ some gas inside of it. If there's a surge, it breaks. And no power goes through, thereby saving the wire from a burnout, which means saving the circuit as well



I have a water cooling unit set up for my computer.
and I use i think a 12 or 14 guage wire for the pump. (just estimating, i just used the three wires that was stripped inside the power supply wire insulation.) For that, I just guestimated a 15amp fuse would do it.

The higher the guage, the lower amp fuse you get.
There's a chart you can probably find on google..heh

Isn't the guage of the wire irrivent to selecting the fuse. The wire should be able to hold more voltage/current the device and the fuse should be the correct amp/voltage to prevent the circuit from being damaged.

donno u may be right, but I always thought the whole purpose of a fuse is to prevent a surge of volts from shorting out the main wire. Hehe you can try this, but it's uber dangerous...

stick 20V through the smallest guage wire u can find....and put any metallic object kinda close to it...

a fuse will protect against that basically heh...The wire is still OK, but you probably killed the insulation and in the process, the circuit.

well or so i thought...i could be wrong..



EDIT:
found a site that has some good info if u want:
http://www.bcae1.com/fuses.htm

and as the chart says, wire gauge goes along w/ what fuse to use...heh

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Omegachi
no wonder i don't konw this stuff... i am an ee student... 😛

so i guess i put a fuse between the power source and the rest of the electrical system? just one for the whole circuit?

btw, are there any power lost going through the fuse?

well depends on the guage of the wire. You don't have to worry about the circuit. If you knw what kind of power is required for the circuit, then you'll knw what guage wire is required for the main supply. If you knw the guage of the wire, then you can figure out what fuse to use.

there's no power loss.

i think a fuse is just a thin wire w/ some gas inside of it. If there's a surge, it breaks. And no power goes through, thereby saving the wire from a burnout, which means saving the circuit as well



I have a water cooling unit set up for my computer.
and I use i think a 12 or 14 guage wire for the pump. (just estimating, i just used the three wires that was stripped inside the power supply wire insulation.) For that, I just guestimated a 15amp fuse would do it.

The higher the guage, the lower amp fuse you get.
There's a chart you can probably find on google..heh

Isn't the guage of the wire irrivent to selecting the fuse. The wire should be able to hold more voltage/current the device and the fuse should be the correct amp/voltage to prevent the circuit from being damaged.

donno u may be right, but I always thought the whole purpose of a fuse is to prevent a surge of volts from shorting out the main wire. Hehe you can try this, but it's uber dangerous...

stick 20V through the smallest guage wire u can find....and put any metallic object kinda close to it...

a fuse will protect against that basically heh...The wire is still OK, but you probably killed the insulation and in the process, the circuit.

well or so i thought...i could be wrong

Your fuse protects the wire my fuse would protects the decive in the circuit and the wire.
The correct fuse depends on the usage but it should always be less then the current that the wire can carry.