Is the fuse Good?

[alexanna]

I think everyone will like this.
A friend of mine got his dad an electric stair lift.
It was a used unit and when they installed it they had to cut the tracks for it to fit their stairway.
It has contacts at the top and bottom of the tracks so it will charge a battery in the chair, the top contacts were not in the correct position so the dad tried to adjust them. Well he accidently shorted the contacts and had some really neat sparking going on for a short while.
The mom and dad called in a service call, and after a short time the service guy said it needed a new circuit board, it was only $800.Well needless to say I got a call asking for help.
He pulled out the board and brought it over for me to look at. The board didn't look fun, it had about an 1/8” of some kind of clear sealer all over it, there was no way to read any numbers on any components.
Looking things over it had a glass main fuse with a piece of white ceramic center with a copper wire wound the length of the ceramic, Looking at the fuse it appeared to be intact. I am really glad I got the ohmmeter out. It was open and the $800 repair turned out to be around 75 cents
Moral to the story even if it looks good TEST IT.

[cadillacman]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

i hear that.

I work on alot of coin operated arcade games and stuff. Ive had more thn one fuse that looked good and was totally open or dropping signifigant voltage.

In my case, its usually caused by poor contact of the fuse holder itself. Connection loose so it runs hot. melts the solder in the end of the fuse, tada open fuse.

[alexanna]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

I was fortunate to be able to attend the GM 40HR. SET class, The instructors would have fuse that appeared good to the eye, They would then let you diagnosis the circuit.
Us good guys would take the extra step and get the volt meter or test light out. Needless to say the people who just used their EyeBall took a long time to find it.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

Had an application in the navy that used these fuses with pop-up indicators on the end to show they were blown.

I ordered a 10-pack at some point and they showed up already popped [blown] as new in the box.

.

[mockingbird]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

Question about failed fuses and resistors in a lot of vintage electronic repairs in videos I see on Youtube:

These guys are often replacing 20+ year old resistors and mosfets on boards with caps that have most likely seen their best of days. They never take the caps out and test them properly out of circuit, rather, they just replace what has failed and not what has caused it to fail. I also see this on the sustain boards that the very reputable Koppel TV Repair sends out... Why bother reconditioning sustain boards with substandard capacitors?

Why is this common practice among many repairmen?

[Jack Crow]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

Guys,
I owe my best interview in years to one bozo's inability to test a fuse.

The job was to fix mountain top microwave radios.
I was being considered because the guy that had the position ‘epic failed'.

The story came to me like this.

They hire a computer guy to fix microwave radio.
So one fine day he gets a 'trouble ticket' to a site.
Takes the company vehicle full of tools and spares up the hill, opens up the enclosure and sees that the equipment is dark and not working.

He gets on the phone and calls HQ for ideas.

They ask "did you check the fuse?
There is a long pause and he comes back on the line and says 'it looks ok'.
HQ asks did you use your meter and test it.
He asks, what meter?

This idiot did not last long.

If all goes well I might get this job.
I think I can manage this.

Be well all.
Jack Crow in VA

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

Why is this common practice among many repairmen?

Because it gives 'em work every couple years.

[lti]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

Because it gives 'em work every couple years.

That is the exact reason. More work means more money. Replacing an entire board when a component like a fuse is bad is another thing they do to get more money from the customer.

I try to repair things myself because repair costs are too high or nobody would want to look at any devices I can afford. Even with such cheap devices, repairing them myself is cheaper than replacing them. That is why I repaired a boombox (which appears to now have a bad filter cap) and a 13" CRT TV.

[alexanna]

Re: Is the fuse Good?

I think everyone will like this.
A friend of mine got his dad an electric stair lift.
It was a used unit and when they installed it they had to cut the tracks for it to fit their stairway.
It has contacts at the top and bottom of the tracks so it will charge a battery in the chair, the top contacts were not in the correct position so the dad tried to adjust them. Well he accidently shorted the contacts and had some really neat sparking going on for a short while.
The mom and dad called in a service call, and after a short time the service guy said it needed a new circuit board, it was only $800.Well needless to say I got a call asking for help.
He pulled out the board and brought it over for me to look at. The board didn't look fun, it had about an 1/8” of some kind of clear sealer all over it, there was no way to read any numbers on any components.
Looking things over it had a glass main fuse with a piece of white ceramic center with a copper wire wound the length of the ceramic, Looking at the fuse it appeared to be intact. I am really glad I got the ohmmeter out. It was open and the $800 repair turned out to be around 75 cents
Moral to the story even if it looks good TEST IT.

Some good news happened!
The repair company called the older couple, and offered to discount the power supply by $100.
Well the wife explained that they already had it repaired by replacing the fuse.
The phone person for the company sounded surprised, but is going to send them a $85 refund for the service call.
Wonder if the Tech learned a lesson?