[Milsurplus] "Pico-Fuses" at High Voltage- Prelim. Report

[David Stinson]

Re:  The BC-375 High Voltage fuses and using Pico Fuses.
____________

NOTE:  If you decide to ham-around like this,
please remember you're dealing with 1000+ Volts.
Wait until the dyno stops completely before fiddling
and double-check everything you do before you 
"fleep de sweech" because you could get 
grave-yard worm-chow room-temperature DEAD
if you put them fiddle-fingers in the wrong spot.
___________________

Never did find where I put that re-made fuse, 
so I went to Tanners and got a few 1/4 amp Picos to try. 
39 cents each.
I should have thought about it more as you'll see ;-).
I figured I could get them to open at normal operating current 
and see what happened.  I clipped a 1/4 amp across the dynamotor
HV fuse mount and started the dyno.   The fuse opened at once
with the surge of charging the various bypass caps (I suppose).

There was no arcing.  
The fuse did not explode.  
It looks just like it did when I bought it.
I put it back in after other tests and it did not arc.
It just sat there looking new and being dead.

So I clipped in another and, since the caps were
now charged, I can't get the darn thing to open.
The rig will draw 300 MA+ if I detune it but don't want
to mistreat my 211s for long enough to open the 1/4 Amper.
Guess I'll have to go get some 125 mA and try again.
Now this is just one test, so no "results" just yet.
If I was fusing 5 or 15 KV, I'd be more worried.
1000 Volts don't throw much of an arc in air.

73 Dave AB5S

P.S. If you want to try what I did with the original fuses,
I forgot to mention you need to solder a "pigtail" on one
end, since the Picos are just a tad too short otherwise.