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Ken Sallot wrote: > > Excuse me. Maybe I'm the only one who sees the obvious here. > > If you have a short and you're using the light what do you think is > going to happen? Do you think the wires are going to melt? Do you > think you'll explode? Have you ever thought about the OBVIOUS fact > that your filament will burn out thereby breaking the circuit because > the bulb will work like your fuse? Finally, something I can comment on. A light bulb is NOT a fuse and will NOT act like one. It is the load and SHOULD see the entire battery voltage (12 volts in the case of the AUL Spectrum 14). A short would be by definition before the bulb in the circuit. Likely, what would happen in this case is that the wires would burn open at some point, thus acting like a fuse. This would probably happen BEFORE the battery would be damaged, thus protecting the battery. You would have to rewire the light, however. > There is NO valid reason to have a fuse in a light. The charger won't > work when there's a short, and the bulb will blow before anything > really bad will happen with a short. The only reason to have a fuse > in the light is to try and fix a non-problem, which just adds a new > problem by itself. Definately, the charger will protect itself. The real issue here, I think, is to avoid a fuse blowing and leaving you in the dark. Fuses do sometimes blow when there isn't a problem. They can fail just like anything can. I work for an auto company, and I can tell you that we don't put a fuse in line with the headlights. It is a federal requirement, I believe, that forbids a fuse in that particular circuit. It is considered to critical (the headlights) to chance nuisance fuse blowing. There is a piece of wire called a "fusable link" that will burn open before battery damage is done and before a fire can start. I would say that a cave diver's light is MORE critical than an auto's headlights. IMHO, leaving the fuse out of this kind of device would be the Hogarthian way. Simplify the system. Eliminate one more source of a potential problem. It takes at least two extra connections to add a fuse to a circuit, and probably four if you want it easy to change. Those connections are solder joints and contacts and are subject to being done improperly and to failure even if done properly. > Think it through. For what it's worth, I completely agree with your conclusion, Ken. Leave the fuse off and let the wires burn open if a short happens, but don't chance a failure of the fuse or associated connections to leave you in the dark. > Ken -- <<<<<<======------======>>>>>> Dave Mabry dmabry@mi*.co* Great Lakes Maritime Institute Underwater Research Team <<<<<<======------======>>>>>>
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