Inline fuse in the engine to protect the electronics

Fuses are to protect wires. Most board circuits such as in TVs and radios have fuses in them to protect the finer wiring in them, if a fuse blew usually some component shorted in the board. Really this should be engineered in the board if needed. Hard to comment as PS2 is a proprietary design.A fuse may protect in the event of a pinched wire or something,which does happen.

 

Dale H

Thanks for the replies. Everything you guys are saying is everything I've learned and just completely faded out on. Being a tech I deal with a lot of other stuff than this. Thanks for the memory jog. Ralph

Ralph, PTC Resettable Fuses (the really small ones shown and described at Circuit Protection work great to protect engine electronics from overloads.  Just wire them in line like a fuse.

 

 

 

I've installed polyfuses in TMCC engines after learning of them from Susan. I haven't lost a radio board since. I think if I were to install protection in an engine now I would go with the TVS

Not saying the polyfuse is not a good idea,but exactly how would you install it in an engine? I understand one in series from the roller wire which is voltage input,but the board has outputs for smoke unit,motors and lights for example. Poly fuses are also not usually very fast tripping as fuses go.  An input fuse would not necessarily protect from overloads in these output circuits if say there was a short in the motor or smoke unit or pinched wire. Some PC chips are designed to shut down but without a schematic of design it is hard to say. These protections should be engineered in, not user added. However we see pics here of boards burnt to a crisp so that says something as to the engineering.

 

Dale H

 

 

I put Polyfuses in passenger cars between the pickups to protect against derailments cooking the wires.  I also put them between tenders and locomotives if both have pickups and I want to tie the power together for better performance on switches.

I added the polyfuse between the roller pickup and the mother board which feeds all of those things that you mentioned. It works fine as long as you don't size it to small (or too big).

Ralph,

   The DCS TIU has this already built into the TIU, if you are running the DCS

you have it already.  A lesson I learned from Barry.

PCRR/Dave

 

Actually, there are no fuses of any kind in the TIU, except the 20A one, any protection is external!  You don't want the TIU getting 20A before the fuse blows, you need external protection.

Gunrunner,

   The TVS is not a fuse in reality.  Reference Deweys post.

With my Scott 10 Amp Breakers and the built in TIU TVS, I have never had a problem,

at least not yet.

PCRR/Dave

Thanks for all the replys. You have given me some things I didn't think of.

 

My main thought was for some of my customers who don't use DCS.

 

Ralph

For non-DCS users, a fast acting fuse or circuit breaker and a TVS across the track feeds is probably a good move.  For DCS users, the TVS is built-in to the outputs of the TIU.

 

I realize that, I thought you were talking about circuit breakers, I lost the train of thought.  I'm one of the biggest advocates of TVS protection, I should know what they are.

John,

   I was just pulling your chain a little.

PCRR/Dave