Lesson Learned: Checking Blown Fuses...

My X-Ray machine took a dump on me last night. Wouldn't turn on, kablooey. Figured I would save myself the $150. service call and see if I could figure the problem out myself. I removed the cover and began by checking all of the fuses with my Ohmmeter. Everything checked out ok. Since I am a chiropractor and not an electrician, I decided that any further probing was best left to the technician.

Tech came out this morning. Checked the fuses. One was blown.

I made the mistake of checking the fuses still plugged into their circuit. The continuity I was reading with my meter wasn't the fuse, but rather the rest of the circuit.

This was a costly lesson for me. Hopefully someone here can learn from it. I'm an idiot.

:thinking:

Don't feel bad, I've done that! Test lights rule!

:buddies:

Your not an idiot. Like you said you aren't an electrician. Next time you will know how to check them.

Agreed, you're not an idiot...chalk it up to lesson learned & "that" won't happen again!! NOW, if you do it again - we'll have to have a talk!

I've made that mistake also, though I have to admit that it didn't cost me $150. Made plenty of others though. Welcome to the club!

I have never run into the situation I guess I don't blow enough fuses, lesson learned though eh?

I once encountered a standard-type glass fuse,

one-quarter inch diameter, by one-and-a-quarter inch long.


Removed it from the fuse-holder, and gave it

a VERY CLOSE, visual inspection.


It looked fine. Could see absolutely NOTHING wrong, even under good light.


After an hour of tearing my hair out, :hairpull:

i once again decided to inspect the fuse.


"it's GOTTA' be the fuse !"


"it CAN'T be the fuse !"


Only, THIS TIME, i used my handy Simpson 260-7P multi-meter.


Sure enough, that fuse had blown !


But i defy anyone to spot it, with their eyeballs.


Felt like an idiot. But i've always remembered it.

___



Just a word to the wise.

_

Burgess said:

It looked fine. Could see absolutely NOTHING wrong, even under good light......


Sure enough, that fuse had blown !

Click to expand...

Yep, done that too! Probably 18-20 years ago(I'm 28), but I still remember it well.

This should have gone in the "Things I've Learned The Hard Way" thread.

:buddies:

I've made that mistake too.
And when I was much younger (early teens), that mistake resulted in the destruction of a perfectly good analogue meter.

Mistake 1: Leaving the fuse connected.
Mistake 2: Leaving the device itself plugged into a live 115 volts AC circuit.

I actually saw the magic smoke escape from the meter movement; apparently, the internal resistance of the battery was insufficient to protect the coil of the meter movement.