What Is A Fuse? And How To Test It.

Posted by admin on January 5th, 2010 — Posted in Geeky Stuff

A fuse is a very thin wire, which either melts or vaporizes when too much current flows through it. The thin wire may be made of aluminum, tin-coated copper or nickel. The resulting open in the circuit stops current flow. In electronic equipment, most fuses are cylindrical glass or ceramic type with a metal cap at each end! The current rating also can be seen in one of the two metal end caps. There are two popular physical sizes: 1 - X - inch and 5X20mm. The 1 - X - inch size is used in many automobiles. You’ll find both sizes in many electronic equipment, but the smaller 5 X 20mm has become more common. Fuses are available with current ratings from 1/500 Ampere to hundreds of amperes.

Purpose of Fuses

The purpose of a fuse is to open an electronic circuit when current flow exceeds a certain amount, determined by the rating of the fuse. Opening a circuit under high current conditions can save electronic components from damaged and prevents overheating, which could cause a fire.

Types of Fuses

There is two basic types of fuses: fast acting and slow blow. The fast acting type will open very quickly when their particular current rating is exceeded. This is important for analog meter movements, which can quickly be destroyed when too much current flows through them, for even a very small amount of time. Slow blow fuse have a coiled construction inside. They are designed to open only on a continued overload, such as a short circuit. The purpose of coiled construction is to prevent the fuse from blowing on just a temporary current surge.

Do not use a slow blow fuse in place of a fast acting fuse. It may not open fast enough to prevent components damage under a high current condition. It’s not harmful to replace a slow blow fuse with a fast-acting fuse, but it will probably open up unnecessarily every now and then when the equipment is first switch on. A blown fuse can tell you something about your service problem. Often the glass case of the fuse appears clear, and you can still see the broken pieces of the fuse element. This means you have the kind of problem that causes a slow, gradual overload on the power supply. Some fuses even die of old age. But if the inside of the glass fuse is discolored, and there is no trace of the fuse element (the center connector), you know that the center connector was destroyed quickly and violently, using a lot of heat. The fault was a short circuit or other problem that caused a lot of current to flow very quickly.

Is some cases a fuse will open up fast enough when there is a surge so that other components aren’t damaged. If this is the case, replacing the fuse with one of the same type and rating restores operation. Unfortunately, a high probability exists that if a fuse blew, something in the circuit it was protecting shorted out. In this case, a replacement fuse blows right away. The blown fuse can easily be replaced by a new one, after the overload has been eliminated when come into replacement. Use only the same current and voltage ratings as the original. The common type and current rating of a fuse in a monitor are slow blow 2A to 5A. When you buy replacement fuses, get several - you can easily use all of them while you’re troubleshooting an elusive problem.

Testing Fuses

Turn the power off and remove the fuse from the circuit to check with a multimeter set to the lowest ohms range. Connect the probes to both end of the fuse. You may check the fuse while it still in circuit. A good fuse should showed continuity or read 0 ohm. A blown fuse is open which reads infinity on the meter.

Jestine Yong is a electronic repairer and writer. For more information about electronic repair please visit his website at http://www.noahtec.com

A Beginners Guide To Obtaining The Correct Netbook Computers

Posted by admin on December 26th, 2009 — Posted in Geeky Stuff

With several advancements coming about in electronics monthly, few have proved more convenient and useful than the introduction of the netbook computer. The actual size of netbooks is the major reason that makes them so important to the typical consumer or enterprise. Where notebook computers are rather heavy to go adequately on most laps, netbooks posses the perfect size & portability. Perhaps the best instance to demonstrate this would be on a train, or airplane, while going to, or from your work. In these instances, a netbook is the more versatile hardware to buy, frequently being half the size of the run of the mill laptop computer.

However, the actual size of these netbooks brings to light several concerns with regards to their screen resolution. With such a very small size, comes a small display, so you may possibly want to make sure you find a netbook that has an ideal contrast ratio, and high resolution rate. This will save you from numerous head pains when trying to view a presentation or a video clip. Making sure you get the highest contrast ratio for your elected budget is exceptionally easy, & there are lots of sites that assess each netbook manufacturers next to their opposition. This can provide you added insight when picking a netbook computer.

This comparing of netbook computer models can be helpful in maximizing the quality of the hardware in the machine, and the overall price that you are willing to pay. Hard drive space, wireless capability and price are several most important things that you want to make sure you think about when procuring a netbook. With such an assortment of companies putting out netbooks already in 2009, there are many different bargains around that you can find just by undertaking ample homework before you purchase. Making sure you get the very best hardware currently available for your budget is imperative, particularly in this unsettled economic condition. Take the first steps towards upgrading your mobile computing experience. Obtain a netbook computer and enter the wonderful world of convenience & portability that these machines can offer. Find a large assortment of technology products such as; netbooks, televisions and led tvs from leading brands online.

Printer Cartridges - Step Back in History

Posted by admin on May 7th, 2009 — Posted in Geeky Stuff

You are working and trying to print out important documents when you discover that you are out of ink. This would have been a big drawback in the past. Most printers years ago used daisy wheels or ribbons to print documents. The evolution of printer cartridges should be looked at.

1984 saw the introduction of inkjet printers and printer cartridges. Now changing ink cartridges and printing documents was much easier. Finally, after years of changing ribbons and adding toner ink to reservoirs within the computer. The dot matrix printing method used ribbons. The industry found new ways to make printing easier and convenient.

Drop on demand is when the ink is squirted onto the paper through tiny nozzles. The quantity of ink dropped on the page is determined by the software driver as is which nozzle fires and when. By the year 1990 inkjet printer cartridges were generally accepted. Inkjet cartridges can print on almost anything including fabric, film, and almost any size piece of paper.

A popular choice for printing is the inkjet printer and they are used in a multiplicity of worldwide settings. All brands of printers use a particular type of ink cartridges. An identification number is given to each cartridge and the models it can be used in, is generally listed on the package. There is such a wide variety of cartridges, you will need to check your manual to see which is the right cartridge for you.

You can save money by getting inkjet refill kits and refill the cartridges yourself. These kits are not liked by everyone since the quality of printing isn’t as good and sometimes the cartridges when reinstalled fail to work right. Some retailers and manufacturers have reconditioned and refilled cartridges available. Compatible cartridges are made according to the exact specifications of the original manufacturer.

A compatible cartridge cannot be found for every inkjet cartridge. When choosing a printer find out what kind of cartridge it will use. The type of cartridge will be determined by the type and quantity of printing you will need to be doing. Check with retailers, on the Internet, and manufacturers about the printer you are looking at. The Internet offers discounted cartridges.

Use your search engine to find inkjet cartridges or printer cartridges. Many websites offer amazing discounts. To find the best deal for you, some research will be need to be done. When purchasing them pay attention to the top of the cartridge. A list of the models the cartridge can be used in, is on the side of the box. The timeline below has some really interesting facts. This is a terrific list of answers for a trivia game. There was a lot of hard work that went into creating the ink cartridge as we know it.

It is easy to see why cartridges are so expensive. An old wine press was used by Gutenberg in 1452 along with moveable type and oil based ink to build the first printing press. Martin Luther made extensive use of the printing press as he began the Protestant Reformation. The typewriter was created in 1714.

Although schematics done by Mills were discovered, there is no proof that any typewriters have were actually made. In 1874 Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule, and Carlos Glidden, made the “qwerty” so named for the first five keys on the top row of the keyboard. A typewriter was developed in 1894 by Franz Wagner that is similar to the ones that are made today.

The design he created let typissts watch as they were typing. Paper, in the past, would go through a roller while you typed and you couldn’t see what you had typed until you were done. The Underwood made by John Underwood in 1897 was the prototype typewriter.

Charles Carlson developed the first dry writing method developed in the United States called electrography in 1939. The Haloid Company for the first time in 1949 developed electrography for commercial use. When the Xerox 914 came out in 1949 other businesses were forced to update their communication systems. Xerox first introduced dry (laser)printing in 1969 by Gary Starkweather.

Xerox released the world’s first business laser printer the Xerox 9700 in 1978. 120 ppm (pages per minute) was the rate of speed it could copy documents. In 1979 the IBM 3800 was capable of printing out 20,000 lines per minute. Use of toner cartridges became passe in the 1980’s. The first home-based desktop laser printer was released in 1984 by Hewlett-Packard.

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Find Out About the Existence of DVD Video Gadgets

Posted by admin on July 18th, 2008 — Posted in Geeky Stuff

Digital Versatile Disc recorders are distinct from digital video recorders (better known as DVR’s) in that they tape terrestrial children’s programmes straight onto a removable writable disc (more frequently known as the DVD) and not a hard disk. Digital Versatile Discs are becoming a really first-rate technique for backing-up information because of their enormous storage ability, resilience, price & convenience. Amazing prices on DVD recorder at Digital Direct!

Like a video cassette recorder (more normally known simply as a VCR) the DVD recorder has standard A/V inputs & outputs & playback functions. Digital Versatile Disc Recorders mainly allow one of these two, from time to time both, though in realistic circumstances they are nearly alike. Writable discs are relatively inexpensive & recordings play in roughly every system. Digital Versatile Disc recorders with both an analogue & a digital receiver can hook-up to a set-top box.

DVD recorders are going through a change, adding a digital ATSC tuner if it has a tuner as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Digital Versatile Disc recorders are speedily triumphing over from Video Cassette Recorder’s as the default way to tape your essential TV programmes and movies. With DVD recorders you can look at normal Digital Versatile Discs listen to music Compact Discs & play back your taped discs.

A Digital Versatile Disc recorder has a laser (usually six hundred & fifty nm red) to read and write Digital Versatile Discs. The reading laser is normally not stronger than 5 mW, nonetheless the writing laser is largely stronger DVD recorders when they began to enter the consumer market several years ago were to a certain extent costly and the standard consumer couldn’t afford to acquire one. Even though in the previous few of years they have significantly fallen in cost & are at the moment available financially to most people.