Fuse Question

[Griffen]

So this may sound foolish to some but im not an electrician. What is the main reason AEG's use fuses? And using a gun without does what if anything? I can kinda guess what may occur but am not sure if i am right. An overall detail of the function and reason they still function the same without would be great. Thanks.

[Morgan822]

In my opinion they are fairly useless. The only thing they do is give you something else to trouble shoot.

[Sha Do]

Actually, I kind of share the above sediment on fuses. However, if for some reason your fuse keeps blowing, it is usually because of some mechanical with in the mech box.....usually. So it tends to be one way of the gun telling you to stop screwing around and figure out whats wrong.
That and if for some reason you have electrical issues, it can conserve the life of your motor and battery. Where as if you remove the fuse and do have electrical issues, your gun could still keep working, but you could end up killing your motor and or frying a couple hundred of your batteries mah.

SHA DO

[CDN_Stalker]

Fuses in anything are mainly there to protect the wiring. Often times replacing wires that had the insulation melt or wires fry due to a short are much more difficult to replace than a simple safety device. Picture having to replace a set of wires from the dashboard of your car to say, your headlights. What is easier to replace, the wiring or the fuse? Add in the fire hazard of burning wire insulation and you'll get the idea.

Having no fuse in an AEG, as said above, really just eliminates one thing that can go wrong while you are using the gun. It doesn't protect anything inside the gun at all, just the wiring. I've gotten gearboxes that fragged themselves, gears chewed to hell, and the fuse never blew. The gun will work just fine without a fuse, and might actually see a slight rate of fire increase due to the fuse having a slight resistance compared to the wiring.

[mcguyver]

Originally Posted by Georgi Zhukov

In my opinion they are fairly useless. The only thing they do is give you something else to trouble shoot.

Good thing you don't do any electrical work.

Fuses are not only there to protect the wiring. They are there to protect any items in the electrical path. And they are only useful if sized properly.

A 30A time-delay fuse in a gun with #18 wire and a motor load with perhaps 12A draw at in-rush is poorly sized. If you don't know how to properly size a fuse to your load, you aren't in a position to even offer an opinion on it's worth in an electrical circuit.

I am an electrician, with many years in DC and AC systems, and I can tell you what Stalker says is correct, more or less. A fuse has minimal resistance, the wiring probably has more. But as the fuse heats up due to load, it's resistance will increase slightly. But more importantly and ofetn overlooked is the type of fuse and it's connection points in the circuit, as well as the connection points of every control (switch), load (motor) and supply (battery) device.

Proper fuse size and type, and proper connections will NOT result in reduced rate-of-fire.

Most "gun docs" are tinkerers, with poor trouble-shooting skills in areas they don't fully understand. Electricity is akin to voodoo to many, and anyone who proceeds with fuse removal as a performance-enhancer is asking for trouble. The guns that have crossed my bench have ranged from great shape with minor problems to poor shape and a time-bomb. Most guys have no idea what shape their gun is in internally to know whether fuse removal means a $200 repair bill.

I did this up a couple of years ago on the subject of AEG elctrical and motor theory. Please read:

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=51831

[m102404]

McGuyver knows his stuff...can't add much of anything there.

Although...for most every collapsible M4 rear wired/crane type setup I remove the fuse since there isn't room to have one. When there isn't room I just leave it out.

Fuses blow so something else in the electical path doesn't (maybe not blow, but rather damaged).

Most electrical things (i.e. wiring insulation, switch contacts, battery cells, motor magnets, etc...) don't "recover" once they get damaged. Once damaged they work less efficiently than before...usually running "hotter" (to dummies like me I picture that they're straining under load and working harder to do the same amount of work) and get worse. Some things burn out instantly (i.e. fuse)...others die a gradually degrading death (i.e. motors, switches) and stress other components in the process.

Ultimately up to you.

[Talon97]

My 0.02 cents, if you care about it, leave the fuse in. They're there for a reason. Although like McGuyver say, some are definitely not sized properly for the task.

Many things in electronics suffer from a latent failure due to electrical/ESD or even mechanical damage. You won't even know in many cases that something had happened, and then days/months down the road your gun (or any other piece of electronics) just stops working out of the blue.

[Griffen]

Great thanks dudes. Bang on what i wanted to know. Out!!!

Edit: Will a miss sized fuse tend to cause you problems?. I was looking at a friends gun but i'm not sure what fuse the gun had to start with? How do i figure that out this? Or all most or all airsoft AEG's the same size. I have a CA m16 with no fuse, a JG MP5 SD5 with a fuse, Broxa with a fuse and the DPMS M4 was the gun in question with the fuse that is missing.

[CDN_Stalker]

Most stock fuses are 120V/15A. The important part for our use is the ##A rating, so 15 Amps. Some will put in a 20A fuse if they run a heavier spring or a motor they know will draw more current, where a 15A fuse will blow, but the 20A will chug along no problem.

And since it's bound to come up, you can buy the fuses from the automotive department at Canadian Tire. Not sure they have the 15A, but know they have 20A. Electronics stores will sell them too.

[Sha Do]

Originally Posted by m102404

McGuyver knows his stuff...

No truer words were ever spoken.
I do all kinds of mechanical tinkering and can do gear swaps in my sleep. The same with upgrading wiring and other such things in a mech box, but when it comes to the electrical current vs draw and load Latin stuff, I seek the knowledge of specialists such as my brother....who has had McGuyver work his magic on a PTW motor (or two..). Right there it reinforces McGuyver's place in our hierarchy as a man who knows what he is talking about and has proven it repeatedly.

SHA DO