Switching Power Supply Repair

[JohnRoberts]

> IIRC US code restricts branches to 20A (I use 15A fuses now).

It goes by the *wire*.

#14 should be fused 15A.

#12 can be fused 20A.

If I am guessing the vintage and sophistication of your house, it may be all #14. A rural 1948 house near here is.

Also FWIW: insurance companies are down on fuseboxes (for reasons you explained). That old house had a fine fusebox ripped out and a tired undersize breaker box recklessly hay-wired in. This *may* not kick-in until you go to sell the house. Since you appear to be set to live there forever, you may not care.

I am pretty confident there are no legal 30A branches in my house.  :

AFAIK the standard mains outlets are only rated for something 15A per plug, 20A for two plugs together.

Since my local electrician still hasn't returned my calls (since early Jan), not likely to upgrade fuse box any time soon.

JR

 

[metalb00b00]

Well, you had already changed most of the caps and the TOP, so it looks the last thing that made the fuse blow may have been te bridge rectifier...

yep, definitely the culprit that tripped my breaker.

 

[PRR]

> standard mains outlets are only rated for something 15A per plug, 20A for two plugs together.

ONLY if fed with #12!

Most house wiring was done in #14 well into the 1960s. Use only 15A pennies unless you get a wire-gauge in there. (I saw advice elsewhere to "just look in the box". My last house had so many splices, a "circuit" could be 3 different gauges. Strictly you should know ALL the wire from fuse to outlet. My new project, I'm just gonna abandon the old stuff.)

 

[Tubetec]

AHaha electricians , glorified cable haulers with a cert allowing them to charge exorbitant money for what they do .
I once saw a vulnerable person ripped off to the tune of hundreds for having a new ground wire fitted to a shower ,sure it could be  a matter of life and death if its faulty ,but ten minutes work ,a bunch of time wasting  and a few new light fittings needlessly thrown in just to ice the cake and make it look like a job ,thats a piss take .

I once got gifted a big bad broken mains powered vapouriser gadget , I took it appart for a look ,the usual chain reaction cause of death was evident right away in the Smps, checked the makers site ,off the market, but putting the serial number in entitled you to a concession off the latest product . I checked some independant reviews of the gadget ,'It made my organically grown weed taste like toxic waste' , and jesus that was while the thing was actually functioning ,imagine if you happened to suck in a lungful  just after the smps blew its load  ;D
Into the f@rking bin ,f**k you 'Vapir' you stupid bunch of c**ts  :-X