Anyone heard of a (?glass) resistor fuse?

[Riccardo Grillo]

Hi gents, wondering if anyone can suggest where I might find this kind of fuse, preferably by mail order as I'm currently stuck abroad (I can always get a friend to post it to me).

I was fiddling with an Italian-made multimeter last night.

It's an ICE 680R. Probably about the same age as my AVO 8, but makes the AVO 8 look like a steam engine. Internally it's very poorly made. but surprisingly accurate (if a bit fiddly and non-intuitive in use) and does have some features that the AVO 8 does not.

Getting to the point, because this is a UK-vintage radio forum after all, it currently contains a 20mm glass fuse in the resistance-finding circuit. Weirdly, this has to be a resistive fuse (and the resistance has to be right for the meter to work properly but someone has shoved in an incorrect type and this causes problems).

The manufacturer specified that the fuse should be a 3Ω 0.16A fuse (ideally fast-blow 1000V rating but anything is better than nothing) Presumably it was glass, but it may have been ceramic. Certainly it has to be a cylindrical fuse of approximately 20mm length.

I had, until this morning, not heard of a resistive fuse, though I found several spares (of incorrect ratings) inside the multimeter itself yesterday.

Does anyone know where I can buy a couple, please?

Thank you for reading.

EDIT: I have tried the company that owns the ICE brand and sells spares, but it's own website does not make it clear that the fuses it sells are of the resistive type. I have emailed for information, but would much rather buy in the UK to be fair because I suspect the answer will be "we're Italian and we don't understand electronics".

[Nickthedentist]

Maybe a “fusible resistor” would be something to persue?

[Terry_VK5TM]

Littlefuse do 3 Ohm .16A fuses but not in1000v,

Haven't found anybody else that does them yet.

[Riccardo Grillo]

Hi Nick and Terry,

Thank you both.

I had tried a web search (and Rapid Electronics) for 'fusible resistor'. What come up seem to be solder-in components rather than replaceable fuses. Not having much luck with that.

The Littlefuse item sounds extremely promising. Where did you come across this, I wonder? I've now been on the Littelfuse website and can't seem to find the product you are referring to, so may need spoon feeding

To update my original question, it is possible that the original fuse may have been 15mm length instead of 20mm. Anything in between would fit, however.

[Goldie99]

Hi Riccardo, I suspect Terry is referring to these:

https://www.mouser.co.uk/Search/Refi...4647487+254136

Alan

[Riccardo Grillo]

Okay. I'm going to call the witch hunt off. SPEI, the company that owns the ICE rights and brandname also operates a spares service which failed to show the technical data on its website, hence my posting.

The parent company website, however, while it does not have an online purchase option, shows the full data for the fuses and they are correct. I only found the site once I started writing Ohm instead Ω. Ah!

It therefore seems likely that SPEI does indeed understand electronics, even if it doesn't understand how to write a website... So I'll wait to hear from them. It would appear to be a manufacturer-specific part anyway.

I am not surprised a 160mA fuse is 3 ohms resistance, any 160mA fuse will be fine.

[factory]

A quick check of the T160mA fuses here reveals they aren't all 3 ohms, but range from 2.7ohms to 6ohms. No idea if F160mA would be any different as I haven't got any.


David

[factory]

Found a packet of SEME A.S. T160mA fuses, they measure between 1.1ohm & 1.3ohm.
Now rather fed up of seeing fuses, I've been sorting all the mixed bags & trays of fuses for most of the day.

David

[MotorBikeLes]

Pop a couple of the 1.3 ohm jobbies in series, adding a small R if needed.
Have you tried any of the little black transistor fuses? Two could be piggy backed onto a blown mains fuse or similar.
Les.
Les.