Breadboard Fuse

Isn't it annoying when all of the sudden the TV turns off with a loud bang and you're sitting in the dark living room?
Man, now you have to get up and switch the circuit breaker back on.
But did you ever think of the fact, that this could have ended in your house burning down as well ?
Circuit breakers and fuses are often times necessary in households, but also in breadboard electronics.

I usually put my circuits together on a breadboard at least once to try them out. As a power supply I usually use lead batteries, as they have the huge advantage of being able to supply several amps at once.

This comes in handy, especially when experimenting with Audio Amps and MOSFETs in fast switching appliances.
But in case you ever wire something incorrectly and short your circuit out, these power supplies won't forgive any mistake. My mistakes usually end up with smoke, molten insulation and me swearing.


Now you could argue that I have to double-check, or step down in amperage, but I found a simple and super cheap way of limiting the shortcircuit-amperage on my breadboard for free!

A fuse in Electronics is usually a piece of metal with encasing, which starts melting at a certain amperage and thus interrupts the circuit. They also are a pain to replace and to integrate them on your breadboard.