This is a timely thread for me...
I've been given the onerous task of maintaining the radios in our club's
6 gliders. This winter we are going to wire all 6 the same. The plan is to
have a fuse at the battery, a main switch on the front panel that switches
everything on and off and when off ties the battery to the charge
connector. We also will move the charge connectors to the front of each
ship. We are loosing a lot of batteries due to user stupidity or laziness.
If they stay deeply discharged during the week, they lose most of their
capacity.

I am a proponent of a fuse at the battery. I am afraid that if the power
wires got shorted somehow, they could either start a fire or create enough
smoke to cause an accident. I have 2 ships that use a metal hose clamp to
hold the battery down. I personally think that is a bad idea, as if the
battery shifted, it would short to the hose clamp.

Two questions:
1. What can I use instead of the hose clamps and where do I get it?
2. Any comments on our plan?

Brian Bange
At 19:11 09 December 2008, ContestID67 wrote:
Fred had some really great thoughts. One thing to add.

Fast blow versus slow blow? Slow blow seems like the easy way to
helping to prevent blown fuses. Slow blow (slo-blo) fuses were
created to handle devices with high "inrush" currents. That is, when
you turn on this type of device, there is a high initial current draw
for a short period (maybe 1-2 seconds) which settles down to a lower
level. Simplistic examples are motors and incadesent light bulbs.

Do you have any devices in your glider that need a slo-blo? Highly
doubtful. I don't know of any "modern" (last 10+ years) avionics/
instruments that need slo-blo. I don't use any. Check the manual on
all your devices to be sure.

Finally, as to using one fuse total or using one fuse per
device...this is a question in which you will get equal proponents on
each side. I prefer one fuse directly at the battery. I run two
batteries.

My $0.02.

- John DeRosa