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kaktus circuits
2014/06/22 About Me

Jakub Polonský
BFuse – Electronic Fuse for Breadboard View my complete profile
Prototyping is a dangerous job. Not for a person if you keep the voltage down but for
the components. On breadboard misplaced chips, loose connection and other errors can Search This Blog
blow the components. To save them a fuse is a good idea. Having said that, standard
fuses are not very suitable for breadboarding. Blow fuses have the inherent problem of Search
being a one‐time component. And during prototyping, a lot of overcurrent conditions
can happen. Tindie

A better way is to use a resettable fuse, also known as PTC. After tripping, it turns into
a high‐impedance state and remains tripped until the overcurrent condition is removed.
But they have disadvantages too. Just like the ordinary blow fuse, the tripping time
depends on how much current is passed. For example, to achieve 1 millisecond breaking
time a quick blow 1‐amp fuse needs to pass 10 amps. For 1‐amp PTC at 10 amps, the
tripping time is around 100 milliseconds. That is way too long and way too much
current. Moreover, resettable fuse still leaks some current in its tripped state because it
has to keep being hot. License

This leads me to a more advanced solution for overcurrent protection: Electronic fuses.
They are devices made to sense the current and disconnect the load when an
The work kaktus circuits, except
overcurrent is detected. This is usually achieved by FET switches, which are very fast
software parts, whose author is
compared to both blow fuses and PTCs. Jakub Polonský, is licensed by
Creative Commons Attribution‐
You can make your own electronic fuse with only some transistors but the more ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY‐
advanced devices are mixed‐signal. There are electronic fuses made by Texas SA 4.0).
All software parts are licensed by
Instruments, Linear Technology and STMicroelectronics. Usually used in final products GNU General Public License version
because they are often optimized for single voltage.  3 (GPLv3).

Blog Archive

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Crappy USB cable under test

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MightyWatt R3 Resource Page
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►  2016 (5)
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My BFuse ►  August (1)
►  July (2)
What I made is an adjustable and programmable electronic fuse especially designed for ▼  June (1)
breadboards – a breadboard fuse, or BFuse. It is powered from the same line it protects. BFuse – Electronic Fuse for
The trip current can be set from 50 mA to 1 A but it can measure current up to 6 A. Breadboard
BFuse consumes less than 10 mA and works in the voltage range from 3.3 to 12 V. It has
reverse polarity protection (by P‐FET), transient voltage suppressors both on its input ►  May (1)
and output and two LEDs for indication. A green one indicates power‐good and red ►  April (1)
indicates tripped state. A reset button resets the fuse. Its on‐state resistance is less than ►  March (1)
100 milliohm, which is less than 1A blow fuses and comparable to 1A PTCs. But this
►  February (4)
resistance is the same in the whole range of trip currents. Shortest trip time is about
200 microseconds and the fuse has been successfully tested on a Statron 22A power
supply.
 Complete schematic of BFuse

The adjustable trip current is set by a trimmer but the fuse is programmable. Its core is
a well‐known ATTiny25 from Atmel. Set current and actual current (measured by
current shunt monitor) can be compared using ATTiny's built‐in comparator or sampled
by the ATTiny's ADC. Then, the microprocessor controls a P‐FET switch that opens or
closes the power supply. The switch operates on high‐side so there is no messing with
the ground.

In‐system programmable using SPI, the fuse can do a lot of tricks. It can emulate fast
blow fuses, slow blow fuses, it can be latching or auto‐restart or it can allow some
inrush current at startup to charge capacitors without tripping. Because it can measure
up to 6A, there is a lot of space for tailored operation. It is also small, only 18×36 mm,
and takes very little space on breadboard. 
 BFuse on breadboard

To be fair, there are some drawbacks too. First, it is more expensive than a simple PTC
and needs some minimum voltage. Second, it is not as fast as a commercial electronic
fuse, nor it can limit current in linear mode. BFuse can only switch on and off. But it is
a great tool for breadboarding and it definitely saved me many components.

If you're interested, you can find source files (code, schematic and board) on my
Google Drive. The code uses ADC and allows inrush current at startup. You should set
the ATTiny to 1 MHz and turn on the 2.7V brown‐out fuse (BODLEVEL = 0b101).

Posted by Jakub Polonský at 14:49

6 comments:

Werner Scharnhorst 8 Feb 2015, 17:25:00

Where can i buy the PCB with no Parts on it

regards
WS

Reply
 Replies

Jakub Polonský 8 Feb 2015, 17:30:00

You can have it manufactured in any PCB house. For such small boards, I
use OSHPark: oshpark.com. Just order the bfuse_r1.brd from my Google
Drive on their website.

Reply

Madhu Nuggehalli 31 Mar 2017, 14:38:00

Any tips on how to make this for a higher current? Fr example, 30A trip.
Reply

Replies

Jakub Polonský 31 Mar 2017, 22:39:00

30A breadboard fuse? The breadboard will probably vaporize in seconds. I

melted mine with 3A. Apart from this problem, the concept can stay the
same, just make everything bigger.

Madhu Nuggehalli 3 Apr 2017, 14:02:00

Hi Jakub,

I did not mean a 30A breadboard fuse... I want to use your circuit as a
driver to control a vape coil.

Thanks,
Madhu.

Jakub Polonský 3 Apr 2017, 18:48:00

Then use beefier FETs Q1 and Q2, smaller value but larger power current
shunt and the PCB traces for 30A will have to be quite wide and on a
high‐copper weight PCB. The operating principle is the same.

Reply
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