Power Supply Woes

Hmm, so yesterday I added two more pots (2Ω, wired in series with the other ones) as a fine tune adjustment on my Elenco XP-720K (photo gallery retired). Despite being a bit unattractive it was working great, until I went to use it today. I turned it on, off, then back on, and the fuse blew. It’s just a small 1A fuse, so maybe the shock of bouncing it around for a bit caused it to go, but it still worries me a bit.

I don’t know what could have caused this, except for something being shorted out. But I had simple banana plug leads between it and my meter (to set it to exact 5.000VDC) and nothing else. I guess I’ll go get some more 1A fuses, stick a new one in, and wait and see if the problem comes up again. I’m hoping it was just a cheap fuse and thermal / mechanical stress on the fuse itself. Hmm, I guess it did get shaken around quite a bit while I was drilling out the extra holes in the front panel. The steel is really hard, so it took a bit of work.