Quick question, what is everyone using for fusing in their beetles? Both in terms of rating and the type used. Vortex BW ran a 30A blade fuse, which seemed okay but I’m worried it’s a little weedy and soldering directly onto the blade tabs is a pain.
30A is pretty normal. The way fuses work means that it won’t blow as soon as you put more than 30A through it, instead it’s guaranteed not to blow no matter how long you run anything less than 30A through (ignoring temperature dependent stuff). You’ll probably find you can run 40A through it for a full fight without any issues - the fuse will get hot but would probably take 10-20 minutes to blow. I’d only start worrying if you are looking at 50-60A bursts.
In terms of soldering, most people crack the plastic case open and cut the thin piece of wire in the center out. Then they solder that fuse wire into their links
You can also buy the fuse wire on its own rather than using blade fuses
I’ve used those fuses but soldered onto the contacts - you can get PCB mount holders for them:
Weirdly the pitch of the contacts didn’t quite match the fuses themselves, but actually just using the contacts without the body of the holder is easier to handle.
I am using a length of 30a fuse wire soldered directly across the terminals of the xt30 connector I use as my removable link. In the rare event the fuse blows? New link and boom done. No rewires, no headache.
This is the same as me, fuse wire in the link, have a couple of spares for when you lose one or a fuse blows, and you can get the wire from Halfords in a pinch - EZ PZ