Many years ago, it was not uncommon to see fuses in the emitters of power amp output stages. I recall an instructor explaining that they were not there to act as fuses, but as low-value (fractional ohm) power resistors. Apparently back then the fuses were cheaper than comparable resistors or something.
Anyway, he had a simple formula for determining the resistance of the fuse, but I've completely forgotten it. (By the time I started building power amps, it was pretty easy to get the proper resistors.) Thinking about it now, it seems that for this to work you'd have to know some particulars about the fuse construction materials, not just the ampere rating, so I suppose his formula was only for specific types of fuses. Does anyone have any information about this? I was thinking about simple ways to make a current-measuring shunt when this bubbled up out of the memory banks.
Thanks!
Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis