Power cable fuse rating?

Hi there everyone.

I got my new Kemper Profiler yesterday, and I'm absolutely loving it so far - I'll post some more details and add some music links in the Introduce Yourself section pretty soon.

However, I've looked everywhere, both in these forums and in the manuals, and I can't find out the correct fuse rating to use in the power lead.

DV247, who I purchase the KPA from, included a generic UK power cable fitted with a 13amp fuse (in addition to the two non-UK power leads that came in the Kemper box), and I just need to check if that's the correct rating for the unit or whether I need to fit a lower rated fuse.

Many thanks in advance of any advice

Steve

Thanks Brett.

I actually had a bit of a row with DV247 over this. They clearly advertise on their website that they are based in the UK (the address they display is their Romford superstore), but my KPA was dispatched from their parent company's German warehouse. I rang them up and the guy said they should include a UK lead (which they did) but just to be on the safe side, he would send me a free one!

Both have a 13amp fuse already loaded, but I really want to be 100% certain I'm looking after my investment with a correctly rated fuse for the sake of a few pence.

I'm currently ploughing through the user guide, and even printing off the reference manual, to get on top of all this.

I really need to work out how to output a single mono signal (as opposed to summing the stereo Line Outs), and whether I can hook up the KPA to my PC directly with a USB lead instead of using a USB stick as an intermediary.

I'll get there! Thanks again for stopping by

Quote from Brattcave

But if this is for PC recording why not use Spdif, if you have the connections? Keeps the path all digital and should in theory be the best sound quality

Thanks for the USB advice Brett, and for the welcome

You are right, I'm going to use my KPA to record with (into Cakewalk SONAR), but my aged Line 6 Toneport UX2 interface only has a S/PDIF output.

Quote from Ingolf

Welcome!

Thanks - I'm beginning to like this place already

And thanks for the info on the mono out - I'm on my way to sort it out now.

Quote from Trazan

I'm a bit lost...what do you mean by "power cable fuse rating"....?

Hi Trazan

Here in the UK, the fuse that protects any electrical device is usually inside the plug that attaches the item to the electric wall socket.

Every electrical item sold in the UK has, by law, to be supplied with a wall plug with the correctly rated fuse already installed (usually 13amp, 5amp or 3amp).

Quote from Trazan

If so, isn't that to protect cabling from overheating? Or is it some kind of surge protection for appliances that can catch fire if a power surge occurs? The Kemper only consumes milliamps so you wouldn't need much of a fuse

I think you're right - which is why I steer well clear of electrics

It's got something to do with how our properties are wired up differently to the rest of Europe - all the wall sockets are connected to a common 'ring main', which carries around 32amps. This circuit is protected by its own fuse or circuit breaker, but individual items plugged into this ring main could theoretically draw the whole of this current in the event of a short circuit in the appliance - hence the plugs have fuses that should blow and protect the cable and appliance if the amperage is raised above the safety level of the cable.

I found this, it explains it better that I ever could:

Fuses in plugs are used to protect the cable and device that they power.

If a major short circuit occurs in the cable or equipment, the excess current would cause the cable to catch fire.

The fuse in the plug would blow instead, thus preventing a fire.

Devices that only draw small amounts of current, can normally be operated quite safely with small, light, thin wire. This is fine until a fault occurs which shorts out the wire and the current drawn is enough to set the thin wire alight.

The house wiring is thicker and can stand larger currents up to the protection amperage of their own breaker, or fuse.

The small wire would set fire before the main fuse could blow. So by protecting the thinner wire with a small fuse in the plug, only the plug fuse will blow. This also helps indicate where the fault is.

A mains circuit fuse could have any number of devices on it.

Thanks for the input guys, and for the welcome Labrat!

Having browsed around other threads apart from this one, I'm noticing how friendly this place is, and how helpful everyone seems to be! That's so cool, especially how you guys seem to go out of your way to take care of us newbies

There was one additional question I had with regard to outputting into my DAW in mono, and forgive me if I don't know yet if the accepted protocol is to start a new thread for each question I have.

Having followed Ingolf's advice, I've tracked down the relevant information in the manual and I now know how to output a mono signal from the mains out. In stereo operation, I've been using the two quarter-inch jacks to connect my KPA to the two Line In jacks on my Line 6 UX2 interface. My question is, do I still need to use both outputs from KPA, or just one - and if so, which one - left or right?

The reason I ask is that on my old Line 6 POD2, which also has two separate left and right channel outputs, if one requires a mono output, one only has to use the left channel jack.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone, it's really appreciated

Cool, many thanks Ingolf

Quote from Trazan

Ah, a fuse makes sense with 32 A...that's friggin' 7360 watts The Kemper should use less than 0,14 A according to the manual.

Yeah, it's a big difference for sure!