What's the most idiotic component you've stumbled upon?

[Christer]

I can't remember if this is really the most idiotic one I've ever seen
but I bought a panel-mount fuseholder of a type I hadn't used
before. Instead of a hat to screw off by hand, one is supposed
to use a screwdriver to turn the lid a quarter-turn and then pull
it out. I didn't try it before mounting it, and after mounting it,
soldering it and putting shrink sleevage over it, all done in a
somewhat crowded and tricky position I tried to open it.
It wouldn't open! I could turn the lid around and around, but
nothin happened. I finally had to take it out again, and I brought
it back to the shop to ask if they thought there was something
wrong with it or if I might have destroyed it (there were no visible
signs of too much heat). The salesman tried for several minutes
to open it and finally succeeded by holding it in one hand and
banging it hard several times into his other hand, something
one obviously cannot do after mounting it. He said that because
of the spring-loading, it was probably easier to open when there
is a fuse in it. Yes, fine, but they come in one piece, with no
fuse inside in the first place!! You can't open it without having
a fuse inside it, but you have to open it to put the first fuse
inside it! Did anyone say Catch 22?

I bought another, more traditional fuse-holder, and let the
other one rest for future use, after making sure I put a fuse
inside it before assembling it for storage.

[tiroth]

I bought some cheap surplus XLR connectors recently, and the screw threads on the hardware must have been malformed, because I certainly couldn't get the things apart. After fiddling with the things for 20 minutes I finally threw the lot in the trash.

[Thomas]

It must be this mains socket with buildt in filter. There are no way to fit this thing without making the hole way big. The metal casing flushes the mounting flange on the top and bottom, and the connection pins on the bottom makes it even more impossible to fit.

If I just flushed the money out the toilet, at least I would have had the fun doing it. This is just stupid.

[head_spaz]

Thomas,
Those mount from the rear of the panel.

[lgreen]

Christer, those fuses are inside a lot of things. For example, they are used in my Sonic Frontiers Line2 (power supply unit) and my Balanced Audio Technology VK-200 (4 of them). One fuse in the Line2 blew and damn it if I couldn't remove the fuse from the fuseholder, finally got it open and then the new fuse wouldn't fit and I broke the cover on the thing. I wrote SF (now Anthem) and told them what an idiot I was for not being able to change a fuse and they sent me another one for free. Broke that one too. Now I wrote back and asked for 2 full assemblies, one of which I broke. Finally, the last one worked when I put it on the board.

The ones on my BAT VK-200 are starting to crack, the housings are weak compared with the force applied. Mine are pcb mount, not panel mount, and you are correct that when no fuse in installed only gravity will open the little bast**ds.

[Thomas]

Originally posted by head_spaz
Writing hurts my texticles!

I know what you mean.

It seems like it could fit a 0.8mm steel plate if the hole was done nicely enough. Only thing is, I was using 3mm alu and it just didn't occur to me that way. Anyways, it was totaly useless for my purpose.