13 Mar
2005
13 Mar
'05
11:18 a.m.
David wrote:
Considering that resistors might open, but rarely
short...i would expect
this to actually be parallel....
Jim wrote:
No, the resistor is there to protect the engineer, not
the equipment,
hence series.
If they're in series, but one fails open, it's not going to be protecting
either the engineer or the equipment.
If you have two resistors in parallel, and one fails open, you'll still
have some protection.
If you're really worried about a resistor failing as a short (which I've
only ever seen once), you could use four resistors, with two parallel
pairs in series. Then any one resistor can fail either open or short,
and you'll still have some protection.
Eric