Thanks for the great question. The circuit breaker in the controller and most likely the one in the track will only protect the brake circuit. Protection in the brake circuit does take care of most of the issues with accidental short circuits, but it does not take care of all issues (as you found out). Generally the power side circuits are not protected. The reasons for this are : higher power circuits require a larger, bulky and more expensive circuit breaker system (the circuit breaker we use in the brakes now is only a wimpy 1.6 amps) & also, some amount of resistance is added to the controller power circuit which can affect performance (although if properly designed only slightly). We do sell a controller that is built with full short circuit and overload protection : pmtr2048.shtml This one is specifically designed for commercial track rental use. The larger circuit breaker used here (10 amps) can be installed in your controller if desired.
All of our controllers are built with "fuse links" built into the circuit board. These fuse links are intended to pop if the controller sees an unusually high spike of current. Each one of the traces (red, white, black) has at least one fuse link. The purpose of this is to protect the semiconductor portion of the electronics which are much more costly and difficult to repair. I am very pleased with how this has been working, we have only had 1 blown semiconductor out of over 100,000 that have been installed ... a very satisfactory reliability record. Apologies for the long winded explanation .. but your controller is doing exactly what it is designed to do .... in general, the fuse links can be quickly and easily repaired in the field and the controller put back into service without the need for time consuming and expensive factory service. If further questions please click on the link below and drop us a line. Happy racing !
