What cap mfr. to use?

May 07, 2009 48 Replies

On May 7, 6:53=A0am, DaveC wrote: > Today I ordered electrolytic caps. It was frustrating. I had planned to get > the best low-ESR replacements for all the caps in some switching power > supplies. I discovered how limited any one manufacturer's low-ESR catalog is. > Many of what I needed (none of which seem to me to be esoteric values) were > not available. A couple of times I had to leave a particular manufacturer's > catalog altogether to find a value. >

I buy the replacement parts at a Hollywood dub house. Last year I bought 14.000 'lytics , 10,000 installed by 3 of us. My first choice in Panasonic FM but the selection isn't as wide as the second choice of FC caps. If I run into a physical size problem Nichicon PW series often helps. For surface mount first choice is Panasonic FK and sometimes HC series. If you're doing this a lot like we are, Metcal soldering irons are HIGHLY recommended. The STTC-126 tip (700 F 30 degree bent tip) is really good for clearing stubborn holes - usually ground planes with lousy thermal reliefs. A lifted pad is a very rare event with a good soldering iron.

100uf 25V (most common value for us) cost 20 cents in 1's 10.28 / 100 but are only $57.54 / 1000. I try for 1000s whenever possible.

G=B2

Stretch my old ring out.

I Am Kirk Johnson. "Anal Stretching, Wrenching & Expanding Specialist"

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Thankfully I have no atomic clocks to worry about.

Yes, I keep an eye on that kind of thing.

Graham

Dust sucks, because we *cannot* see it, so you must have a pretty good eye. ;-)

I *can* see my accumulations of dust though. So I keep my system's sinks clean pretty often as well. On the order of once every other month even.

I would imagine that it was a crappy capacitor, perhaps one of those knock-off Taiwan caps. Sceptre LCD monitors had a rash of crappy electrolytics which they used on the outputs of their switchers a few years ago. Many computer motherboards also used icky caps. The two Sceptre monitors that a friend had crapped out around the same time. I replaced the high stress caps with United Chemicon caps.

For my pulse power amplifier applications, I stick to United Chemicon.

Mark

Which series do you use? U-C make several qualities in radial lead cans.

DaveC me@bogusdomain.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group
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