[sdiy] Restoring vintage HP voltage supply.. original electrolytic caps questionning..

Jean-Pierre Desrochers jpdesroc at oricom.ca
Sun Oct 16 20:43:43 CEST 2016


Hi everybody,
I just bought a vintage HP 6291A power supply on eBay.
I received it and it is working fine with some recalibration to be done.
But before doing so I have a question about the inside electrolytic caps..
Have a look here of a part of the inside circuit:
http://www.arcenson.com/public/HP_6291A_power_supply.JPG

There are about 10 or so electrolytic caps inside this supply.
They are all originals and about 50 years old but working.
In fact only 3 of them are 20 to 46% off specs (to be replaced).
All others are around 6 to 15% of uF values,
and their ESR values are OK.  
Since there are many 'differing thoughts' about changing all of them or not
I'm asking you what would YOU do in my situation ?
Some say if it's not broken don't replace anything..
others say don't bother and replace ALL the electrolytics you see..

By the way, ALL the electrolytic caps are very good quality Sprague.
If they are to be replaced I would use Sprague ATOM type.

Your suggestions are very welcomed.
JP





More information about the Synth-diy mailing list