[sdiy] Replacing tropical fish caps

[Steve Lenham]

On 08/03/2017 13:13, Nicholas Keller wrote:
>
> A friend sent me an Electro-harmonix Rhythm-12 to bring back to life...
>
> Upon opening the case, I see that most if not all of the tropical
> fish are cracked, mostly just on the ends, but I'm guessing this may
> be why it's no longer working properly.  (He did not send a PSU,
> working on sourcing a suitable one).
>
> I started looking online to find some modern replacements but was
> struggling to find any that fit properly (10x5x3mm, 10mm LS)
>
> Most critical I suppose is the lead spacing and width, as several
> caps are located close together.  Values required are 10, 22, 47, and
> 100nF.
>
> What type of cap do you recommend?  Whatever will fit?

Hi Nick,

It's tru that a lot of modern film caps have smaller lead pitches...or 
are SMT :-)

The Vishay/BC 368 series are the closest descendents of the original 
tropical fish caps, though they are sadly just plain orange. See:

https://www.rapidonline.com/vishay-polyester-capacitor-368-series-62514

... though Rapid don't actually stock a very good range of them.

But really any generic metallised polyester caps should do (unless you 
have golden ears), e.g.

https://www.rapidonline.com/suntan-metallised-polyester-capacitor-71096

HTH,

Steve L.