--- In
Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, Jacquot.Patrice@... wrote:
> What about when the condensators are dead or progressively faulty ?
> don't they involve other componants damages & breakdowns by not regulating anymore tensions ?
That's a bit of a myth. If you run gear in seriously hot conditions more-or-less continuously you will eventually start to dry out the electrolytic capacitors. This will make the supply voltage drop and go all ripply, and you'll hear that as a hum on the output. Other than that, they just don't seem to fail, much.
Disc ceramic capacitors fail by going leaky - that is, the ceramic stops being an insulator and they slowly become resistors. This happens quite a lot - in one particular kind of radio I work on, I often change three surface-mount ceramic capacitors because if they haven't failed yet, they will soon. Once they start to go leaky the decline is rapid - before long they will become a dead short and cause all sorts of mayhem.
Tantalum bead capacitors which are used in computer equipment to decouple noise from power supplies fail by going dead short ∗instantly∗. You know when this happens because of the thick smoke and horrible smell. In an emergency you can often just cut them off the board until you get a chance to replace them. It might be noisier, but it won't break anything.
Gordon MM0YEQ