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RE: [ModularSynthPanels] ChaQuo Wiring Question...

2009-09-29 by Dave Halliday

This was about fifteen years ago and I had a Beckman that was good but its
resistance measurement wasn't good enough.

The dremel works great but it is a bit disconcerting to see done...

Dave 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ben Stuyts
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 2:29 AM
> To: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [ModularSynthPanels] ChaQuo Wiring Question...
> 
> Ouch, that hurts... :-)
> 
> What I usually do is get a good DMM (a Fluke 45 in my case), 
> and just  
> measure the resistance across all the caps. Yes, we're 
> talking 10's of  
> milli-ohms difference here, but the lowest one(s) are easily 
> found. If  
> you follow a power/gnd pair of traces, you can even see if you're  
> getting close because the resistance is getting lower and 
> lower. Also  
> works when finding a bad chip with an internal short.
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> On 28 sep 2009, at 07:43, Dave Halliday wrote:
> 
> > The tants had a really good high frequency response IIRC -- good for
> > filtering out noise as well as 60Hz.
> >
> > My technique was to follow the power buss on the circuit board and  
> > find an
> > arbitrary mid-point that was away from any critical wiring 
> and use a  
> > dremel
> > tool to sever it.
> >
> > Find out which half had the short and proceed until you had 
> three or  
> > four
> > caps to test. Unsolder one lead and lift the leg and test 
> the power  
> > buss
> > again.
> >
> > I could usually find a dead cap in 10-15 minutes. A good friend of  
> > mine
> > nearly fainted when I dug into his Odyssey although he had 
> thought the
> > problem was in the power supply and had disassembled it. Took me  
> > longer to
> > put that together than to find and replace the dead tant.
> >
> > Scrape the traces on each side of the dremel cut and solder 
> a bit of  
> > solid
> > wire to bridge the gap.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com
> >> [mailto:ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> >> Richard Brewster
> >> Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 6:32 AM
> >> To: ModularSynthPanels@yahoogroups.com
> >> Subject: Re: [ModularSynthPanels] ChaQuo Wiring Question...
> >>
> >> I'd not use any tantalum caps.  Their main benefit is the
> >> smaller size
> >> vs electrolytic of the same specs.  They also cost more.  I
> >> have one of
> >> my own tales from the days of yore.  I used to hand-build audio and
> >> video synthesizer circuits in the seventies.  These were all
> >> prototypes
> >> and needed plenty of power line bypassing.  At one point we
> >> used a bunch
> >> of 100 nf Panasonic tantalums.  We might put 20-30 of them on
> >> a board.
> >> And yes, they did fail by shorting out.  But unless it fried
> >> and burned,
> >> we could not tell which one failed.  So, one by one, each had to be
> >> clipped out until the bad ones were found.  Then all the 
> "good" ones
> >> that had been removed too had to be replaced.  Needless to say, we
> >> stopped using the tantalums.  If you do want to use some, I'd
> >> recommend
> >> ones with at least a 35 volt rating.
> >>
> >> Richard Brewster
> >> http://www.pugix.com
> >>
> >> mcb, inc. wrote:
> >>> On Sat, 26 Sep 2009, Scott Deyo wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Yeah, I torched a polysty on mine too. That's probably the
> >> culprit. Polysty's
> >>>> and tantalums are bummin' me out lately...
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Speaking of tantalums, came across this interesting tale from
> >>> days of yore:
> >>>
> >>>
> >> http://www.designnews.com/blog/Made_by_Monkeys/23362-Do_You_Wa
> >> nt_Butter_On_Those_Capacitors_.php?nid=3073&rid=398497
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Monty Brandenberg
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------
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