Vintage Synth Repair

On Tuesday 02 May 2006 09:43 am, Scott Nordlund wrote:
> >On Monday 01 May 2006 04:52 pm, Scott Nordlund wrote:
> > > If the board has tantalum caps now it's probably a good idea to replace
> > > them with electrolytic (of equal or greater working voltage).
> >
> >Why?
>
> Tantalum capacitors are more sensitive to overvoltage conditions and can do
> much more evil things when misused (see Oldcrow's synth repair tips that
> were referenced here a little while back).
>
> In some cases tantalum capacitors will be more desireable due to tighter
> tolerances and better high frequency response but it really depends on the
> circuit.  For critital power supply decoupling it might be better to use
> (for example) a 10 uF electrolytic with a 0.1 uF of a different type in
> parallel.

Might be.  But OTOH I'm not about to second-guess the guy that designed the 
thing in the first place.  Yeah,  tantalum caps have some issues,  but as 
long as you go with the right value for them,  and make darn sure that you 
don't put them in backwards,  I see no reason to replace them wholesale with 
aluminum electrolytics...

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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