Smartstep/3 capacitor question

[milton d]

The top of the large capacitor shown in the foreground is domed slightly. Would this be normal on my 1996 Micromill Smartstep/3 control? Most caps I've seen are usually flat on the top and I'm worried this may be due to swelling and imminent failure. It works great right now and I'd like to keep it that way. What say ye of electronics wisdom?

[angel-tech]

from the variety of machines that i've seen that use this board they've all had a domed top on this capacitor.

[Denford Admin]

The older boards I've can see here are domed.. the newer ones look a bit flatter but not perfectly flat.
I also wouldn't worry about it as I've never seen one of these blow in the last 10 years.

Good question though...my 40" TV wouldn't turn on a couple of weeks ago and that turned out to be failed caps on the power supply - they were domed instead of flat.
Luckily it was a common fault with Samsung LCD's and the solution was there on various forums... it only cost me £2 to fix

[milton d]

Thanks! I can breathe a bit easier now. I've seen many references on the web to a run of faulty caps in electronic equipment that cause premature failure. They showed pics of caps with their little tops all swollen up. They were mostly much smaller caps though.

Have a great weekend gentlemen!

Milton

[angel-tech]

The older boards I've can see here are domed.. the newer ones look a bit flatter but not perfectly flat.
I also wouldn't worry about it as I've never seen one of these blow in the last 10 years.

Good question though...my 40" TV wouldn't turn on a couple of weeks ago and that turned out to be failed caps on the power supply - they were domed instead of flat.
Luckily it was a common fault with Samsung LCD's and the solution was there on various forums... it only cost me £2 to fix

Not the first product from Samsung to have cap faults.
New caps (in the last 5 years) seem to fail a lot easier than they did many years ago. Nowadays they have a stamped top like a mercedes star to let the pressure out when they fail, and it's not uncommon to see them with black ouzing out of the star. In the old days it was fun to "pop a cap" by connecting them in reverse and waiting for the cap to explode....misspent youth.

[Martin]

I need to try that asap.

November 5th all over again.

[angel-tech]

I need to try that asap.

November 5th all over again.

Martin, keep your head down, those old caps will got through suspended ceiling like they're not there.