Replacement Capacitor Types - SMD, Radial, etc

[kire_online]

I've searched around for new capacitors for my lot of Amiga's and seems the A600 A1200 use the surface mount types as well as electrolytic capacitors.

The A600 has dodgy sounding audio, so maybe I start with those first. But I read somewhere on these forums that they are 2 x Bipolar SMDs, which are harder to come by. Others have replaced the audio capacitors with radial electrolytic capacitors, I'm thinking of the following;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290385932926

Any problem with replacing these with radial electrolytic capacitors, or is that just asking for trouble ?

Then part two of my question is, if I can replace the audio capacitors with equivalent electrolytic, why not do the lot, ie no more SMD capacitors on the A600 ?

For example use these;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150706073062

instead of these;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220525693479

Any ideas, experiences, suggestions most welcome.

[Anemos]

Theoretical you can change SMD with Radial electrolitic if the size value is right..
but..
SMDs, caps is for "top side" soldering boards (no hole,s) some points is to close (near), this is problem for soldering Radials.
Radial,s is to long higher of SMD,s ( maybe have problem with metal shield).
Better found the right SMD,s ,and the right Radials.

[AlfaRomeo]

Originally Posted by kire_online

Then part two of my question is, if I can replace the audio capacitors with equivalent electrolytic, why not do the lot, ie no more SMD capacitors on the A600 ?

Any ideas, experiences, suggestions most welcome.

I had replace all SMD caps of my 2 A600 and 2 A1200 with their electrolytic equivalents and all are ok.

[kire_online]

I think I'll order the electrolytic caps, and start with the audio ones first.
Then need to work up the courage to do the entire A500, A600, A2000, then finally the A1000 if I'm very brave.

[Synthesize Me]

I've been thinking about doing this exact same thing with my A1200s.
I know from recent experience fixing a turbo duo and turbo express game system (which both use the same crappy early 90s SMD caps as the amigas) that you can in fact replace SMD caps with electrolytic equivalents. I even used capacitors that have a much higher voltage since its more difficult to find ones with weird 6v or whatever some of the SMD are rated for.
The most important thing is to get capacitors with the same farads (uF) obviously and keep an eye on the polarity. I also recommend cutting the legs as short as you can and then bend the capacitors slightly away from anything you might be concerned about (magnets, power rails, etc)

I hope this helps!

[kire_online]

I'm thinking of just grabbing these;

100x 25V 100uF 6.3 x12 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/180762102577

100 x 25V 10uF 4 x 7 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150706077795

100 x 25V 22uF 4 x 7 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150706077341

20 x 16V 470uF 8 x 12 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160688372229

100 x 16V 47uF 4 x 7 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150706073062

20 x 10V 1000uF 8 x 12 mm Radial Electrolytic Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/180762094097

10 ELNA For Audio STARGET 25V 22UF HI-FI Capacitor
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290385932926

[jimbob]

Hi, I'm not sure why you want to use radial lead instead of SMD, after all, the board is designed for SMD components. I didn't find it too tricky to learn to solder the SMD caps. I think it would have been much more trouble trying to mount leaded components to SMD pads.

As I understand it, the problem with the two audio output caps is that polarised capacitors are used as AC coupling capacitors. These are the only ones I see any reason to use a different type for.

BTW, the only trouble I had with the recapping job was a couple of lifted pads. This was caused by corrosion on the joint making it hard to heat sufficiently. Try to give corroded joints a good clean before desoldering.

[kire_online]

I see this guy has replaced smd capacitors with radial electrolytic.

http://www.victortrucco.com/Commodor...toresAmiga.asp

I don't like the way the SMDs were removed on the A600, and it looks a little dodgy when it's completed. The A1200 he did is a lot better using hot air rework station, note he's also used tantalum capacitors on the A1200.

[voyager]

Just get a capacitors pack from cosmos, get you self a fine tip soldering iron, some flux paste and of you go. It not that hard to do.

[voxel]

replacing smd caps with their discrete equivalents is fine as long as you dont want to use some of the expansion cards that fit inside the amiga... especialy the piggybacking types...

btw, as an official Amiga Repair service (that means all repairs have a 3 month warranty) I have in stock all the SMDs and discretes caps needed by the 600, 1200, 4000, 4000T, cd32 and some recent expansion cards, for sale, all of excellent quality, ROHS, NEW, and more important : THE RIGHT ONES ! far better than commodore's, including those specials for the sound output they never used by pure greed.

don't hesitate to contact me :-)

Amigalement,
JF Voxel, voxel AT voxelamigashop DOT fr

Originally Posted by voxel

replacing smd caps with their discrete equivalents is fine as long as you dont want to use some of the expansion cards that fit inside the amiga... especialy the piggybacking types...

btw, as an official Amiga Repair service (that means all repairs have a 3 month warranty) I have in stock all the SMDs and discretes caps needed by the 600, 1200, 4000, 4000T, cd32 and some recent expansion cards, for sale, all of excellent quality, ROHS, NEW, and more important : THE RIGHT ONES ! far better than commodore's, including those specials for the sound output they never used by pure greed.

don't hesitate to contact me :-)

Amigalement,
JF Voxel, voxel AT voxelamigashop DOT fr

You are an amiga repair service in France ?
I could be interested. Do you have a web site ?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by kire_online

The A600 has dodgy sounding audio, so maybe I start with those first. But I read somewhere on these forums that they are 2 x Bipolar SMDs, which are harder to come by.

They are not bipolar, but just regular aluminium electrolytic caps.
The audio is centered around 2.5V on the primary side of those caps, and around 0V on the secondary side (AC coupling), so they are constantly charged to around 2.5V, and will never see any negative voltages, which is why they don't need to be bipolar.

Originally Posted by kire_online

Others have replaced the audio capacitors with radial electrolytic capacitors, I'm thinking of the following;
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290385932926
Any problem with replacing these with radial electrolytic capacitors, or is that just asking for trouble ?
Then part two of my question is, if I can replace the audio capacitors with equivalent electrolytic, why not do the lot, ie no more SMD capacitors on the A600 ?

Performance-wise it would work fine, but I think you would risk pulling off the pads due to the weight of those caps (unless you tilt them to horizontal and fix them in place with some glue). The pads are not designed to carry that load. I'd suggest you put in some SMD caps and if you don't want to replace them again in 10 years, get some ceramic SMD caps instead.