A600 Capacitor Replacement

[browrp]

Originally Posted by ajk

If the slight price difference isn't an issue (a set of caps will be in the $15 range vs maybe $5 for standard ones), I'd go with solid polymer.

I'll end up going with the solid polymer. I've started going through the pre-built shopping list that was posted earlier in this tread (http://www.digikey.com/short/3pbrjq) and it's hard to find a completely matching equivalent. For example the 10uF 25V 20% (Panasonic Electronic Components EEE-HA1E100R) has a much lower "Ripple Current @ High Frequency" than the solid polymer caps. When I look for similar dimensions they are similar but not the same which I expected. However when I do find something in the similar size the manufacture is United Chemi-Con. So now I have more questions, does ripple current matter? And are there any manufactures I should avoid or ones that I should prefer?

[chue]

Panasonic or Nichicon seem to be the way to go.

Just to throw another wrinkle in, for any cap less than 50uF I used ceramics. This was for a 1200 though. Haven't had any issues yet. There's a thread around here somewhere about using ceramics.

I must admit that I used some other brands (not Panasonic nor Nich - whatever was available from digikey) when I recapped my 1200.

[ajk]

@browrp

For dimensions, it's mostly the diameter that matters. A little taller or shorter is fine.

Ripple current and other detailed specs don't really matter.

I buy Kemet for the through-hole caps and Würth for the surface mounts, though from Mouser usually so I'm not sure what is available on Digikey.

But again, no need to overthink this too much; Commodore just used whatever was economically priced back in the day, and practically anything available now is much better. Just don't get Chinese mystery caps from eBay and you'll be fine

[Daedalus]

True, even budget capacitors today will be better than the ones Commodore used back in the day. Würth capacitors are also available from Farnell (Element 14 in the US). Rubycon are also a good brand I've used in the past.

As for dimensions, the height *mostly* doesn't matter, but I would try to keep the caps directly to the left of the IDE port no taller than the originals, otherwise you could run into issues if you ever intend to use one of those adaptors for putting a CF card above the PCMCIA slot.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by ajk

Just don't get Chinese mystery caps from eBay

ARRRGH!!!

[Heywood]

Hi,

I'm looking to recap my A600 and I'm a little concerned about the caps between the keyboard connector and audio RCA jacks.

What's the best path forward to tackle these? I'm kind of thinking that applying kapton tape around the connectors before trying to remove the old caps to try to be a heat barrier but it still seems kind of tight to me.

An alternative I guess is to remove the connectors first but I don't have an electric solder sucker and it seems like a lot of pain...

[ajk]

It is just about doable without removing anything, but it is indeed crowded in there. I use aluminium foil folded in two as a heat barrier, it will stop quick slips of the iron from doing harm. Also having a soldering iron tip which has a hook or L-shape makes things a bit easier.

Removing the RCA jacks would make it much easier - if you can't get them out intact you could even sacrifice them (snip the legs and desolder one by one). Then just install new ones once done with the caps.

[Daedalus]

Also, gently remove the top clip from the keyboard connector - it's amazing the different an extra mm or two will make in there.

[Heywood]

Thanks akj and Daedalus,

I was planning to give your guidance a shot and started to set things up and my iron decides that the temp control buttons in the up direction are the only ones it's going to listen to, so I need to see if I can repair that or get a replacement first as 450C seems just a _bit_ on the hot side of things... The silly thing seems to store the temp setting in NVRAM too, so powering off doesn't bring it back down to a reasonable temp.