Monday, September 22, 2008

Fixing things

I fixed my alarm clock this weekend. It is yet another example of the long list of dead electronics, cut short in their prime by the capacitor plague.

The replacement operation was simple enough. It was only a single filter capacitor. I did have a bit of an issue finding a replacement, as Active has a pretty limited selection. I ended up having to buy a 220µf 50v instead of the original 220µf 10v. This meant the replacement part was about 3x the size, and I had to mount it off to the side of the board so as not to interfere with the reassembly of the clock.

Of course, I only discovered the component interference after installing one and attempting to reassemble the clock. And, since I had already trimmed the leads, there wasn't enough lead left to reposition the capacitor, so I had to unsolder it and solder in a second one. Thankfully I got a 4-pack so that wasn't an issue.

On the bright side, the 50v capacitor has a lot larger electrolyte volume than the 10v one, so even if it's got bad electrolyte too it probably won't fail for a good long time. It's also a 105c rather than 85c rated one, so that should help things too.

Before you ask: yes, it probably would have been cheaper and easier just buying a new alarm clock. But if you have to ask, you've already missed the point.

No comments: