What temperature do you use with your iron to melt the solder so fast ? Usually in those power supplies, the ground plane is tough and you have to really heat it a lot.
+Kayemache The white substance was just circuit glue that was securing the capacitors to together. It is just silicone rubber. The soldering iron is a XYTRONIC 258, which is just a cheap 25.00 adjustable temperature iron. I intend to get a better iron one of these days, but this one gets the job done.
Hi, Question on the capacitors. Are you suppose to discharge them out before removing or is it testing them with a ESR meter so you wont get shock???? Thanks Janet
Thanks for another well-shot, very informative video. I'm glad you showed the ESR meter reading of the bad caps. Did you actually glue the case back together or did it snap together? If you did glue it, what kind of glue would you use? Thanks a lot. Regards, Tom
Saw a YT vid on smps repair that uses the hammer technique to open the case. Can't find it now... so: 1: Place the smps, long side up, on a flat, hard surface. 2: using ball side of a ball-peen hammer, strike the case just adjacent to the joint ("above" the joint, if seen with the smps case sitting right-way up). This breaks the plastic weld cleanly. The trick is to use just the right amount of force and no more. If you strike above the plane of the pcb and not too hard you will not damage the pcb. It looks clean, not chewed up as with screwdriver technique. Experience is a plus...
+davecc0000 I've done the hammer technique many times. Some cases are glued together in such a manner that this is necessary. any pop apart quite nicely the way I did it on this one, and I am not really concerned about the case being chewed up. It is my power supply, and when it goes back together, it is being held together with a zap strap for easy access the next time it needs service again.
+Axel Werner An ESR meter is essential for tracking down bad capacitors, and a good DMM with diode test capability for checking resistors and semiconductors.
12voltvids im just about to build myself a cheap diy ESR meter with analog display. Started somewhat this morning. Breadboard prototype is complete. Now need to build the project box.
+thesummertune Remember that capacitors can be as much as 10% low or 20-30% high in the Uf rating and be totally acceptable.That is why ESR testing is the more accurate way to determine that a cap is bad.If you look at my video on Capacitor measuring I show that.A had a few caps that looked good, measured very close to the capacity rating, but failed miserably on the ESR test.
+thesummertune No as a rule you can go higher without problems. If you go too high a switch mode may fail to start due to the inrush current at charge up drawing too much and causing an over current shut down, but being over 20% won't cause a problem.So for example if the circuit optimum design called for 100uF, it would probably function fine between 90 and 120 as that would be well within the tolerance of electrolytic capacitors.
It looks like the weak link on most electronics from the past and still today is the electrolytic capacitor. They last almost forever with nice smooth DC on them but any thing other that smooth DC and the blow there top (don't we all!)
+Michael Beeny Yes that is right. The high frequencies of switching power supplies, in the 50 - 70KHz range produces heat. This is why special high temperature capacitors are needed. The other problem with the modern capacitors in the use of non-toxic electrolytic. It wasn't that many years ago when the solvent was PCB based oil, and we know how bad that stuff was. PCBs were found more in fluorescent lamp ballast, and high voltage capacitors and transformers, such as those in microwave ovens, or power factor correction. The move to water based created a problem, water boils at 100"c. This is one of the reasons regular capacitors are only 85C. High temperature caps have additives in the electrolytic to increase the working temperature, but they still don't last that long at the temperatures they are being worked at. If you draw close to full power from your power supply you will dramatically increase the ripple currents and this will produce, you guessed it, more heat which will reduce the working life of the caps.
Ive repaired some 12v/5v or 19v switchmode adaptors, after the caps are ditched i drill the case with small vent holes, nowhere near the hv section though. I dont like my new caps being cooked in the ovan, im sure they leave out vents on purpose :-( Ive used panasonic caps as well, middle of the road, decent quality :-)
+fred Flinstone 2wire were used by bell, sasktel, andTelus in Canada, at&t, singtel, and many others used them. They are pretty ancient now. I have an old one from 10 years ago. Just use it as a secondary wireless ap for my kids wireless. That way I can turn it off and shut him down at night, but keep the wireless I use active. It is only wireless g so that generates whining about the speed. My reply, you want faster Internet, then you get your own installed! Oh wait, you have to be 19 to get your own account. Too bad so sad.
I hate those things, change a hand full of shorted parts and they still blow up when I plug it in. Yes, I've been fixing electronics for 51 years. Changing bad caps is the only exception.
well if you've been fixing stuff for a 51 years then you should know better than to plug in a power supply like this without some type of overcurrent protection. When I work on switch mode power supplies I plugged them into my dim bulb tester and a very act and I run them up slowly while monitoring to make sure that the oscillator starts properly. There's no excuse for blowing up a switch power supply when you're repairing it. That happened only to me once or twice earlier in my career and I learned quickly what not to do.
Um thunkin 'bout ordering caps in bulk, LOL. What's a case of caps run now days? A case could be like ten thousand caps, I doubt a bag of 100 caps would be considered as wholesale. But I suppose that techs order them by lots of 100. Less than that would be retail prices. I have about ten projects that I need to inventory for a 200$ or so order. Mostly e-caps, caps and resistors, and some tubes Most projects are 50+ years old. Most of the cost will be all those 450v - 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100, etc. mfd e-caps, that average 3$ each. A lot of 100 20mfd/450v e-caps could be like 200$! A tech can easily make a 1K$ order, regularly. But a good tech should be getting 100$/hour. The home consumer don't like that, but business, industry and commercial folks all know that losses from down time is far worse than 100$/hour! So a lowzy two bit cap in a 5$ PS can cause things to come to a grinding hault in a business computer network. CALL IN THE TECH AND GET IT WORKING IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES! Don
+umajunkcollector 100 an hour? Would love to see that. Most electronics techs, even the good ones might bring in 50K a year. Back in the day, when I was swamped I used to make low 60's and that was in VCR heyday. Consumer electronics is dead, business is mostly parts jockeys, and large tech businesses, I am thinking Telco, cable co, ISP, and broadcast have their own salaried techs and engineers and I can tell you right now we don't make no 100.00 an hour. OT pays well, and getting called in on a stat holiday, well lets just say it has been a Merry Christmas for me this year!
Um thinkin corporate salaried techs, or self employed. My daughter took her laptop to a tech to resolder its power jack, the guy told her they charge 100$/hour, minimum one hour. Many auto mechanics also charge 100$/hour. But that doesn't mean 800$/day for an eight hour day. At times it might be 400$/day. And hey have overhead to take out of that. As you said, business is slow, not a bench piled high with VCRs and stereos anymore. Corporations salery tech well, but they also expect much from them to keep things going. Many are more like engineers than R&R guys. And they have to stock an inventory of parts on hand that are usually failed. As you well know, it's not worth it to consumers, so a tech has to charge them much less than 100$/hour. Most consubers toss it, and buy a new one.
+umajunkcollector Back when I was in the business it worked this way. The shop charges were 85 for anything that required troubleshooting with test equipment.60 if it was a VCR with mechanical problems, minor work was charged for 30 min, and that was 39.00. 60% of the gross went to the shop, and 40% to me. Pickup and delivery added 50.00 to that charge, and if I went out on that pickup, then I got 40% of that charge too, but if it was a 1 man pickup, then I didn't. If I decided that I wanted to take my 4 weeks holidays that I had earned after 10 years with the shop, I could take them. However the owner of the shop would close the service dept, and give the junior tech his paid holidays. Remember the 40%, well if nothing came in during the time I was off guess how much I got. You guessed it, 0.Actually it was less because, the salried assistant (the pick up guy) was paid by the hour, but 40% of his wages came out of the shop labour revenue I was paid out of, so if I took a month off, I would end up owing the shop for his wages while I was gone.
+umajunkcollector At work I get sent all over the place. Generally they try to keep me in one geographic area, but if work slows down in one area, I do get sent to other regions. The maintenance guys are all over the place every day.
'bad reservoir caps' are most definitely NOT the only thing that go wrong with these... let's not be misleading now! often if find it's bad diodes or regulators etc
Sure diodes can and do fail, as have opto couplers and regulators, but the semis fail a fraction of the number of times that caps fail. A wise man once said. "The reliability of any electronics device is inversely proportional to the number of electrolytic capacitors the device contains"
best diy electronics channel on youtube,no frills,get it done explanations,great...
A pleasure to watch your videos, sir. It looks so easy to repair almost everything when you know where to look for the fault :)
I may have met my match on this tough dog SLVR5 power supply problem I am dealing with now. Should be a video of that soon.
Enjoy your repair videos. Merry Christmas.
What temperature do you use with your iron to melt the solder so fast ?
Usually in those power supplies, the ground plane is tough and you have to really heat it a lot.
hi I like all your repair videos,what type of esr meter are you using
Great repair as always.
+LearningZone Watch for the next one later tonight. Horizontal deflection troubleshooting on an analog monitor.
Nice this is what i did too thanks for making those video's.
Two questions: What was that white substance? it didn't look like it was coming from the caps. What kind of soldering iron do you use?
+Kayemache The white substance was just circuit glue that was securing the capacitors to together. It is just silicone rubber. The soldering iron is a XYTRONIC 258, which is just a cheap 25.00 adjustable temperature iron. I intend to get a better iron one of these days, but this one gets the job done.
Yes I can hear the squealing!! Good thing the capacitors are easy to replace and don't cost much!!
Best way to open a transformer (AKA smps, in this case) is to use a knife and a hammer and work around it.
Thanks for the video
Really gentleman how many of these change capacitors on SMPS video's on CZcams do we need?
William Sullivan
Check the date. This was published years ago.
"Get out of my way." Tosses magnifier about. Readjusts and uses because can't see shit without it. lol. Good video.
Hi, Question on the capacitors. Are you suppose to discharge them out before removing or is it testing them with a ESR meter so you wont get shock????
Thanks Janet
Yes short them out before measuring. ESR meter will measure in circuit, but you want to discharge caps before measuring.
Thank you..will do .
good job 12voltvids very simple very quick, i have question, if fuse was grilled in the same Power Supply SMPS what could the source of problem thx.
Blown primary fuse you have to look at the switching transistor on the primary side, and diodes on secondary side.
If you mess up and forget the polarity, how can you tell the correct polarity that the caps go in?
Well generally the negative is the ground.
Thank you
Thanks for another well-shot, very informative video. I'm glad you showed the ESR meter reading of the bad caps. Did you actually glue the case back together or did it snap together? If you did glue it, what kind of glue would you use? Thanks a lot.
Regards, Tom
+THOMMGB Zap strap. EZ access next time.
Saw a YT vid on smps repair that uses the hammer technique to open the case. Can't find it now... so:
1: Place the smps, long side up, on a flat, hard surface. 2: using ball side of a ball-peen hammer, strike the case just adjacent to the joint ("above" the joint, if seen with the smps case sitting right-way up). This breaks the plastic weld cleanly.
The trick is to use just the right amount of force and no more. If you strike above the plane of the pcb and not too hard you will not damage the pcb.
It looks clean, not chewed up as with screwdriver technique.
Experience is a plus...
+davecc0000 I've done the hammer technique many times. Some cases are glued together in such a manner that this is necessary. any pop apart quite nicely the way I did it on this one, and I am not really concerned about the case being chewed up. It is my power supply, and when it goes back together, it is being held together with a zap strap for easy access the next time it needs service again.
looking for fat blown caps is easy. but what if there is no obvious visually faulty cap or other part ? what to measure and track down then ?
+Axel Werner An ESR meter is essential for tracking down bad capacitors, and a good DMM with diode test capability for checking resistors and semiconductors.
12voltvids im just about to build myself a cheap diy ESR meter with analog display. Started somewhat this morning. Breadboard prototype is complete. Now need to build the project box.
Hi, if the capacitors measure 20-30% more of the printed value, they are still ok or it's better to replace them? no bulge etc. on them.
+thesummertune Remember that capacitors can be as much as 10% low or 20-30% high in the Uf rating and be totally acceptable.That is why ESR testing is the more accurate way to determine that a cap is bad.If you look at my video on Capacitor measuring I show that.A had a few caps that looked good, measured very close to the capacity rating, but failed miserably on the ESR test.
Thanks for replying. Well if the capacity was good but ESR test wasn't, so they didn't work on the circuit?
a higher capacity value don't have bad effects on the circuit?
+thesummertune No as a rule you can go higher without problems. If you go too high a switch mode may fail to start due to the inrush current at charge up drawing too much and causing an over current shut down, but being over 20% won't cause a problem.So for example if the circuit optimum design called for 100uF, it would probably function fine between 90 and 120 as that would be well within the tolerance of electrolytic capacitors.
+thesummertune Right ESR is much more important than capacity.
It looks like the weak link on most electronics from the past and still today is the electrolytic capacitor. They last almost forever with nice smooth DC on them but any thing other that smooth DC and the blow there top (don't we all!)
+Michael Beeny Yes that is right. The high frequencies of switching power supplies, in the 50 - 70KHz range produces heat. This is why special high temperature capacitors are needed. The other problem with the modern capacitors in the use of non-toxic electrolytic. It wasn't that many years ago when the solvent was PCB based oil, and we know how bad that stuff was. PCBs were found more in fluorescent lamp ballast, and high voltage capacitors and transformers, such as those in microwave ovens, or power factor correction. The move to water based created a problem, water boils at 100"c. This is one of the reasons regular capacitors are only 85C. High temperature caps have additives in the electrolytic to increase the working temperature, but they still don't last that long at the temperatures they are being worked at. If you draw close to full power from your power supply you will dramatically increase the ripple currents and this will produce, you guessed it, more heat which will reduce the working life of the caps.
+12voltvids
I always learn as much (or more) from the comments as from the videos! Thanks!
Yooouuu fiiixeed itt!!!! :D
+Koffi Banan I actually stole that one from Photonicinduction "I Poppped it!"
Ive repaired some 12v/5v or 19v switchmode adaptors, after the caps are ditched i drill the case with small vent holes, nowhere near the hv section though.
I dont like my new caps being cooked in the ovan, im sure they leave out vents on purpose :-(
Ive used panasonic caps as well, middle of the road, decent quality :-)
I didnt say the ones i used were FR series, dont jump to conclusions.
"They should be not worst than 0.12 ohms", "Here's a new one, 0.14 ohms" :)
A definite "thumbs up".
You work for Telus? That is the only ISP I know that uses those.
+fred Flinstone
2wire were used by bell, sasktel, andTelus in Canada, at&t, singtel, and many others used them. They are pretty ancient now. I have an old one from 10 years ago. Just use it as a secondary wireless ap for my kids wireless. That way I can turn it off and shut him down at night, but keep the wireless I use active. It is only wireless g so that generates whining about the speed. My reply, you want faster Internet, then you get your own installed! Oh wait, you have to be 19 to get your own account. Too bad so sad.
i would have thrown it out ,now i will repair
I hate those things, change a hand full of shorted parts and they still blow up when I plug it in. Yes, I've been fixing electronics for 51 years. Changing bad caps is the only exception.
well if you've been fixing stuff for a 51 years then you should know better than to plug in a power supply like this without some type of overcurrent protection. When I work on switch mode power supplies I plugged them into my dim bulb tester and a very act and I run them up slowly while monitoring to make sure that the oscillator starts properly. There's no excuse for blowing up a switch power supply when you're repairing it. That happened only to me once or twice earlier in my career and I learned quickly what not to do.
@@12voltvids You're right, I have isolation transformers but have never set up anything with bulbs etc. to limit current.
@@robinsattahip2376 incandescent bulb is your friend. Has saved me many times.
Um thunkin 'bout ordering caps in bulk, LOL. What's a case of caps run now days? A case could be like ten thousand caps, I doubt a bag of 100 caps would be considered as wholesale. But I suppose that techs order them by lots of 100. Less than that would be retail prices. I have about ten projects that I need to inventory for a 200$ or so order. Mostly e-caps, caps and resistors, and some tubes Most projects are 50+ years old. Most of the cost will be all those 450v - 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100, etc. mfd e-caps, that average 3$ each. A lot of 100 20mfd/450v e-caps could be like 200$! A tech can easily make a 1K$ order, regularly. But a good tech should be getting 100$/hour. The home consumer don't like that, but business, industry and commercial folks all know that losses from down time is far worse than 100$/hour! So a lowzy two bit cap in a 5$ PS can cause things to come to a grinding hault in a business computer network. CALL IN THE TECH AND GET IT WORKING IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES! Don
+umajunkcollector 100 an hour? Would love to see that. Most electronics techs, even the good ones might bring in 50K a year. Back in the day, when I was swamped I used to make low 60's and that was in VCR heyday. Consumer electronics is dead, business is mostly parts jockeys, and large tech businesses, I am thinking Telco, cable co, ISP, and broadcast have their own salaried techs and engineers and I can tell you right now we don't make no 100.00 an hour. OT pays well, and getting called in on a stat holiday, well lets just say it has been a Merry Christmas for me this year!
Um thinkin corporate salaried techs, or self employed. My daughter took her laptop to a tech to resolder its power jack, the guy told her they charge 100$/hour, minimum one hour. Many auto mechanics also charge 100$/hour. But that doesn't mean 800$/day for an eight hour day. At times it might be 400$/day. And hey have overhead to take out of that. As you said, business is slow, not a bench piled high with VCRs and stereos anymore. Corporations salery tech well, but they also expect much from them to keep things going. Many are more like engineers than R&R guys. And they have to stock an inventory of parts on hand that are usually failed. As you well know, it's not worth it to consumers, so a tech has to charge them much less than 100$/hour. Most consubers toss it, and buy a new one.
btw, charging 100$/hour doesn't mean the tech nets 100$/hour. Money comes in, money goes out, the tech gets the leftovers as his gross pay.
+umajunkcollector Back when I was in the business it worked this way. The shop charges were 85 for anything that required troubleshooting with test equipment.60 if it was a VCR with mechanical problems, minor work was charged for 30 min, and that was 39.00. 60% of the gross went to the shop, and 40% to me. Pickup and delivery added 50.00 to that charge, and if I went out on that pickup, then I got 40% of that charge too, but if it was a 1 man pickup, then I didn't. If I decided that I wanted to take my 4 weeks holidays that I had earned after 10 years with the shop, I could take them. However the owner of the shop would close the service dept, and give the junior tech his paid holidays. Remember the 40%, well if nothing came in during the time I was off guess how much I got. You guessed it, 0.Actually it was less because, the salried assistant (the pick up guy) was paid by the hour, but 40% of his wages came out of the shop labour revenue I was paid out of, so if I took a month off, I would end up owing the shop for his wages while I was gone.
+umajunkcollector At work I get sent all over the place. Generally they try to keep me in one geographic area, but if work slows down in one area, I do get sent to other regions. The maintenance guys are all over the place every day.
'bad reservoir caps' are most definitely NOT the only thing that go wrong with these... let's not be misleading now! often if find it's bad diodes or regulators etc
when a decouplng cap downstream from these shorts it can take out and number of components - totally depends on the design of the supply etc
Sure diodes can and do fail, as have opto couplers and regulators, but the semis fail a fraction of the number of times that caps fail.
A wise man once said. "The reliability of any electronics device is inversely proportional to the number of electrolytic capacitors the device contains"
DUDE are you seriously working on electronics using CARPET???WTF
no i meant your customer might get insulted.the people who make these inferier produdcts could care less im sure.