Level42
New member
I checked all caps on my Ms.Pac board with my ESR meter and found C5 and C10 had extremely high ESR values.
I found the caps that I measured being bad looked a bit weird for a normal electrolytic (aluminum) cap. So I checked the schematics of Ms.Pac and found out that they indicate a Tantalum cap at C5 and C10.
When I hear Tantalum I immediately think of these kind of caps:
BUT...the one's I measured wrong didn't look like those at all. Using the power of Google I quickly found out that there are also "wet" Tantalum caps, that look much more like regular electrolytic caps:
Compare, wet tantalum:
and (old fashioned) aluminum electrolytic cap:
Since these kind of old fashioned "regular" electrolytic caps (GOD I would love everyone used the term Elco for it, like we do in Holland....) were all around the Ms.Pac board I didn't notice the difference...
HOWEVER, the ESR meter can still measure these just as well and so....they _are_ bad.
So I checked for some replacements and almost got a heart-attack:
http://nl.rs-online.com/web/c/?sear...-by=default&sort-order=default&view-type=Grid
Note that these prices are EACH. I guess we're running out of Tantalum ? Should I sell mine to get the Tantalum out of them ?
My _real_ question is....what are the differences between a wet-tantalum (yes, this word sounds dirty) and a regular aluminum elco ?
I found the caps that I measured being bad looked a bit weird for a normal electrolytic (aluminum) cap. So I checked the schematics of Ms.Pac and found out that they indicate a Tantalum cap at C5 and C10.
When I hear Tantalum I immediately think of these kind of caps:
BUT...the one's I measured wrong didn't look like those at all. Using the power of Google I quickly found out that there are also "wet" Tantalum caps, that look much more like regular electrolytic caps:
Compare, wet tantalum:
and (old fashioned) aluminum electrolytic cap:
Since these kind of old fashioned "regular" electrolytic caps (GOD I would love everyone used the term Elco for it, like we do in Holland....) were all around the Ms.Pac board I didn't notice the difference...
HOWEVER, the ESR meter can still measure these just as well and so....they _are_ bad.
So I checked for some replacements and almost got a heart-attack:
http://nl.rs-online.com/web/c/?sear...-by=default&sort-order=default&view-type=Grid
Note that these prices are EACH. I guess we're running out of Tantalum ? Should I sell mine to get the Tantalum out of them ?
My _real_ question is....what are the differences between a wet-tantalum (yes, this word sounds dirty) and a regular aluminum elco ?

