Capacitors

[scrappysphinx]

Hi all, i am hoping someone might be able to educate me a little more.

Having recently purchased the two faulty Game Gears from Tajmaster i received them today and opened them up to find all caps have leaked (expected).

I have put together a list of caps required to replace the ones on the PSU/Audio/Mainboard (both VA1 (1 single 1 dual ASIC))

MainBoard x2

0.47uf 50v x4
4.7uf 35v x2
10uf 6.3v x7
22uf 6.3v x2
33uf 6.3v x2
68uf 6.3v x2
100uf 4v x2
100uf 6.3v x2

Audio x2

100uf 6.3v x6
47uf 4v x4

PSU x2

22uf 35v x2
100uf 25v x2
820uf 6.3v x2

Now here is where i require a little education.

Firstly

I have looked around on ebay and the above is coming in at around £35 with shipping and seeing that i can actually post them to a seller on ebay and have both fully recapped and cleaned for about £25 i am wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper place to order some caps from?

I found a place in the US that does "cap kits" for the Game Gear for $6.95 but the shipping to the UK was around $25 so it made it about the same as ordering the caps from the UK.

Secondly

While digging around i found there are various versions of caps i.e. Radial, Electrolytic, Ceramic, Tantalum, smd

The ones present on the Game Gear are rectangular and i believe are smd but look difficult to find and the most common seem to be the electrolytic but are there any advantages to using any of the other types or can they not be used?

Any info is appreciated

Thanks

Mike

 

[80sFREAK]

Go to your local RadioShack or reuse parts from old(well reasonably old) PCB's. Fault might be caused not by capacitors

 

[rkauer]

Try Futurlec (UK). Is where Zetr0 goes when shopping discrete components.

BTW: 0.47uF x 50V ????

You can use securely anything with a bit more than 10V for the part. Unless that's the only available voltage value.

Tantalum capacitors wiil not good for the GG because it don't run on batteries, so violent inrush currents and negative current passing through they (mostly in the audio section).

Tantalum capacitors usually explodes in the above cases.

Rectangular units are SMD parts in plastic cases. Tantalum units are a bit like a sphere with two legs. Regular SMD parts are usually metallic.

Through-hole parts from nowadays are much tinier than back in the era when the GG was made. So they will even fit with some space after replacing.

Just be sure to use 105°C parts from the best manufacturer you can find. I can vouch for Nichikon and Sony. BEWARE THE FAKES!

 

[scrappysphinx]

Try Futurlec (UK). Is where Zetr0 goes when shopping discrete components.

BTW: 0.47uF x 50V ????

You can use securely anything with a bit more than 10V for the part. Unless that's the only available voltage value.

Tantalum capacitors wiil not good for the GG because it don't run on batteries, so violent inrush currents and negative current passing through they (mostly in the audio section).

Tantalum capacitors usually explodes in the above cases.

Rectangular units are SMD parts in plastic cases. Tantalum units are a bit like a sphere with two legs. Regular SMD parts are usually metallic.

Through-hole parts from nowadays are much tinier than back in the era when the GG was made. So they will even fit with some space after replacing.

Just be sure to use 105°C parts from the best manufacturer you can find. I can vouch for Nichikon and Sony. BEWARE THE FAKES!

Thanks for the tip rkauer, will check out futurlec

So i should just be looking for the standard electrolytic but look for a good brand?

The 0.47uf 50v is what is listed here (VA1 single and twin Asic) and i verified it with whats installed so just thought i needed the same.

 

[rkauer]

Most of the times, those tiny capacitance values are only made in large voltages.

 

[80sFREAK]

+1 for Nichicon, also Sanyo.

 

[rkauer]

BTW: http://console5.com/wiki/Converting_from_Surface_to_Leaded_Capacitors

 

[Vyothric]

Seems they're out of stock at the moment, but http://www.rewind-bits.co.uk/game-gear-capacitor-fix-kit.html

 

[scrappysphinx]

Hi Vyothric, i saw those and they were out of stock, the guy also has a webshop on ebay and i sent him a message and asked if he was planning on restocking or even listing some kits on ebay and he replied that he might but if he does it might take about a month

 

[Bad_Ad84]

He's probably buying the parts from futurlec or similar. They are cheap, but have around 2 week wait because of delivery times


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any crazy auto corrects or lack of detail (links to info sources)

 

[scrappysphinx]

Hi again all, I've now managed to secure the caps required to recap the two game gears I got from Tajmaster.

Just a quick question I want to ask before I start. I have took the old caps off the sound and mainboard and there was a definitely a smell of bad fish and the solder points are dull greyish instead of shiny which as I understand is because of the electrolyte that has leaked. So my question is what do I need to use to neutralise and clean them?

I have been reading around the web and i have come across a few pages which say the caps are alkaline so use lemon juice or white vinegar to clean and then wash with ipa but some caps are acid so what do I use to clean those and how do I know which caps I have?

I have lemon juice and ipa available so I am good to go I think but just wanted to check first.

Lastly, when applying the lemon juice do I just tip on the affected area or do I need to dip the toothbrush into it and then scrub? And do I need to wear safety goggles and rubber gloves when handling the ipa?

Sorry if my questions sound daft but as I've never done this before I don't want to screw anything up or put myself in danger

Thanks

 

[rkauer]

Hi Mike.

Capacitor spillage is a base. It is mostly a Potassium hydroxide.