Electrolytics

Tim> Other times they literally explode, or they cause other Tim> components in the circle to fail catastrophically... my Tim> experience is that switching supplies are far more sensitive to Tim> out of spec ESR's in electrolytics than any old radio ever was. That makes sense. Switching supplies tend to be designed far more closely to the margin. (And that assumes the original good design hasn't been butchered by unscrupulous manufacturers; for an example of that read the article in QST a few years ago about modifying a switching supply to be a ham radio supply.) I remember reading articles in the trade press about how to size inductors, and transformers, in switching supplies. It's all about making them as small as possible while still able to handle the load. This is why modern switchers get noticeably warm when in use. So the margin of error is less than it used to be. paul