22 Jul
2015
22 Jul
'15
6:01 a.m.
From: Tothwolf
How do you know those aluminum electrolytic capacitors
are functioning
just as good as they did when they were new? Unless you've tested them
out of circuit ...
... aluminum electrolytic capacitors by their very electrochemical
nature degrade as they age and as they are used.
I am way out of my knowledge range in this discussion, but here's something I
wanted to ask about: how do you reconcile this observation (assertion?) with
the observations from several people (e.g. the PDP-1 people) that they _have_
measured the electrolytics in their power supplies, and despite being N
decades old (where N ~= 5), they are _still_ within specs? If the very nature
of electrolytics mandates that they degrade, how are these still meeting
specs?
I'm very confused...
Noel