19 Jan
2012
19 Jan
'12
4:12 a.m.
On 1/18/2012 7:21 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
William Donzelli wrote:
It seems to me that you'd need to understand the failure
mechanism to build a monitor for it.
I just had a big Heathkit Audio Amp loose both of the big filter
capacitors... I'm not sure I understand the sequence of events.
It's obvious that the rectifier diodes were hot - the board is a
little discolored - but the diodes are still good. Both big
capacitors are now fully open. In fact the 'innards' rattle
inside the capacitor can.
It is as-if the capacitors initially shorted for a while,
and then opened... I'm not sure why both capacitors failed
at the same time - one is on the positive voltage, the other
is on the negative voltage.
What exactly is the physics of failure for big capacitors?
Rob.
Has there been any thought about installing some
sort of non-invasive,
reversible monitoring circuitry to the PDP-1
I proposed that, but I don't think the idea got any serious consideration.
(or other operating artifacts)?
I may be involved in an effort to get one or two DECSYSTEM-2065 (KL10)
systems running in the near future, and I'm seriously considering adding
quite a few voltage/current/temperature monitors.