18 Jan
2012
18 Jan
'12
9:13 p.m.
On Jan 18, 2012, at 23:12, Rob Doyle <radioengr at gmail.com> wrote:
It seems to me that you'd need to understand the
failure
mechanism to build a monitor for it.
In my experience, they tend to lose capacity with age, eventually becoming an open circuit
as the electrolyte dries out. This is often reflected as higher ripple.
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.
Could that not reflect a higher peak current due to high ripple? Or possibly inadequate
thermal design to begin with?
- Dave