Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2015 14:11:46 +0000
From: tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Subject: RE: PDP 11 gear finally moved
Replace - yes, *especially* if you don't have a big budget. Aluminum
electrolytic capacitors are CHEAP and easy to obtain. Replacement
semiconductors by comparison are expensive and can be quite difficult to
find.
The RICM ignored the sage advice from experts and reformed the
electrolytics in the PDP-12 that we are currently working on. This decision
was based on our past experience on other restorations, the lack of
replacements in the same physical size, and the very high cost of the
replacements. So far the system is behaving nicely.
We have had several spectacular failures of the AC caps with the
ferroresonant circuit in DEC power supplies. We regularly replace the AC
caps because they are available and inexpensive.
--
Michael Thompson