Exploded cap!

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Deke609

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on: December 17, 2019, 12:59:23 PM
Ever wondered what happens when you energize an electrolytic cap with the polarity reversed? Well look no further ...

I was testing the fil reg circuits in my prototype Beepre rebuild this evening. Feeling lazy, and confident that I hadn't screwed up something as simple as rectification and smoothing, I only put a meter on one of the two fil reg circuits. It turns out it was the wrong one. The one I metered performed flawlessly. The other one exploded. With a burst of smoke and spray of some kind of oily fluid. Scared the hell out of me.

Don't know how, but I managed to screw up the bridge rectifier on one of the fil reg circuits. After it popped , I turned over the rectifier board and followed the current path: "So when red is positive, it flows through this diode and goes ...  @##&% #$$$!!!!##, I hooked it up to the @#$$@# 0V rail!" 

On a positive note: it didn't stink nearly as bad as PB had me expecting. It actually smelled like a household cleaning product - sort of fruity/flowery.

Hah!  Lesson learned.



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #1 on: December 17, 2019, 01:15:21 PM
In the second BeePre prototype I made, I put one of the caps in backwards.  It was a type that isn't vented like the one you have there and when it blew, the metal case blew off and shot across the room.  Luckily Doc B. thought it was pretty funny. 

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline Doc B.

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Reply #2 on: December 17, 2019, 01:21:37 PM
Just buys me some sympathy credits for the next time I do it.

Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President For Life
Bottlehead Corp.


Offline EricS

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Reply #3 on: December 20, 2019, 04:24:00 PM
Yikes!  Glad to hear that you didn't get hurt, Derek!  Add safety glasses to the build/test protocol...

Eric

Haven't electrocuted myself yet...   
There are ALWAYS User Serviceable Parts Inside!