Home Tube DIY Asylum

Do It Yourself (DIY) paradise for tube and SET project builders.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tube DIY Asylum ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

Try a car battery.

If your battery voltage dropped, you simply didn't have enough energy to cause the cap to fail in a dramatic way. You need a lower source impedance. Try a car battery and a backwards tantalum cap. Wear oven mits :)

I've personally had the pleasure of having molten tantalum melt it's way through my shirt; strangely, somtimes the cap doesn't explode and catch fire, but rather shoots moltem metal at you. Also have had the pleasure of containg a fire in a burn-in oven caused by backwards Ta caps. Not to mention many PCB's with a lump of charcoal with leads on it that smell bad. Trust me, they will catch fire if there is enough energy available to heat them up.

Oh, BTW, some modern Ta caps have a current limiting fuse in series so that they just open up instead of blowing up. Darn UL ruins all the fun...

My experiences with Aluminum caps aren't as dramatic. Put 450-500V across a 300V snap-in electrolytic and it gets hot, then pops the seam on the top, spewing hot goo. I've heard that they too can explode but haven't had this happen to me.

I think many Al caps will exist just fine with reverse voltage to a point. Past some voltage they will start leaking current and heating up. Also I believe that the dielectric breaks down over time, so even though it may be happy for a few hours, eventually the dielectric will break down (dissolve) and the cap will short.

Pete

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  K&K Audio / Lundahl Transformers   [ K&K Audio / Lundahl Transformers Forum ]

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]