Author Topic: Snipping old caps  (Read 1922 times)

Keith Courage

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #15 on: April 27, 2018, 12:12:45 PM »
Out of all the methods I've tried, the twisting method just works best for me. Not saying it's the only way to go about it. I find that twisting them off generally works best especially if the cap had been leaking on the board. Anytime I've tried heating up and removing a cap that was a leaker it would end up lifting a pad.

NightWolve

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #16 on: April 27, 2018, 02:17:38 PM »
I'm watching GametechUS on youtube (on a Friday night, go me) and he snips the caps with short nosed snippers, and it actually seems to do a decent job.  What's the consensus of this technique?  Any downsides?

I never trusted his technique, I saw the same video you're talking about. I think I'd rather have 2 solder irons to heat up both legs of pesky, leaky surface mount capacitors when it comes to their removal.

After removal, I'm conflicted about replacement between low ESR Panasonic caps and Steve's idea of switching to dry tantalum caps so they never leak again and you gain other possible pros/cons.

soop

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2018, 01:27:45 AM »
I'm watching GametechUS on youtube (on a Friday night, go me) and he snips the caps with short nosed snippers, and it actually seems to do a decent job.  What's the consensus of this technique?  Any downsides?

I never trusted his technique, I saw the same video you're talking about. I think I'd rather have 2 solder irons to heat up both legs of pesky, leaky surface mount capacitors when it comes to their removal.

After removal, I'm conflicted about replacement between low ESR Panasonic caps and Steve's idea of switching to dry tantalum caps so they never leak again and you gain other possible pros/cons.

I was thinking that as well actually.  What are the cons of using tantalum caps?

Cordelay

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2018, 01:31:31 AM »
Well, I did it. I tried both twisting and snipping smd electros on a couple of old pcbs and I must have been twisting wrong, either too fast or too slow, because I lifted several pads... So I snipped very carefully my way through the PC Engine GT and my newly adquired PC Engine Duo.
It was scary for a newbie, but I managed to change all 73 caps succesfully! Now I just need the Duo's AV cable to arrive to try and adjust the CD pots.
 Had to use the stock conical tip included on the TS100 soldering iron (it's been more than a month since I ordered a couple of flat and beveled tips) and at first I couldn't get good soldrr joints, but I managed applying the heat parallel to the pads.
Thanks a lot for the kind advices Keith, Soop et al.!!!

Any tuts for CD pots adjusting and PCE GT Lion battery mod?

NightWolve

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #19 on: April 28, 2018, 06:46:06 AM »
I was thinking that as well actually.  What are the cons of using tantalum caps?

From what I remember they're less forgiving to voltage spikes, but you can just pay more for models with higher breakdown voltages. If max breakdown is 16V, doesn't hurt to buy a bigger one at 32V with same capacitance value. There are other details but we need an EE pro to answer.

One useful pro-tip I learned from Steve is if you at least target the 4 power-related capacitors in a Turbo Express, you can get rid of that annoying hum sound when a game is paused, that you hear very clearly when using headphones. Thought that was interesting, I remember that hum from early on after playing my TE.

Thing is, Steve does the whole PCB using tantalums, but he knows what he's doing! For us "hacks" with solder irons, we're probably better off staying in our lanes and sticking with regular caps, preferably not be cheap and pay more for low-ESR Panasonic caps which are much better for the PCB!

If you care about your NEC hardware working for as long as possible, you'll pay for premium Panasonic instead of cheap Chinese as I almost did.

Any tuts for CD pots adjusting and PCE GT Lion battery mod?

Any tips you mean for those 3 potentiometers related to the CD laser ??

Yeah actually, but do you have an oscilloscope ? Cause then you can adjust them like a pro to the best possible setting instead of going by "gut" where if a burned CD-R is working that's "good enough."

Le Steve has a video somewhere demonstrating his technique which turbokon also learned and made his own video if I recall correctly. We have the regular guide if you search the forum to adjust them without an oscilloscope.

I would wait before messing with them, test CD games first. For sure if you change the laser or CD-Rs stop working, you'll have to try your luck but I'm not sure you need adjustment after a full capacitor replacement job.

Cordelay

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #20 on: April 28, 2018, 09:45:09 AM »
I don't have oscilloscope, but I might buy one on Amazon and return it afterwards, can't afford to buy one just yet. Is the Steve's tutorial here? I'll look for it when I get home later. Thanks for the tip

crazydean

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #21 on: April 28, 2018, 04:09:39 PM »
I don't have oscilloscope, but I might buy one on Amazon and return it afterwards, can't afford to buy one just yet. Is the Steve's tutorial here? I'll look for it when I get home later. Thanks for the tip

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Cordelay

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #22 on: April 28, 2018, 10:41:35 PM »

Any tips you mean for those 3 potentiometers related to the CD laser ??

Yeah actually, but do you have an oscilloscope ? Cause then you can adjust them like a pro to the best possible setting instead of going by "gut" where if a burned CD-R is working that's "good enough."

Le Steve has a video somewhere demonstrating his technique which turbokon also learned and made his own video if I recall correctly. We have the regular guide if you search the forum to adjust them without an oscilloscope.

I would wait before messing with them, test CD games first. For sure if you change the laser or CD-Rs stop working, you'll have to try your luck but I'm not sure you need adjustment after a full capacitor replacement job.

I couldn't find any of the videos you mentioned, but read the tutorial on the tuts section yesterday and TheSteve and others kept mentioning the importance of marking the starting point before adjusting any of the five pots. The problem here is that the guy who sold the Turbo Duo to me told me he had tried to adjust them to no luck, so the damage might already be done (also the console smelled at first like cat piss, it was disgusting  :-&).

I've seen some members have written their ohms readings but, man, I don't even know how to read the pots with the multimeter... such a newbie... :oops:
Are the ABC points the three legs of the pot? I think I'll better ask these questions there  :lol:


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SamIAm

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2018, 04:25:48 AM »
I recently recapped a Super Famicom and encountered a few surface-mount electrolytics. Twisting them - not tilting them side to side or pulling them or any motion other than as if turning a screw - seemed to me to put the least stress on the board. They came off with tremendous ease and the board seemed to be able to hand the torque with no trouble. YMMV with Duos or whatever else.

If you're feeling like being a big-spender to get good capacitors, try to identify which caps are doing power decoupling and replace them with Panasonic OS-CONs. They look a bit like electrolytics, but they're solid-polymer based. They have lower ESR/better frequency response than tantalums, come in fairly high capacitance values, and have the side benefit of not using blood minerals (no offense to anyone who uses tantalums; they're in most modern electronics anyway). In positions other than decoupling, their super-low ESR can actually screw things up a bit, so do watch out for that.

soop

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2018, 04:54:42 AM »
I recently recapped a Super Famicom and encountered a few surface-mount electrolytics. Twisting them - not tilting them side to side or pulling them or any motion other than as if turning a screw - seemed to me to put the least stress on the board. They came off with tremendous ease and the board seemed to be able to hand the torque with no trouble. YMMV with Duos or whatever else.

If you're feeling like being a big-spender to get good capacitors, try to identify which caps are doing power decoupling and replace them with Panasonic OS-CONs. They look a bit like electrolytics, but they're solid-polymer based. They have lower ESR/better frequency response than tantalums, come in fairly high capacitance values, and have the side benefit of not using blood minerals (no offense to anyone who uses tantalums; they're in most modern electronics anyway). In positions other than decoupling, their super-low ESR can actually screw things up a bit, so do watch out for that.

I wish I could figure that all out

NightWolve

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2018, 07:01:01 PM »
I couldn't find any of the videos you mentioned, but read the tutorial on the tuts section yesterday and TheSteve and others kept mentioning the importance of marking the starting point before adjusting any of the five pots.

Yeah, I have some screenshots to make for you with thesteve, and the videos are on Facebook, both on steve's account somewhere (Steven Hanley) and turbokon's. If I find them when I get a chance, I'll link 'em back up here.

Cordelay

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #26 on: May 01, 2018, 10:51:47 PM »
Man, thanks a lot, I've tried looking for either Turbokon or TheSteve facebook profiles, but couldn't find any of them (there are a couple of Steven Hanley's but they were either private or not likely to be TheSteve himself) so if you post the video/s when you find the time it'll be much appreciated.

On another matter, I read your xseed facebook post and I couldn't believe it. Having worked for years on the music bussiness (and left it willingly!) I can relate to all the greedy-backstabbing-corporative-upstarts-schemers theme.

At least it feels fine to have supported NIS buying Ys 8 for the Vita on release. I was on the fence on buying Origins for the Vita on Play Asia, but I can only find publisher info about the PC version (which seems to be indeed published by xseed). Do you think the English translation on the Vita Multi Asia physical release will be one of the projects you were involved with?

Sorry if I asked too much or it is a sensitive question.

And thanks for your help!!!

« Last Edit: May 01, 2018, 10:56:31 PM by Cordelay »

Vimtoman

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #27 on: May 09, 2018, 06:22:52 AM »
I like to grab and twist the old caps off using a pair of small pliers.


Thats what I do also . Saves the pads.

PunkicCyborg

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #28 on: May 09, 2018, 06:47:18 AM »
I snip the caps with some small and very sharp hobby side cutters right above the bottom ring at the base of the cap. What's left is the bottom ring that lifts off and leaves just the leg stub and pad which I de-solder after cleaning the PCB and electrolytic shit that leaked out Takes 2 or 3 snips and it's very quick and safe.  I haven't lifted a single pad since I started  doing it like this and can de-cap a board very quickly.
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MobiusStripTech

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Re: Snipping old caps
« Reply #29 on: May 09, 2018, 09:05:54 AM »
I always remove with hot air. Fresh solder to all the pads first. I never lift pads using this method.
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