Time to rework my Antec SL350! >_<

[Logistics]

Well, my Antec SL350 took a dive so it's time to put some real capacitors in it. I'm also planning on replacing all the ceramics with films. But what I really want to know about is all the tiny electrolytics. I figured I'd just replace them as well since they are also Fuhjjyu. Does Badcaps sell something to replace these? Whether they do or not, is there a quality replacement suggested for these? All I can find are:
47uF 25V
22uF 50V
10uF 50V x2
1uF 50V x2
100uF 10V
330uF 16V

Also, since I've got it apart, I may as well braid the cables. They just act like huge antennas right now. Anybody have any clever braiding techniques? I was figuring I would do a 4-strand braid on all the drive power cables, but maybe I should just twist the 12V and it's ground together and the 5V and its ground together and leave 'em at that.

The ATX connector for the motherboard does not have a seperate ground line for every power line so any creative suggestions for braiding it are appreciated.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I would use something with high endurance adn high temp (e.g. 105°c).
I would recomend Panasonic FM, FC or Rubycon YXF or YK.
There are some Samxon and Nichicon series, wich would be well suited for this aplikation too.

[999999999]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I don't know if you're just bored but these changes aren't necessary besides the 'lytic caps.

Swapping out the ceramics for films is not useful. Braiding the cables is not useful for noise/antenna issues, the significant noise is that produced by the active power consumers ON the rail, and coming FROM the PSU due to it's switching operation. Any HF signals the cables might pick up were already IN the case, so it's not like you get rid of that pickup by doing anything to the cables, and there is no reason to believe the system needs it, this is (assuming typical PC/computer), digital circuitry, not analog audio.

Braiding might make it look nice though, or get rid of some excess cable length if either of these were goals.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I would second that. Replacing anything beyond elektorlytics and may be the fan is in most cases not something, wich pays out in any way on ATX PSU`s.
I know, there is some fun to improve something, but on a PSu it is probably a wast off time &effort.
Regarding shilding etc. i have some OEM deltas with some feritte core placed where the DC voltage cables left the case.
But no of the other psu`s i have seen up today show similar shilding efforts.
This leads me to the belive, that may be the paritcular OEM have specified this, in order to eliminate a particular EMI problem with the intended case or systems.

So, just replace the large and the tiny caps if you want to do it the best way and you will have nothing lost.


PS: i forgot to admit, there is on thing i would put in any ATX psu, if i would be capable in doing it: synchornouse rectification.

[kc8adu]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

i only stock high quality like fc ,ect.
its cost effective since i only need to stock 1 type of smaller lytics.
they often are the same cost as unknown/cheapies.
never a problem using them in everything.

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

The way I see it: Films costs inordinately more than ceramics. On top of this, you cannot easily obtain a film which is anything over an 85c rating. Braiding cables causes them to be shorter so in order to make them the same length, even more wire would have to be installed. Do you seriously think the manufacturers care about this over profit? If you think sound card manufacturers really care about good sound, just look at the electrolytic caps they install in the signal paths. They could install an electrolytic that costs a few cents and can't be damaged by extreme soldering heat or a film cap that costs a few dollars and is about a thousand times larger in size and cannot be attached in a flow solder process because too much heat will destroy the capacitor, and it can't be had in anything but axial form.

I'm not saying you're wrong or right, 99999999, but you do alot of telling. Here's some articles I found very interesting. Check out this page, in particular the articles about Picking Capacitors!

http://waltjung.org/Classic_Articles.html

[999999999]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

We can say without question that if the issue is analog audio coupling, a film cap (most common today is polypropylene) is the least harmful.

However, a switching PSU is not analog couping. There is not factor for how it degrades or changes an analog AC signal we didn't want to exist in the first place.

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Welp, I'm typing to you from my freshly recapped SL350. Thank goodness everything fired right up as I don't have any way of testing it. ( never have invested in a voltmeter, hehe and I don't know how to use my oscillioscope. ;p )

Yeah, I didn't end up replacing the ceramics with films. In fact, a guy suggested to me to just replace that bipolar 1uF that was in there with a polarized and it would be fine. He felt that if I swapped the positions of it and the polarized 1uF (cause I had no way of telling at this point) that it would fry the non-polarized to be in the polarized's position. I'm not sure either way. I think it may have worked both ways, but I'm not about to test my theory. Although, my brother has the same PSU in his PC, it was too much work to dig it out of his system and look. Maybe I'll change it one day. For now, WHEE! IT'S WORKING! thx_TC~ 4 teh CAPx0rZ

will post pics l8r

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Yay!


.

[999999999]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

It looks very nice, clean, and happy now, though it almost looks like there are a couple of load resistors a little close to the leftmost cap (could make it run hotter), that Antec didn't leave much room around them.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

The fan has a good location for cooling though, not much restricition in the way, however there could be some more stampouts right below the wiring harness, might lower the temps of the caps and resistors 1°C or two

Oh, and that PSU really looks nice now, good work there!

[Newbie2]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Really nice Antec. Antec power supplies made by CWT are nice, but the Fuhjyyu caps in them make them look bad.

I'm running a SL450 in my PC, with all stock Fuhjyyu caps. Its primary caps are two Fuhjyyu 1000uf 200V radial caps, which Digikey has no replacements for its values.

All the Fuhjyyu caps on the secondary side look fine, but there is just that rock-hard white stuff around them. I wish I was as lucky as Logistics.


Nice recap Logistics.

[Newbie2]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I'm running a SL450 in my PC, with all stock Fuhjyyu caps. Its primary caps are two Fuhjyyu 1000uf 200V radial caps, which Digikey has no replacements for its values.

Struck by the 10-minute edit rule. They have radial snap-in caps for those values, and I heard radial snap-in caps are just regular radial caps with slightly different leads, to snap-in the holes, so they don't fall off if someone flips the board upside-down before soldering them in.

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I was going to say, they should have that in the TS-ED ones I got. Just depends on if their dimensions will work in place of the originals. Yeah, I love snap in leads. The caps sit snug up against the board and don't move so you can flip it over and solder those babies in. IIRC, they have higher ripple than any other cap of it's type at Digi-Key. I don't remember having fun going through the datasheets over and over, comparing values. Hehe!

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

While I was in my BIOS the other day, I noticed that all the voltages are slightly below the intended voltage. I don't think any of them were an entire volt below, but they were below. Is there anything I should do about this? All hardware is 1 DVD-ROM, 1 HDD, the video cards' power connector, and an add-on NIC.

[kikkoman]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Don't trust the BIOS. Those readings can be WAY off (my BIOS and Speedfan tell me that my 3.3V and -12V rails have 2.75V resp. -7.01V).
You should spend a tenner for a cheap multimeter, it's really worth it.
Any voltage within a 5% range should be okay, as long as it doesn't fluctuate too much.

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Yeah, I'm being cheap. Someone gave me an oscillioscope, but I won't break down and buy a multimeter. lol! I really should so I can figure out why my cMoy won't work, too.

[Logistics]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Update: C34 is the bipolar 1uF.

Finally, got around to opening up my brothers SL350 while he is on his honeymoon! (muahaha!) I guess I'll have to mention to him that the big 4700uF is blown, too. keke!

If you look at the pictures, specifically the one where you can see the entire secondary side, where all the cable exits the chassis, it's that little guy just underneath where the cables exit.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

I remember when I broke off that yellow safety cap soldered onto the power connector during my Antec TP 2.0 recap because I was two lazy to desolder the AC input leads from the mainboard.

The one of the leads broke off right at where it entered the caps plastic casing after I found a replacement it cost me like 4 bucks plus shipping for a UL approved X cap from Mouser thats a mistake I won't make twice .

Just FYI you can't replace a bipolar cap with a polar cap the reason why that cap is bipolar is because it is passing an AC signal.

AC alternates polarity so no matter which way you put a polarized cap in there it will fry.

The first bipolar cap I've ever saw was in an old tube radio it was an old paper one.

They used it to pass the high frequencies to a tweeter. Since speakers need AC fed to their coils to produce sound thats why it was there.

The Rat shack should have a bipolar in that value although it will be axial and not radial leaded.

Digikey will definitely have them as a matter of fact I just bought a few.

Theres really no need to replace that small value cap.

But since I'm a completist it would drive me nuts .

[999999999]

Re: Time to rework my Antec SL350! &gt;_&lt;

Update: C34 is the bipolar 1uF.

Finally, got around to opening up my brothers SL350 while he is on his honeymoon! (muahaha!) I guess I'll have to mention to him that the big 4700uF is blown, too. keke!

If you look at the pictures, specifically the one where you can see the entire secondary side, where all the cable exits the chassis, it's that little guy just underneath where the cables exit.

You mean this cap?


The stripe on the side makes it look polarized. It's a bit hard to tell from this angle and not having an SL350, what it's placement is in which circuit. You could carefully measure the AC/DC voltage there to determine if bipolar matters, and if the circuit is not especially sensitive to ESR, a 1uF ceramic would be a reasonable replacement (or a 1uF film if you happened to have one but it would be larger) but as Krankshaft mentioned there probably isn't a need to replace it.

At some point I would wonder what the ultimate goal is. This being only moderate capacity 5V-current centric unit, means it will have limited viability for powering current or future generation systems. Already at this point it is likely to outlast an older system you'd power with it (unless an AC mains surge took it out, but so it goes with any of 'em), so long as a reasonable quality fan is used.