Jump to content
Electronics-Lab.com Community

soaked capacitor


flippityflop

Recommended Posts

i left this capacitor (http://www.digikey.ca/product-search/en?vendor=0&keywords=382LX123M100N082) outside and it rained. it was in an upside down position (as shown in the picture). it was like that as i soldered big gauge wires to it, as i sometimes use it to rectify high currents.

there was very little white tarnish/oxides around the boundaries where the rubber and metal can meet. looks a bit of the metal oxidized due to the 1.5V difference. they happen to trace a path from the negative to positive.

i took it back in as soon as i got out of bed. tested it with 1.5VAC again then +40VAC... seems to rectify just fine.

as a precaution, i peeled off some of the plastic cover and then super glued the metal/rubber boundaries and then applied plasti-dip on it (pic attached).

i measured with my LC meter and it was registering 11mF. labeled as 12mF... 8% deviation, and the specs say 20%, so good.

but i'm still worried about internal shorting... how do i detect this?

post-44241-14279144738514_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Your soldering looks bad. It should look smooth and shiny. Did you use plumber's solder? Maybe your soldering iron is too small to solder those big wires.
A shorted capacitor does not hold a charge. Its charge quickly discharges through the short.

Charge it then use a high input resistance meter to measure its voltage with the charger removed. If the voltage stays for hours then it is fine. But if the voltage drops quickly then it is shorted or is very leaky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
  • Create New...