> From: Chris Albertson [mailto:albertson.ch...@gmail.com] > > If it is a simple linear power supply, yes they are very easy to debug and > repair, LIkey it is the caps. > > But switching power supplies are much harder to debug, You can guess it > might be the same issue but these have dozens of parts that can fail.. In any > case, the cost to repair is small. >
I disagree. Switching power supplies are way more likely to fail from high ESR. That the system runs for a short while and then fails is again a symptom of a capacitor overheating due to high ESR. Or the voltage is right on the edge and as the cap warms up the heat results in a change that results in the power supply moving out of spec. There may even be enough heat developed on the board that a solder joint becomes unreliable. In the past even PC motherboards have been repaired by a wholesale swap of the electrolytics. So what I would do is an initial survey of the electrolytic capacitors inside the power supply and order a set. That way the machine can still run for an hour or so a day while you wait for parts from a reputable source. Then replace the capacitor when they arrive. That won't prevent the power supply from working again and it may well fix the 1 to 2 hour failure period. In either case $30 or so worth of caps is cheap. John _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
