Hi,
Just for information/curiosity, tantalum capacitors can be fun too! During
production testing of industrial computer interface boards, I've had some
reversed tantalum caps either explode (red-hot bits down shirt & in hair!)
or decompose in a cloud of pink smoke! The effect is inversely proportional
to the working voltage, & I did a test once to prove this, with a whole
range of caps reversed on a strong +5V supply - the time-to-fail ranged from
milliseconds to several hours.
The most subtle reversed-tantalum situation I ever saw was the reset cap on
a micro-processor. With only a 47K pull-up (so not much current), it took 6
years to fail! A possible built-in obsolescence technique?
Regards,
Richard.be
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hugh Gundersen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Capacitor Problem. Was: Hardware: Monitor, Power Off?
<snip>
(older ones were in a cardboard
tube and used to explode - literally!)
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