Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

[Morinzo]

This is the original launch console and I'm wanting to try a complete polymer recap but don't know what values to use.

Could someone make suggestions on what brand, V, uf polymers to use to replace the following caps.

4 - 4v 820uf - Yellow & Black
15 - 16v 100uf - Nichicon VZ(M)
7 - 10v 220uf - Brown KY
9 - 16v 1500uf - KZJ
13 - 6.3v 2700uf - Rubycon MFZ

Thanks For Any Help!!

[Pentium4]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

4 - 4v 820uf - Yellow & Black

These are most likely Fujitsu M series, which are functional polymers.

Is there a main reason you want to replace them all with polymers? Because Chemi-Con KY, and nichicon VZ are good caps.

You definitely want to replace the Chemi-Con KZJ and Rubycon MFZ. I would use SEPC or nichicon polymers.

For the KZJ, you should get these: https://www.badcaps.net/store/produc...products_id=78

And for the MFZ, you should get these: http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...228-ND/1826692

[Morinzo]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

Two of the caps are swollen like the one on the left in the img below.




these are the yellow & black ones if they will help figure out what brand they are. You can see where I touched a soldering to one of the yellow ones by accident, lol.

[stj]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

Fujitsu make - i think they are poly's

[momaka]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

Two of the caps are swollen like the one on the left in the img below.

You didn't perform a towel/hairdryer/heatgun reflow, did you? It's generally rare for caps in a Xbox 360 to bulge by themselves - at least I haven't seen many.

The KZJ are known as unreliable series from Chemicon (along with KZG), but in Xbox 360s, I've never seen them cause a problem.

As for the Rubycon MFZ - they are very low ESR caps similar to MCZ. Usually very reliable caps unless they are abused by heat. That said, the 360 does run a bit hot, so maybe after many years of use, they can fail. But in general, I consider them reliable.

So what can you use?
For the 16V 1500uF KZJ, you can use 16V 470 uF polymers. 560 uF, 680 uF, and 820 uF will also work, as long as they are all rated for at least 16V. Just whichever you can find cheaper (as polymer caps can be expensive).
Suggested brand and series:
Nichicon/Fujitsu - LE, LF, NU, and NE series
Chemicon - PSA, PSC, PSF,
Sanyo/Panasonic - SEPC

For the 6.3V 2700 uF Rubycon MFZ, anything in the range of 2.5 to 6.3V and 820 uF to 1200 uF should be more than fine. Again, suggested brand and series are:
Nichicon/Fujitsu - R5, R7, NU, NE, NS, LE, LF
Chemicon - PSA, PSC, PSF, PSG
Sanyo/Panasonic - SEPC, SEPF

these are the yellow & black ones if they will help figure out what brand they are.

Fujitsu FPCAP RE series. These are functional polymers, just like some of the series I suggested above. They are very reliable. You don't need to replace these.
....

Now, one thing worth mentioning is that if you don't have a very good soldering iron or station (minimum 60W and chisel tip), this recap would be nearly impossible. I know because I've tried it before. These boards have very thick copper planes and will suck the heat away from just about any iron. If you have a regular iron and not a proper temperature controlled station, it is best to pre-heat the board to about at least 50C (or higher if you can handle it with some gloves and manage not to burn yourself)... but not higher than 100C, of course. Flux is a must.

As for the small 220 uF and 100 uF caps - you would blow a lot of money on these if you want to replace them with polymers. Moreover, they are in low-stress areas and don't fail. So polymers wouldn't really benefit you here... unless you are just doing it for the glory (but if you want my 2 cent worthy opinion, I consider that a waste since these boards will sooner or later fail due to poor cooling on the GPU and lead-free solder).

[Morinzo]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

You didn't perform a towel/hairdryer/heatgun reflow, did you? It's generally rare for caps in a Xbox 360 to bulge by themselves - at least I haven't seen many.

The KZJ are known as unreliable series from Chemicon (along with KZG), but in Xbox 360s, I've never seen them cause a problem.

As for the Rubycon MFZ - they are very low ESR caps similar to MCZ. Usually very reliable caps unless they are abused by heat. That said, the 360 does run a bit hot, so maybe after many years of use, they can fail. But in general, I consider them reliable.

So what can you use?
For the 16V 1500uF KZJ, you can use 16V 470 uF polymers. 560 uF, 680 uF, and 820 uF will also work, as long as they are all rated for at least 16V. Just whichever you can find cheaper (as polymer caps can be expensive).
Suggested brand and series:
Nichicon/Fujitsu - LE, LF, NU, and NE series
Chemicon - PSA, PSC, PSF,
Sanyo/Panasonic - SEPC

For the 6.3V 2700 uF Rubycon MFZ, anything in the range of 2.5 to 6.3V and 820 uF to 1200 uF should be more than fine. Again, suggested brand and series are:
Nichicon/Fujitsu - R5, R7, NU, NE, NS, LE, LF
Chemicon - PSA, PSC, PSF, PSG
Sanyo/Panasonic - SEPC, SEPF


Fujitsu FPCAP RE series. These are functional polymers, just like some of the series I suggested above. They are very reliable. You don't need to replace these.
....

Now, one thing worth mentioning is that if you don't have a very good soldering iron or station (minimum 60W and chisel tip), this recap would be nearly impossible. I know because I've tried it before. These boards have very thick copper planes and will suck the heat away from just about any iron. If you have a regular iron and not a proper temperature controlled station, it is best to pre-heat the board to about at least 50C (or higher if you can handle it with some gloves and manage not to burn yourself)... but not higher than 100C, of course. Flux is a must.

As for the small 220 uF and 100 uF caps - you would blow a lot of money on these if you want to replace them with polymers. Moreover, they are in low-stress areas and don't fail. So polymers wouldn't really benefit you here... unless you are just doing it for the glory (but if you want my 2 cent worthy opinion, I consider that a waste since these boards will sooner or later fail due to poor cooling on the GPU and lead-free solder).

No towel or heat method has been used, I've never had a issue with 360 but it is a launch day console so it is around 9yrs old and temp wise it used to run from 80c-85c. But I have 2 of the thermalright hr-03 heatsinks coming for it tomorrow so hopefully it will lower the temps some.

These are the heatsinks I will be putting on tomorrow. This console is a Jtag so I don't use a disk drive in it.





As for my soldering station I have a 70 watt Aoyue 968A+ SMD Digital Hot Air Rework Station, because I do alot of repairs and mod chip installs..

[Morinzo]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

I'm slowly removing the caps and I noticed that one of them had the GND pad that was lose from the motherboard before I even touched it, so when I install the new one should I just run a wire from the closest GND point to the leg of the cap? Obviously it's nothing major because the console was still working before I started removing caps..

[momaka]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

I'm slowly removing the caps and I noticed that one of them had the GND pad that was lose from the motherboard before I even touched it, so when I install the new one should I just run a wire from the closest GND point to the leg of the cap?

If you can solder the new cap's lead to that pad, then probably there will be no need to do that.

[Morinzo]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

If you can solder the new cap's lead to that pad, then probably there will be no need to do that.

the pad was not attached to the motherboard in any way, so there is no way to attach it to it.

I'm not sure how or why the pad wa loose, i went to grab it before I touched it with the Iron & noticed it..

here is a schem to the cap with the loose pad, its C5B7 (Bottom Center). Will it be ok to attach it to any GND? Or should I find & attach it to the GND side of C8B1?

http://gyazo.com/d4b698c22e138cc6adea6c2db75faa86

[momaka]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

You can just attach it to the ground pad to the cap next to it. Or, if this is for the CPU or GPU VRM lowside caps (i.e. the 6.3V ones) and you end up using something like 1200 uF or 1500uF caps, then you may even skip it altogether and not install anything in that spot.

[Morinzo]

Re: Complete Xbox 360 Recap?? (Polymer)

ended up not being to hard to pull them if I use the hot air to warm up the motherboard slightly & then using the 70 watt iron.

Thanks for all suggestions so far..