Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

[370forlife]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

If they are designed correctly they can be ok with good caps, but there are some that they put a little too close to some high heat parts that cause failure of even good caps. Some are very poorly designed too like the bestec atx-250-12e. Also with no protection circuitry on the 5vsb with a two transistor 5vsb circuit it can go high because of cap failure or something else and that can fry your chipset.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Thanks for explanation guys.

Shall we dubb it:
"The Everell two transistor avoidance system" ? or?

[Toasty]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Pin 4 on the opto is the Collector in this case.

A good point as some optos have Pin 4 as the Emitter.

Using the board is a case-by-case evaluation as to where it goes and how it's installed.

Kind of a one-size-fits-most. YMMV

[everell]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

One more change I made during the conversion process. I changed the value of resistor R51 to 270 ohms. It is the series current limiter on the other side of the optocoupler. I have used values from 220 ohms to 270 ohms and works OK. The original value was much lower - don't know if that would hurt anything or not, but a lower value only pulls more current in the optocoupler LED and probably would shorten its life.

On all of the optocouplers I have seen, pin 4 was always the collector. For the DM311 circuit, the optocoupler collector always goes to the pin 3 feedback circuit, and the optocoupler emitter always goes to common (ac ground on the primary side).

[i4004]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

everell do you know at which frequency are the main switchers working on that psu?

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Today I received 3 non working SP-400s (for free! ) and was hoping to try to fix them. The first 2 squeal when plugged in, and the 5vsb runs at about 1.8v. I took one of them (#2) and replaced the 2 filter caps on the 5vsb, after reading through this thread. The Fuhjyyu TNs were bulging. The squeal continued, but this time pulsing about once a second, and the 5vsb reads about 9.6v. Once I discovered this I quickly unplugged it to prevent damage to anything. If I've interpreted everything I've read here correctly, this means that one of the critical timing caps on the 5vsb switching circuit has gone high ESR. There's some hear discoloration around the 5vsb switching transistor, so instead of trying to monkey around with that, I'm planning on using an Everell DM311 mod for the 5vsb. I've download the files 'dm311 board.pdf' and '5vsb add on board.pdf' and used them to spec out parts that I'll need. I'm planning on ordering parts sometime this week, as early as tomorrow. Is there any advice anybody can give me before diving into this project? If the mod works on #2, I'll do the same thing to #1, as well as full recaps on both.

#3 is completely dead, so that will take a little more investigating...so I'll work on the first two first.

Thanks in advance!

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

heat damage**
not hear damage...dur

[Khron]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

For PSU #3, you might wanna check out my thread about reviving an Antec SP-500P. PCB is virtually the same, only mine also has the active PFC section populated. Mine's also been through quite a "thermal adventure", as the photos might show, but i finally got the whole thing working on friday, thanks in no small part to everell

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Great job getting yours working! Mine has the same 22 ohm resistor fried, but all the ICs appear to be fine. There's some heat discoloration by the 5vsb circuit again, but nothing else looks cooked. I don't have any desoldering braid at the moment so it'll be a while until I'm able to get the heatsinks out and look around better. It also appears as if the fuse is blown, I'll order some fuses so I can replace that too.

How did you make the circuit board for your 5vsb IC? My university can make them but it costs like 12 dollars. I was going to get these and just build traces with wires, component leads or solder blobs.

[everell]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Go to your local Radio Shack store and buy part number 276-1396

6" X 8" Prepunched Perfboard. That is what I used in my projects.

Also, before ordering DM311 chips, take a look at the ICE3BR4765J available from Mouser for $1.30. Looks like more and better features than the DM311. I plan to try it in a future project.

There was some confusion concerning the 5vsb modification photos posted earlier in this thread. Download the photos to a folder in your computer, then view the files as detailed view. The file names have a number at the beginning and give the sequence of the conversion. The file name then tells you what to do. Then look at the picture to see what to do.

I mentioned removing two jumpers from the top of the board, but neglected to mention that the 5vsb switching transistor screwed to the heat sink will also need to be removed and not used. So far, these things are the only problems others have mentioned.

[Khron]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

I first designed the pcb in Eagle, trying to make it as simple as possible. And then, being enthusiastic, but not wanting to bother making a "proper" board, i just took some IC sockets and made a "grid" on a piece of blank cooper-clad board, and then scored grooves with a stanley knife. I then soldered all the parts virtually SMD-style

The trickiest (well, more like "time-consuming") part was heating the "safety strip" enough to burn the glue underneith it. Oh, and i used plenty of flux-cored solder No Pb-free stuff for me

I believe earlier in this thread, everell made his board on perf-board as well, so... "Go get'em, tiger!"

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Well, living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the nearest Radio Shack is over an hour away...and I actually already have one of the 1.5" x 1.75" boards. I'll see how it goes. I use 62/36/2 Rosin Core Silver Bearing Solder, it's awesome!

I think I'm going to go with the DM311. The other chip looks interesting and probably would perform better, but I'm by no means an expert and I'd prefer to use something that other people have experience with in case I run into problems.

I'll download the pictures now and try to walk through it. Once the parts come in I'll give it a shot and see how it goes, and report back with any questions I have.

Thanks for your input guys!

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Just a quick update - the 99 cent desoldering braid I ordered arrived, and it's total crap. I used over a foot of it and still don't have the primary side heatsink out of one power supply. So I ordered some TechSpray after reading the thread about desoldering braid (definitely should have read that BEFORE ordering anything, but oh well). That should arrive the beginning of next week, so hopefully next weekend at the latest I'll be able to take one apart and find exactly what I need and order everything from mouser.

Also - how should I go about cutting/slicing the traces on the board? Would an X-acto knife work ok? Or what should I use?

Thanks!

[Khron]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Yeah, one of those should work ok. I followed that with the corner of a minus-tipped screwdriver, just to make the score-marks a bit wider, to minimise the risks of solder-bridges.

And desoldering-pumps aka solder-suckers rule Braid might work for removing solder from between the pins of smd's and other fine work like that, but for "heavy duty" stuff, pumps rock I got my very own about a month ago, for the equivalent of 10-15$ or so.

[everell]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Would an X-acto knife work ok?

That's what I use

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

OK well my TechSpray came in earlier this week, but I've been busy (career fair, job interviews, homework, etc) and so I haven't had a chance to use it until just now. The two heatsinks came out with very little effort (the Pro Wick is awesome), and so I was able to read all the capacitor values except one. Here's the listing (minus the two 5vsb caps I already replaced):

#x uF @ voltage
2x 820 @ 200
5x 22 @ 50
2x 4.7 @ 50
2x 10 @ 50
1x 47 @ 50
3x 1 @ 50
1x 0.1 @ 50
1x 330 @ 16
1x 3300 @ 16
1x 1000 @ 10
1x 2200 @ 10
1x 0.22 @ 50
1x 220 @ 10
1x 3300 @ 6.3
1x 4700 @ 6.3

The one I couldn't read is on the fan board, probably just a decoupler for the IC. And it's BRIGHT YELLOW! Nothing like quality Does anybody know the value of this one? I'll just leave it otherwise, it's rated at 105C.
I'm also going to replace the 22ohm resistor that got toasted. The original is 1/4 W and I'm going to replace it with a 1/2 W, so hopefully it won't get toasted again. I'm also going to do Everell's DM311 mod.
The primary transistors are 2SC3320 parts, rated 15A, 500V. The 3.3v rail has a 30A diode pack (rated at 28A), the 5v rail has a 30 diode pack (rated at 30A), and the 12v rail has 2 20A diode packs (rated at 14+15A), so those are all fine.

I'm planning on ordering from mouser tonight, and also getting some X-acto knives. So hopefully I'll be able to complete this project the weekend after next.

[stj]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

my fan board has:
1 x 10uf 16v
and
3 x 22uf 16v

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

oh yeah now that I look the ones on the fan board are 16v. I just saw the 22uF and assumed they were more 50v ones. Your fan board only has 4 caps on it? The yellow one I can't ID is in the very bottom corner by the DIP-8 IC.

[etnietering]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

OK well I have a bit to update on this - I was finally able to work on it! Firstly, I did a full recap. I replaced the 200v caps with ELNA caps I got for pretty cheap. Maybe not the best, but definitely better than the Fuhjyyu's somebody busted the tops off of. I replaced the secondary side caps with Nichicon HE, Panasonic FM and Panasonic FC. All the tiny caps were replaced with Nichicon PS, Nichicon MV, Panasonic FC and Panasonic EB. I also replaced the burned 22 ohm resistor with one rated for 1/2W. Here are some pictures:

Before the recap, pretty much in pieces:


Here's the secondary side, in all it's Fuhjyyu-ness:


Here's some of the controller circuitry. I'm not exactly sure why I took this picture...but you can see the Panasonic FC output caps on the +5vsb, as well as the burned resistor (just to the right of the center of the picture). When I took it out, it tested within tolerance, but I wanted to replace it anyway. You can also see some of the smaller caps before they were replaced:


After the recap, here's the secondary side. Stuffing the 12.5mm caps in there wasn't nearly as big of a pain as doing the little caps on the fan board:


Here's the primary side. It's not too much different. Different main caps, and I added 2 Y caps to the power receptacle:


Here's a shot of the resistor I replaced. It looks like it's screened for a 1/2W resistor, but they cheaped out and used a 1/4W instead, which didn't work out so well. You can also see some of the little caps I replaced. The Nichicon MV caps are tiny!


I also made a DM311 board for it, based on a schematic I found in on of Everell's threads. Actually, it may have been this one. Anyways, I built the board, but haven't followed his guide on installing it yet. I took some picture of that too...

Here's the top. The red wire is the +320v one, and it's rated for 600v. Part of the reason it took me so long to get this done is that I was waiting on that. All others are rated 300v


Here's the bottom. The soldering was pretty easy.


And here it is with the heatsink attached! I got some 16mil copper (isn't ebay awesome?) and cut out a piece to fit, and soldered it in. The two smaller solder joints are to hold it in place, and the huge one is connected to the drain of the DM311, to dissipate heat. Also, the wire that goes from there to the transformer is 18 gauge, which will also aid in heat dissipation.


What do you guys think, am I on the right track?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Recapping Antec SmartPower SP350 and SP400

Elna should be just fine for the beer can caps. - Good Japanese brand.
Elna just doesn't do much in the way of low ESR so they come up around here very often.
.