What brand is this capacitor?

[Per Hansson]

Cap is from the DC-DC PSU for a Siemens 840D computer, Mobile Pentium 2 333Mhz CPU running NT4, same as this one but an older model...

I exchanged only this one cap, the rest are Rubycon and Nichicon and look pristine, the system is about 10 years old.
They put the PSU's "startup cap" or timer cap wedged between the primaries, a couple switching diodes and a big heatsink, so not very strange that it failed eventually. (Which also made it a PITA to replace!)

System would not power on after a 4 week vacation, and before that it had problems starting up so I was pretty sure it would be this "startup cap".
And I was right, I replaced it with a Rubycon ZL 100uF 25v (closest match I had) and it booted straight up.
It's funny that a $0.02 cap can prevent a machine costing around $500000 from booting

But what bothers me is I can't identify the little bugger, has anyone got a clue what brand this is and what it's specs are?
We have 3x machines with this kind of control system so it would be nice to replace it with something that is closer to the originals next time one fails...

[selldoor]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

Is that a logo under the M9K0 can you do a straight on picture and
is there something after the BC116

Perhaps it is an early panasonic though I am not sure why you are bothering.
You're in the enviable position of knowing the voltage and the uf yet you choose to ignore that and use something else?
If it is 10 years old then almost any good make modern capacitor should exceed its specification.

[Per Hansson]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

No it's not a logo, it's just that the sleeve has cracked a bit causing something which looks like a pattern, it looks worse in the photos than it does in real life...

Nope, there is nothing after the BC116
I just want to know that I'm not going too much over spec (i.e. too low ESR etc) as that could cause problems.
When I measured it the ESR meter could not get a reading so it's crap now alright

I did not ignore the uF rating, I just took the closest thing I had, normal caps have a rating of +/- 20% anyway so that should be (almost) ok.
But I'm not even sure the original cap is LOW ESR at all...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

Isn't there a company called BC Components? If so, maybe ...

[selldoor]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

I think you have gone too low - over would have been better.
We usually tell noobies never to fit lower uf as lower uf is the same as a failing cap?
In saying "normal caps have a rating of +/- 20% anyway so that should be (almost) ok".are you assuming the 150uf cap is 20% lower and the 100uf cap is 20% higher. If the 150uf cap was spot on or higher and the 100uf cap was 20% lower then the gap is significant.

Trouble is you said yourself it was difficult to fit - in time the uf will probably fall (At least that is what I believe) not rise so at some point it will reach a fail state quicker than if you set off at the correct value. Im just trying to save you doing the job twice.

Did they have or record ESR 10 years ago?

[Per Hansson]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

Isn't there a company called BC Components? If so, maybe ...

Yea, I ran a Google search yesterday and that seemed like the most likely conculsion, but I found no caps even remotely similar to this one...
Perhaps kc8adu will know, if he stumbles over this thread, he fixes old PLC's afterall

Did they have or record ESR 10 years ago?

Lol of course they did, I'm sure even the Rubycon MBZ existed then or close enough

Obviously this was a test to see if the system would work, since this was what I had at hand I used it.
It's not meant as a permanent fix, hence this thread so I can fix it properly instead

[Duncanbest]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

FYR

Similar outlook
http://us.100y.com.tw/ChanPin.asp?MNo=82423

or

http://www.vishay.com/capacitors/list/product-28316/

http://www.vishay.com/company/brands/bccomponents/

[mockingbird]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

According to this, these are Phillips branded capacitors manufactured by Vishay.

[Per Hansson]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

Thanks, seems to be rated for 0.5 ESR and 260mA ripple
So that Rubycon ZL I used is way overkill.
Thank you very much, now I know what to look for

[PeteS in CA]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

Vishay is like Tyco, a growth-by-acquisition components company. Vishay's specialty used to be ultra-precision, ultra-low temperature coefficient resistors. Maybe they've improved in the past few years, but the user-friendliness of Vishay's website for it's divisions' products bordered on unusable.

Folks here might see the products of one of Vishay's divisions, Siliconix, which makes power MOSFETs. Vishay also bought IR's older HexFET line of MOSFETs and folded that into Siliconix.

[Per Hansson]

Re: What brand is this capacitor?

I had a look at the replacement PSU we ordered for this system today.
The machine is still running fine with the old recapped PSU...

In it I see one change, the startup capacitor is now a Rubycon ZT
So it seems my ZL was not such a bad choice afterall, the ZT is rated for 125°C