Re: Going to all polymer from electrolyte -> only ESR and ripple important?

Absolutely not! Too little capacitance is often why they blow in the first place!

Supply ripple [I]voltage[/I] is directly proportional to capacitance. Supply ripple voltage is bad. Low ESR cuts down on capacitor self heating due to supply ripple [I]current[/I].

If the ripple [I]voltage[/I] is high, the ripple [I]current[/I] will be high, so self heating goes back up again and your caps will fail.Re: Going to all polymer from electrolyte -> only ESR and ripple

Re: Can someone help me identify this SMD??

84A is a Vishay SS2PHx 2A Schottky rectifer. Unfortunately you can't tell what the reverse voltage rating is from this number, but a SS2PH5, 6, 9 or 10 will do here (multiply the number by 10 to get the voltage).

Funny, I've got a reel of 3000 samples of them in a box in our lab. If you want to come up to the UK to pick some up feel free, but that drive is dead unless you caused a short with a screwdriver or something and are lucky.

Re: Purpose of -5V and -12V rails



I'm suprised a high end sound card would use the noisy raw supplies from the main SMPSU. Maybe use +/-12V and then internally regulate it down with linear regs....