Magic Blue Smoke » Capacitors

Infrant/Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ PSU fails

MagicBlueSmoke — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:47:10 +0000

Top of PSU - the insulation on the inductor is not paper

Bottom of PSU

This is a PSU from a Infrant/Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ system. The PSU likely failed because of design problems instead of faulty components; the failure seems to be a common event on certain manufacturing batches.

Notable features on upper picture: 3 bulged capacitors, 1 inductor with burned insulation. Notable features on lower picture: signs of overheating, jumper wire in solder.

Credit: Swish from EFnet.

Xbox PCB charred

MagicBlueSmoke — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:39:55 +0000

Xbox with charred PCB

Two views of the same xbox board that not only lost the blue smoke but also lost the black smoke. Credits: Daniel Celion from Sweden.

555 timer in baby 10 sequencer cracked

MagicBlueSmoke — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:07:38 +0000

A simple analog sequencer referred to as a baby 10 (step) sequencer is shown with a ICM7555IPA 555 timer cracked down the middle. Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/collinmel/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Xbox power supply failure damages pcb

MagicBlueSmoke — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:44:55 +0000

This appears to be an Xbox revision 1.1 where the power supply failure caused significant damage to the PCB. The vented capacitor in the picture is a 680uF/16V capacitor which shorted, damaged the FET, and led to the failure of the power plane. Ideally the power supply should sense failure conditions and shut down. The FET was a Philips 21N06. Credits: Ahmad Tabbouch of http://ultrakeet.com.au.

Dynapower DP-40205 with exploded FET

MagicBlueSmoke — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:02:07 +0000

DP-40205 top

Exploded FET

These pictures come from a Dynapower USA DP-40205 400W power supply. It appears the standby regulation failed and took out the FET pictured above and also the capacitor and resistor near the top of the fan. The exploded piece of the FET was rattling around the power supply when it was opened and the part that remained on the board was loose. It’s suspected the capacitor damage was from overvoltage when the regulator failed for unknown reasons. Credit: http://blog.kevtris.org/