2 blown capacitors within 3 months? Something wrong?

ok so I just bought a used Speedo D802B pack with 2 heads and I've been powering up

and using it at least once a week since I bought it about 3 weeks ago. Well tonight I blew

a capacitor (I think). Huge bang, sparks and an acrid smell. Not so good.

 

Anyway, usually I would say this is ordinary and write it off as routine maintenance, but I

found a repair slip in the carry case today that had a blown capacitor repair dated as

11-14-05.

 

So this thing has blown AT LEAST 2 capacitors in the past 3 months. this seems a bit

unusual no?

 

Is this thing a lemon? Should I go back and see if I can get my money back?

 

Thanks

Have you checked to make sure your line voltage (the electricity comng out of your wall) is consistent? If it isn't then you might need like a strong surge protector or something. If thats not the case, then yes, I would say there is something wrong with the pack.

Depends on how "used" it was to begin with, or for that matter, what closet it sat in and for how long. Thats the brown line model which is their more "value" line. I tend to see those used coming from the school shooters (so my expectation is very high mileage). I assume you got the umbrella heads?

 

BTW, nobody's going to be able to tell you (accurately) if you got a lemon by posting in a forum. Send it to Speedotron or Flashclinic (in NYC), have them open it up and tell you what the state of the caps and charging ciruit are. It could be some internal voltage is out of spec or a charging circuit gone bad or just plain cooked caps.

 

What sort of warranty did the seller give?

I bought it from a local camera shop. They are nice people and I'm sure they would be

willing to work with me if I could somehow "prove" that the pack had / has issues. The

previous owners info is actually on this slip and also labeled on the gear... would it be

rude to contact them?

 

I would be willing to get it checked out like suggested, but since it's a recent purchase

from a shop, might it warrant a return rather than risk future issues?

 

Not to mention the capacitor blew up right in my face as I was popping the test button so

I'm quite traumatized. Don't think I can ever look at it the same again.

I don't know much about the lights you are talking about, but its not too uncommon in electronics to have similar components fail at similar stages in life...

 

The question then becomes: are there two or more caps in there or just one? If there are more than one, I would make sure all of them have been changed before the next one blows! If there is only one, see if you can determine the specs and make sure the right one was put back in there when it blew up the last time.

I'm an electronics tech. Just to clarify Robert's response, because he is correct. You should have ALL of the caps changed in the power pack. Of course, they should be replaced with a suitably rated replacement part. With most electronic devices, the capacitors are the weakest part. If you can get to them and change them before other parts blow, you will effectively renew the equipment.

Was it the exact same cap or just the second one that had blown out of many? The high mfd caps that are used are electrolytic which are water based, and have an aprox. 10 year life expectancy before they dry out and go bad. Is your unit this old or older? If so then you should continue to have problems until they are all replaced. If it is the same cap then something else is wrong, possibly the charging circut for the cap may be feeding too much voltage to them. Either way you need to send it in (unless you're good with a soldering iron and can change out all of the caps yourself).

Well this pack is fairly low tech. I believe it only has one cap (a half/full power switch).

However it also has a symmetrical / asymmetrical switch so maybe that's another cap- not

sure.

 

Nonetheless, by looking at this repair sheet it seems that the half / full power cap was the

one that blew before (sent in for repair november of 2005) and this morning I noticed

black soot coming from that switch so I'm going to call Speedo in the morning to ask

about the repair history of this unit.

 

i hear you about replacing all the caps but on a pack that costs about 250 dollars on the

used market... a 105 dollar cap replacment (without shipping) is not really cost effective

figuring I just bought it 3 weeks ago.

$105! Good size cap, or is this just the "offical" factory price. Check with an electrical supply house. As long as the capacitance matches and it meets or exceeds minimum voltage then it will work, even if it's not a perfect fit.

 

I'm just guessing here without actually seeing it, but is it just a voltage spike cap across the on/off switch? If so, it should be fairly small and therefore cheap and, unless a real pain to get at, easy to replace.

well the last bill for cap replacement was $105 dollars without shipping. That was a

Speedotron factory repair.

well, I'm not shocked by the replacement price. Thats in line with the part costs Norman quoted me for some of the caps in a p800. For whatever reasons, Norman and Speedotron tend to have a worse rep for blowing up caps. They also tend to be used in high volume, day in day out situations, so it could just be they're used "to death"

 

BTW, there's NO water in these caps. If there were, they'd be sensitive to orientation (must be upright to function), and of course there would be a puddle of wet electrolyte (mixture of water, salts and glycol).

 

Your caps use a "dry" electrolyte which may be actually more goo like that is embeded in the paper layer that is between the anode and cathode foils.

 

If you think your experience was exciting, I worked at a company that made cardiac defib units back in the 70's. The caps were about 3"x4"x8" and were running about a 3kv potential. Every now and then one would come from the factory with an internal short. Those first few hours of burn in could be pretty fun. A bang like a snub nose .357 and greasy foil and paper confetti everywhere.

 

I probably don't want to know the odds of PCB's being in those things. They were common in big caps and transformers of the time.