Capacitor Replacements

[Oretoise]

My SNES system has 8 50v 33uF capacitors on the board. Can I replace these with smaller (if possible) or new ones (with uncut legs)?

 

[brunoip]

Smaller in voltage yes, smaller in uFs nope.

 

[Oretoise]

Re: Re: Capacitor Replacements

Smaller in voltage yes, smaller in uFs nope.

I meant smaller physically but thank you for the insight. Question.

The capacitors on the board have a positive and a negative. Is there a certain type (npn, pnp) that I need to get?

 

[Hermaphroditus]

Nope, npn and pnp deal with transistors. You just need to make sure you don't put your cap in backwards or it can blow up. If your caps on the board have a polarity, buy another cap that has polarity. I'm confident in saying the caps are electrolytic, so you want to buy another electrolytic cap of the same uF value and a comparable V.

But yeah, if your cap is smaller and rated the same, by all means replace it with the smaller one if it'll save you some room.

And you can go smaller on the voltage in this application, but in general it's good practice to match both the capacitance and voltage ratings.

 

[Oretoise]

Re: Re: Capacitor Replacements

Nope, npn and pnp deal with transistors. You just need to make sure you don't put your cap in backwards or it can blow up. If your caps on the board have a polarity, buy another cap that has polarity. I'm confident in saying the caps are electrolytic, so you want to buy another electrolytic cap of the same uF value and a comparable V.

But yeah, if your cap is smaller and rated the same, by all means replace it with the smaller one if it'll save you some room.

And you can go smaller on the voltage in this application, but in general it's good practice to match both the capacitance and voltage ratings.

Thank you very much!
I'll order some capacitors and fix my crappy soldering job.

One last question. Does the tolerance matter?

 

[Hermaphroditus]

Howso do you mean tolerance? If you are asking about the voltage ratings, basically that's the maximum voltage a capacitor can safely store. If you're taking about +-% tolerance ratings given on the cap, the tolerance will really only matter in precision circuitry and you can buy whatever you want for most power supplies and whatnot. You should be fine if you match the C and V ratings.

If you have any other circuitry questions feel free to ask.

 

[grossaffe]

you can also relocate the cap if it's just taking up a particular space you want. Solder some wire between it and the board and just move it out of the way.