Jump to content

SmashTV SID Module - Leave C7 empty?


th0mas

Recommended Posts

Hi,

First of all, thanks everyone for an awesome project, and thanks SmashTV for an awesome service - I love the boards!!!

Onto my question:

I've noticed that:

-I only have 1 capacitor marked 102

- the parts list on SmashTV's website does not include anything identified for C7

Am I to assume the one 102 capacitor is for C3 and leave C7 empty? (despite there being a C7 capacitor in the board livemap on Smash's website)

Also.. how bad is it when a ceramic cap starts to well, seemingly give off a translucent plastic?  Is it fried?  It happened a bit on my core module, and the module appears to work fine (voltages test fine, etc).

Cheers,

Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Onto my question:

I've noticed that:

-I only have 1 capacitor marked 102

- the parts list on SmashTV's website does not include anything identified for C7

Whoops - seemingly some documentation/ kit error there.. itwill be fixed in the near future :D

Am I to assume the one 102 capacitor is for C3 and leave C7 empty? (despite there being a C7 capacitor in the board livemap on Smash's website)

Yup, do this - C7 is part of the audio input and if you don't use it, leaving the cap out isn't going to give you problems.

Also.. how bad is it when a ceramic cap starts to well, seemingly give off a translucent plastic?  Is it fried?  It happened a bit on my core module, and the module appears to work fine (voltages test fine, etc).

Hmm.. this is something I should see - I'm more convinced it's mechanical stress / heat related effect. Ceramics are hard to destroy and even with some damage in the outer coating it should work and continue to work fine.

Moebius

p.s. Anyone seen "manually tuned" ceramics in RF circuits? Sawed from the middle.. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does it look like caramel or honey?? I'm thinking it could be a bit of stray flux from the solder.

Ceramic caps are virtually indestructable at the temps they're soldered since they're formed under high pressure/heat, so I think you should be ok.

Heh - Good point!! ;)

Moebius

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does it look like caramel or honey?? I'm thinking it could be a bit of stray flux from the solder.

Ceramic caps are virtually indestructable at the temps they're soldered since they're formed under high pressure/heat, so I think you should be ok.

nope, more like white plastic-y.

I'm just about done my power supply, so I'll let ya'll know if I'm getting the right voltages or not.  Thanks for the reassuring words regarding the durability of the caps, makes me feel a bit safer :)

Cheers,

Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had a few old ceramic caps (brownish colour) lying around, and used them for bypass caps on a DIN module. When heated for the first time all of the disks became a litte wet all by themselves, and on the newspaper I had lying underneath the boards actually was a little wet spot. I don't believe it's broken, I think more of a protective coat or something that got heated away...

Cheers,  Alex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it appears not to be a problem, because MY SID WORKS!@#!@#! :)

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Now for something to make your blood run cold:

Yesterday, when I was soldering my SID module, I took my SID chip out of it's case to check the version and ensure that it is a 6581.  Being in an uberfocus, I then placed it on the desk and continued working on the SID module until it was done (including posting the messages from above).

This morning, I find my SID chip face down under the chair next to my desk, pin's bent all over the place.  I think I rolled over it with my chair. :o

Yet this is the SID that is powering my synth, so all's well that ends well I suppose :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:o Good thing you don't weight a bit more eh ;)

I remember the days before PC's had ZIF CPU sockets, we used to see  buggered pins up on so many x86/x87's... Funny, not once did any one of them ever fail to work once the pins were straightened.... Provided none of them snapped off of course :)

Beef stew, however, is absolutely guaranteed to bugger the chip up permanently. The only things that work better are Coca-Cola, or a solid EMP. So, I would like to issue the following warning to all MIDIBoxers:

[glow=red,2,300]Do not eat stews or curries while drinking coca cola and playing with your thermonuclear weapons, while handling your core modules.[/glow]

..oh, and keep a piece of antistatic foam around to sit your chips in  ;D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had a few old ceramic caps (brownish colour) lying around, and used them for bypass caps on a DIN module. When heated for the first time all of the disks became a litte wet all by themselves, and on the newspaper I had lying underneath the boards actually was a little wet spot. I don't believe it's broken, I think more of a protective coat or something that got heated away...

Cheers,  Alex.

Could that just be condensation forming on the ceramic coating, due to the cap being hotter than the air around it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guys... What's the cap worth? What's your health worth?

You have no idea what the stuff is, let alone what it could do to you.

Just throw it away and get a new one. FFS, if it's that big a deal, I will pay for the new cap myself, just to make sure you stay healthy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...