How to know when a capacitor was damaged due to soldering heat?
- Thread starter perr0
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Pic's please. I need a laugh.
A multimeter that reads capacitance will at least tell you if it's still alive.
If no capacitance range, charge up the capacitor, then measure the voltage and watch it decay (slowly for large caps, quickly for smaller ones).
A multimeter that reads capacitance will at least tell you if it's still alive.
If no capacitance range, charge up the capacitor, then measure the voltage and watch it decay (slowly for large caps, quickly for smaller ones).
LOL
It's more a theoretical question. Everyone talks about being quick especially with electrolytic caps. I was wondering that if there's no visual cue (apart fr when you actually blow them up), how to tell.
I was after something... There's noise, there's muffled sound... Whatever. Similar to what you get with old hifi audio equipment that needs recapping.
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Kevin Wolfe
Tele-Afflicted
A smoke alarm would be a sure sign.
Especially with electrolytics. If the casing has swollen or split: replace. Too much heat, and especially overvoltage, converts the internal fluids into gas, with sometimes spectacular results.
Old electrolytics can leak or dry out. Large electro's have vent holes which when old may show signs of leakage.
I've never seen an electrolytic swell or die from overheating (when soldering), but then I would never use that much heat to cause it.
If you haven't completed a solder join within 2 seconds, remove iron and retry when join has cooled.
Especially as a beginner with a crappy iron I have heated component joints for lengths of time long beyond any level of comfort, especially when reading online that anything past a few seconds is dangerous.
Later when I'm troubleshooting some problem I might eventually start to ponder whether or not I damaged some component with the iron.
I didn't.
You probably didn't either.
Later when I'm troubleshooting some problem I might eventually start to ponder whether or not I damaged some component with the iron.
I didn't.
You probably didn't either.
Some of them are quite hard, especially when there's a large mass to hear, like ground terminals with lots of things attached and turrets as well.
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Large masses and terminals can handle more heat and time, just take care wrt connected/connecting components.
Large masses need maximum wattage (heat), but still with the minimum of time.
Too much time and you get a bad solder join. You can tell because the join is no longer shiny and smooth.
scooteraz
Friend of Leo's
When I was a kid and first learning to solder, I was instructed to use an alligator clip on the lead between the joint and the component. It would act as a heat sink, and you almost could never overheat a component. Over the years I learned better soldering skills (and got better, way better, soldering stations) so overheat is less of an issue. Nonetheless. I usually take the time to add the alligator clip on the component lead (where there is that kind of space). I’ve never destroyed a component using that technique.
Lucius Paisley
Tele-Afflicted
When it doesn't work.
I normally do that when the component is a capacitor, but not to resistors.
dan40
Friend of Leo's
The caps that seem most sensitive to heat damage are cheaper silver micas and polystyrene. Polystyrene is especially fragile and you should always use a heat sink when soldering them. There may be others types that are easily damaged but these two types are often used in guitar amp. These caps are often used in tonestacks and occasionally as coupling caps between gain stages. Scratchy sounding potentiometers and DC voltage on the grid of the following gain stage are two signs that the cap may have failed or gotten damaged during installation.
