Würth the effort!
This challenge is an investigation about the viability of polymer capacitors and their use with vintage electronics.
With the Panasonic SMT capacitor portion completed I was still looking for viable Polymer capacitors in through hole sizes and packaging.
Würth Elektronik so kindly obliged and provided me with a nice box set of samples that were all nicely bubble wrapped.
Because of their form factors, these capacitors can be used as direct replacements for ageing axial and radial capacitors.
Measurements of the Würth capacitors with the Peak ESR+ confirmed their low ESR values.
The capacitors are a nice red colour making them easily identifiable against the old grey and blue colours.
Do I have double vision?
Nah! I have two ESR+ meters. Pictured here are the measurements of two vintage capacitors. 4700uF and 22uF.
The bigger one has definitely lost its rated capacity and the smaller one has a high ESR.
No worries! Würth Elektronik is here to the rescue! This 22uF replacement capacitor has a much lower ESR!
Summary
This winds up my adventures into Polymer Capacitors. I hope you've enjoyed the adventure.
Polymer Capacitors are a truly viable choice provided that the specified parameters are compatible.
It is not just capacitance alone determining the choice of component. There's a plethora of parameters to consider for selecting the correct capacitor type and value for design quality, stability, longevity and most importantly - SAFETY.
Many thanks to Element14 and Panasonic as the Design Challenge sponsors and to Würth Elektronik for enabling me to extend my investigations beyond the scope of the original Design Challenge.
CHEERS!
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