/members-area/personalblogs/b/john-alexander-s-blog/posts/purple-haze--tantalum-cap-must-die-for-my-pleasureI admit it ain&#39;t too creative but I really wanted to know if the purple flames from my accidental destruction of a Tantalum cap was a fluke. I saw in Wikipedia that the flame test for tantalum is in deed blue so fancied a go at it and also it was an een-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/john-alexander-s-blog/posts/purple-haze--tantalum-cap-must-die-for-my-pleasureTue, 30 Dec 2014 02:43:14 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d3049f7e-f6d4-4fd7-a8d2-428dcab17a22jw07521<p>A very nice experiment. We used to have trouble with selenium rectifiers and selenium surge protectors. One wiff and I would know where to look for the problem.</p><p>John</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=19585&AppID=298&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/john-alexander-s-blog/posts/purple-haze--tantalum-cap-must-die-for-my-pleasureMon, 29 Dec 2014 21:15:17 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d3049f7e-f6d4-4fd7-a8d2-428dcab17a22mcb11<p>Nice video.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We used to have them die after a lightning surge on equipment.</p><p>One day perfectly fine, then some time later they would catch fire, and boy did they stink.</p><p>We took to replacing them at any time we suspected lightning, and later we used the aluminum caps.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Mark</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=19585&AppID=298&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/john-alexander-s-blog/posts/purple-haze--tantalum-cap-must-die-for-my-pleasureMon, 29 Dec 2014 20:48:21 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d3049f7e-f6d4-4fd7-a8d2-428dcab17a22DAB1<p>Ah yes, the smell of smoking capacitors in the morning.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Brings back many fine memories of awesome component fails.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>DAB</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=19585&AppID=298&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/john-alexander-s-blog/posts/purple-haze--tantalum-cap-must-die-for-my-pleasureMon, 29 Dec 2014 17:53:57 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d3049f7e-f6d4-4fd7-a8d2-428dcab17a22shabaz1<p>Purple smoke at night.. one sniff could be followed by pink elephants!! : ) </p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=19585&AppID=298&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">