Capacitor failure

[caretaker]

OK here is one for the electronic guys out there, I built an Aether II programed the PIC and set the start channel successfully. Tried it out with Xlights and worked flawlessly.  Added it to my show last night and noticed some weird flashing on my porch (where the Aether is) and found the Aether was randomly flashing white.  disconnected Aether from DMX cable and reconnected and the Aether went out.  Go back in side and a few minutes later notice Aether is flashing randomly again, this time the white is on but it is flashing all 3 other LED's too. Removed Aether from DMX and reconnected no change, so I disconnected the power (Same transformer all four of my other Aethers are connected to a 750 KVA  12 volt AC transformer) and brought it inside. This morning when I opened up the Aether I could smell something (not burnt) and noticed the top of the 6800 MFD capacitor was bulged and it has spayed oil all over the inside of the fixture.  So before I get another 6800 MFD capacitor and install it is there anything I should be looking at first? As I said when I built and programmed the start channel it worked.

[Dennis Cherry]

Did you install the capacitor polarity backwards?

[caretaker]

No, like I said in the first post it was working after I had set the start channel.

Did you install the capacitor polarity backwards?

[tstewart]

The Aether can still work with the capacitor in backwards for a short time.  They do not always blow right away.  I would still verify how it is installed since it was most likely installed backwards.  They can fail when installed correctly but that usually takes time and is due to stress.  Meaning the capacitor used was not the correct rating for where it was used.  This happened with a LCD monitor I had.


Todd


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[RJ]

the capacitor used is a little over rated for the need so they should not fail with the exception of being in backwards or just a bad one ( or really old as in you have had the aether for 20 years which is not possible) . As they have said it would work with it backwards till the cap blows.

RJ

[caretaker]

Apparently it was a bad cap, replaced it today and it is back working (cap was in the correct way) Showed cap to electronics tech and he said it looked like a premature failure (which I guess is tech speak for defective cap) Thanks for everyones input!