Recapping an Expert x68K

[TheRealAnubis]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to have to do a recap on my Expert as it's starting to do strange things, like reset while playing games, and having strange graphic artifacts after it resets.  I completely redid the drives, but I didn't recap the bottom board or the motherboard as it was all working fine at that time.

I have 3 questions -

1. Has anyone recently recapped an Expert and may have a 2nd set of caps extra?  (including the video board I have a count of 61pcs total)

2. Where do you get your caps so that they are the freshest?

3. Has anyone used solid caps instead of the standard aluminum electrolytics?  Pros/Cons?

I've checked ebay, but there's no way to tell if the caps are already 10 years old, or from last year.

[JulBS0]

Hi,

I would personally avoid buying capacitors from eBay, since counterfeit capacitors are a thing and prices are often high.

Given the rather high capacitor count of our machines, buying them through a big name retailer might be interesting. Digi-Key and Mouser ships everywhere, and Farnell are pretty big in Europe if you happen to live there.

As for the electrolytic vs solid capacitors question, the main issue would be the form factor. Through-hole ceramic capacitor are convenient but might not be available in all needed values. Surface-mounted ceramic or film capacitors are small and won't be a direct fit.

Another issue is the fact that solid capacitors are typically low-ESR compared to electrolytic ones, and might not behave exactly the same way. I'm not sure about this point though.

[TheRealAnubis]

Hi,

Thanks for the info.  I've done a lot of reading, and still am unsure on the solids - though I've been told that there would be no problem with the low ESR in slower machines (non-gigahertz) like these.

It looks like I'm going to have to put the recap on hold, though - I can't even find several of the values of caps at any of the online stores (digikey,mouser,jameco,farnell,newark) for regular aluminum electrolytics.  Of course, I've been able to find the super cheapo brands, which I refuse to use.  Also, one place had a 50-100 minimum order per cap.
These are the values that I can't get right now, unless you want to buy a truckload of them:
(.47uf 50V, 1uf 50V, 2.2uF 50v)

[wolpi]

I'm currently recapping a X68000 and I had no troubles finding the necessary caps. What's wrong for example with those?

.47uF 50V: THESE
1uF 50V: THESE
2.2uF 50V: THESE

[costa]

I don't see any problem with these, and wurth seems to be a good brand.
Nichicon definitely.

I basicaly watch out for the operating temperature (specially for the power supply), always use 105 C.
Other than that, I recapped a ton of X68000 with caps from mouser and also ebay, and have yer to see a problem.