EasyProbe + PGFUN 3D probe

Theese berger lahr drives are known for having faults because of the old caps. So I already have new ones at hand. Tantals for example will be changed to multilayer ceramics, but that is another story.

Yes, suprisingly theese machines were sold as engraving machines. Really beefy engraving lol.

But of cause I will install a spindle with more power. Nothing fancy for this project. Just a er25 4kW spindle and an old vacoon vfd laying around.

Beware of changing cap types!

Multilayer caramics can change capacitance with voltage and stuff.

And ceramic caps are microphonic.

Tantalum caps don't degrade with age, only due to electrical abuse (which they are very suceptible to). (overvoltage, reverse voltage, etc.).

Read this before changing cap types: www.ti.com/lit/an/slva214a/slva214a.pdf

As I said this is another story. I am familiar with this kind of stuff. No timing caps, no analogue circuits etc are involved. Just voltage stabilisation functions in this cases. And I just dont want to have tantals on the board as long as I dont have to.

Ah and of course. No charging cap and so on. So low esr isnt a problem here too.

But thank you nevertheless.

Tantalum caps are good.

Why the anti-tantalum mentality?

They do explode tho.

I once plugged in a tantalum cap the wrong way and it exploded shards into my fingers.

I'm fine tho.

It didn't break the skin.

One: as you said... puff
Two: smd caps is faster to replace. I have to change nearly 30 caps each driver. So 90 in total.

When clipping the old one and soldering the smd on the other side directly on/over the drilled holes its a damn fast way. Cleaning the holes, soldering tantals in, clipping the wires taked more time...

So mainly cause I am lazy. And tantals costs (in comparable quality at my normal suppliers) round about 15 to 20 euros more than smd ceramics.

But why replace them at all?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The drives are 33 years old and the machine was in service till this year on a nearly daily basis. And again. The drives are known for having problems with the tantals. I dont want to have problems later on which I could had easily avoided.

Too low cap rating?

I have a 12V Delta PSU (configurable to up to 14V) that has only 16V caps!

2V of safety margin!