(Topic ID: 300187)

Large caps on WPC PDB & WPC95 A/V PCB - do they go bad?

By amxfc3s

2 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 5 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by Mervyn
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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    #1 2 years ago

    I'm looking for some info regarding the large 10,000+ uf caps on the wpc power driver boards, and wpc95 a/v boards...How often do they actually go bad and what was the symptom of them being bad? It seems like they are most commonly replaced on the PDB's to troubleshoot a 5v reset issue but were they actually the cause? Has anyone ever needed to replace them on a wpc95 a/v board? Why? Is their purpose to filter/smooth the DC voltages being rectified from the transformer? So a good way to test them would be to look for AC ripple voltage on the DC outputs?

    #2 2 years ago

    Some folks wholesale change all caps on those boards.
    I advise against that. The probability of damaging the board is way too high for most hobbyists.
    The only cap that really matters is C5 on the WPC-089 power/driver board, and perhaps, someday, the equivalent cap on the WPC-95 power/driver board.
    C2 (leaks) and C4 (can cause resets) are far more important than any other caps on those boards.

    preDCS sound boards have 7x 47uf caps that are mostly dried out after all this time. Replacing them can marginally improve preDCS sound.

    Testing for AC ripple is a good idea. It allows you to leave the cap in the board to test.
    An ESR meter would be better but requires removal of the cap.

    Yes, these big caps are used to smooth the various board DC voltages as rectified by the bridges.

    Can a cap be absolutely indicted for a reset issue?
    That might be tough.
    Replacing a cap and then resets vanishing is only circumstantial evidence. PROVING that the cap was the issue would be nearly impossible. You'd have to remove and replace the cap "in-situ", which isn't possible.

    I authored part of the discussion linked below. Enjoy.
    https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Game_resets

    --
    Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
    http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
    http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

    #3 2 years ago

    I've encountered the "rolling line" display issue on a couple WPC-95 games, as described here:

    https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#.22Rolling.22_Horizontal_Line_on_WPC-95_Display

    Otherwise, I haven't needed to replace any other significant WPC-95 driver board caps yet. I suspect that might start changing in the next few years as they get older.

    For WPC-89 driver boards...I've seen issues all over the map. Sometimes caps are involved, sometimes not.

    Quoted from ChrisHibler:

    PROVING that the cap was the issue would be nearly impossible. You'd have to remove and replace the cap "in-situ", which isn't possible.

    I usually test removed caps with an Atlas ESR70. If the cap is way off spec, then I figure it's usually a good indicator that it was contributing to a problem.

    I'll also test the new caps going in to make sure they aren't duds or counterfeits.

    #4 2 years ago

    Thanks @chrishibler, I was hoping that you would reply. I've replaced the important caps you mentioned above and also don't like to wholesale/shotgun replace parts (especially when they are $5 each and will potentially cause damage). I'm skeptical of poor quality caps that a lot of OEM's used but I'll leave them alone.

    #5 2 years ago

    I Recently replaced all 15000 uF caps on a STTNG driver board. Some had slight bulging on the top .that’s a bad sign on very small capacitors in switch mode power supplies, A good way to test for ripple on the lines is with a quality multimeter on AC setting . On this machine ripple was 0.2 on the unregulated 12 v line .all other voltages were 0.04 ac or similar which is acceptable. I prefer to replace all caps and sometimes the bridge rectifiers as I have good soldering equipment and don’t like recalls . 30 year old caps. Actually one of the capacitors was starting to leak electrolyte. Not noticeable until it was removed. The small 100uf cap beside the 12 v regulator always leaks and should be replaced onsight . A small component tester does a reasonable job of testing these large caps and showed they all were reading about 1200 uF and the esr value was high at about 0.3 ohms. Comparing with the new caps which showed just over 1500uf.

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