BAD CAPACITORS--I am lost

[Wimberleytech]

Today Lockheed will launch a new more accurate GPS satellite.  That is the good news.

The bad news is that (reading between the lines) all of the onboard buck converters may be plagued with crappy capacitors!

This is sad, but kinda makes me laugh.  I have repaired  my TV and several monitors when caps went bad...easy enough on earth...but...

So you are backpacking Denali and you look at your GPS...bad caps...now you are lost.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/historic-space-launch-day-includes-troubled-lockheed-satellite?fbclid=IwAR0OH8qF-D7--PZtlpcNGC9w9rAWjqCvEelrz42Du6SnBKEo1jNN6DwGrYg

[wraper]

Today Lockheed will launch a new more accurate GPS satellite.  That is the good news.

The bad news is that (reading between the lines) all of the onboard buck converters may be plagued with crappy capacitors!

This is sad, but kinda makes me laugh.  I have repaired  my TV and several monitors when caps went bad...easy enough on earth...but...

So you are backpacking Denali and you look at your GPS...bad caps...now you are lost.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/historic-space-launch-day-includes-troubled-lockheed-satellite?fbclid=IwAR0OH8qF-D7--PZtlpcNGC9w9rAWjqCvEelrz42Du6SnBKEo1jNN6DwGrYg

Most likely they are not even electrolytic and better quality than good capacitors which go into consumer equipment.
EDIT: they are MLCC. And it's not like they are bad. They just were not tested to the required standart.

[Wimberleytech]

[/quote]
Most likely they are not even electrolytic and better quality than good capacitors which go into consumer equipment.
EDIT: they are MLCC. And it's not like they are bad. They just were not tested to the required standart.
[/quote]

To be clear, I was not implying that they were "consumer" electrolytics.

Moreover, the article indicates that there was some technical disagreement about whether the caps would really be a problem...so they will launch.

[wraper]

To be clear, I was not implying that they were "consumer" electrolytics.

You were implying electrolytics though.

[wraper]

https://www.investors.com/news/questions-raised-over-testing-on-lockheed-gps-satellite/

Last year, the Air Force and contractors discovered that Harris hadn't conducted tests on the components, including how long they would operate without failing, that should have been completed in 2010.

Now, the Air Force says it found that Harris spent June to October of last year doing follow-up testing on the wrong parts instead of samples of the suspect capacitors installed on the first three satellites. Harris "immediately notified Lockheed and the government" after a post-test inspection, Teague said in his message.

Harris spokeswoman Ellen Mitchell said in an email that company personnel last year identified a capacitor "that was not subjected to all required qualification tests. Once the issue was discovered, Harris deployed a team dedicated to complete the required capacitor tests. The capacitor qualification testing was successfully completed in December 2016."

[David Hess]

MLCCs and especially large ones have their own problems.  They are prone to cracking under mechanical stress which is a common problem when wide operating temperature extremes are present.  The large ones use some type of strain relief.