Electronics > Repair
Some old equipment restoration/repair/safety checks before real use
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reef.pi:
Hello,

Over the years, in an attempt to one day spend time working on hobby projects, I have purchased a number of bench equipment. I have got power supplies, signal generators, multimeters and so on. They are quite old, I will try to get an aprox date of manufacturing once I start taking them one by one and properly check, but certainly they are at least 6-7 years old.

I'd like to start using them, I read it is quite mandatory to replace old electrolytic capacitors if the device is more than 8 years old, even if they may look fine from the outside, is that correct?

Another thing, I have read some stories and admittedly I am a little terrified, about IEC mains input filters, which are found in some, if not all of them. For some reason, occasionally, the capacitors inside of them tend to short causing a lot of smoke if not worst? Since they are positioned before apparatus power on/off switch, a safe alternative would be to use an extension socket with switch? Or just ditch them altogether?

Anything else to check, replace?

Thanks.

Cornel
agent_power:
6-7 years isn't much.

Tube based equipment from 50s, 60s and earlier will have electrically leaky wax / paper capacitors and needs to be checked

Equipment past 70s can have RIFAs / WIMAs which tend to crack and unleash the smoke, those are sometimes hidden inside the IEC inlet in a can

Equipment past late 80s until early 2000s will have physically leaking electrolytics and/or RIFAs

If it's 2010 and later you can just plug it in
inse:
Golden rule: If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
If there were Rifa‘s in kit, they still have plenty of years of run-time before them.
reef.pi:
The idea with caps replacement comes from xdevs, he was saying it is mandatory replacing caps on Keithley 2001 if the unit is 7 years older  :-//
coromonadalix:
same here 

aint broke  dont fix it,  but you can check for the famous  Rifa's ...  and old Shaffner iec line filters / ac socket ...

do an internal visual checks for sure,  bulged caps, leaked caps   etc ... crust / dust

lube pots or slide switches with good products,  not cheap stuff

check  where you have big parts who can heat for solders quality,   mostly psu's / big physical parts

seeing people always changing caps without REAL problems .... and create REAL problems  ...
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