Capacitor Breakin jig - Any Ideas?

[yalesmith]

I realized that a caps really do need to break in and for someone like me who builds for friends and build for fun ( do less playing than I should) I would like to come up with something but no idea where to start. I remember reading that Nik, at ceriatone was contemplating building a jig for the use with sozo caps. Any ideas?

Thanks

[selloutrr]

Regulated power supply on a timer terminated to a clip set so you can clip in the caps. Probably want to add a varian or voltage control and test points so you can confirm voltage and form the caps in stepped voltage and not shock them.

Warning!!!! Exposed clips with hot voltage will harm, hurt, and could kill you!!!

[overtone]

This is my lo-fi rig, where I also test for leakage on older caps:

Up on a shelf above the bench I have an ugly homebrew champ amp that I listen to music through.
I brought the wires for the coupling caps up to the top side to connector blocks.
This allows for quick swapping in and out of caps.
There are three block terminals wired in parallel for each, so that I can cook more caps at a time.

Usually I forget them there for months.
I just remembered the rig other day and popped some sozo blues in there.

There is an old perspex lift off cover, placed over the exposed wires, because the dog likes to steel orange colored caps.

[davent]

I haven't tried this but you're looking for ideas.

...the last staement of the linked article; The cap-rack is for polarized capacitors. For non-polar elecrolytic or film capacitors the diode is emitted as these components can be connected directly to the AC voltage.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://phonoclone.com/diy-rack.html



dave

[surfsup]

davent that looks simple enough and I'm sure we all have multiple 9VAC-12VAC wallwarts stuffed away in closets at home.

Woudl we want a current limiting resistor somewhere in there so at startup the current doesn't go KFC on you...if you had paralleled 20 caps?

Also, this doesn't address having DC on one side with AC passing through the cap like coupling caps do. Does that matter with capacitor break in?

[Structo]

Larry has some kind of rig to reform caps.

Maybe he will chime in.

[surfsup]

Also, this doesn't address having DC on one side with AC passing through the cap like coupling caps do. Does that matter with capacitor break in?

I guess one could add a diode to ground parallel to the caps to shift to a DC positive voltage of say 5V so if you had a 9V (+/- 4.5VAC), you would have a positive sine wave through the cap(s).

Oh wait that is RMS so the diode should be like a 15V or something.

[vibratoking]

Seems there is some confusion...

You are wanting to break-in your couplers, not reform electrolytics, correct?

[yalesmith]

yes

[C Moore]

What about a "break-in" machine for wire and resistors.?
best

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Back in September, I sent an email to Sozo, asking about this. Here is the email I sent to them:

After reading your blog about capacitor break-in, it occurs to me that one could build a burn-in fixture to prepare new caps for an amp build. Can you provide me with specifics of what voltage & frequency would be best applied?

I assume the voltage would be some percentage of the cap's rated voltage. But what about frequency? Can this be done with one specific frequency, or would white or pink noise yield a better result?

And here is the reply I got:

The cap will out well and start breaking in well in about 20 hours. It’s not worth it, it’s too short of time.

Cheers,
Lou

[Colossal]

What about a "break-in" machine for wire and resistors.?
best

Hahah, it's the entire amp!

[yalesmith]

the guys at Sozo have disappointed me twice now, it is weird that they make this claim (which is true BTW) and have no idea how to address it. What if you are building 10 or 20 amp? the other thing was with shipping. They do make a great cap though. As far as being warm and cuddly they are not.

[vibratoking]

Look at the technical content on Sozo's web site...oh yeah, THERE IS NONE! Don't be dissapointed. Better yet, don't be fooled. If Sozo caps are better than any other it is only by dumb luck.

[tsutt]

Can some one explain why it is necessary to do this so us newbs can understand?

Todd