jensmith25
Senior Member
I provided a lighting kit for a customer a month ago and it was working happy as larry during extensive programming and testing.
The 18m2 low power board (CHI030).
However, they ran it for 10-15 mins and the capacitor got very hot and then nothing worked. I've got it back for testing / fixing and can confirm the capacitor is getting red hot but everything else looks fine. No obvious shorts, things are wired as I sent it so it shouldn't be having any issues really.
It's being run off 12v mains transformer with the standard 5v voltage regulator as the outputs are LED strips, but within capacity for the darlington driver (300mA spread over 5 outputs ie 60mA each output)
Why would a capacitor suddenly get hot? Is it just a faulty capacitor?
Note: The board come pre-assembled so the only items I've added are the voltage regulator and the connector blocks for the power and outputs. The capacitor therefore should be the right way round.
The customer is in France but I supplied the transformer and so it's a 12v regulated power supply, only difference is it's EU plug rather than UK plug. I had wondered if it could possibly be suppling more than the 16v the capacitor is rated to but it would seem unlikely.
Everything is as I tested it apart from the transformer.
Thanks.
The 18m2 low power board (CHI030).
However, they ran it for 10-15 mins and the capacitor got very hot and then nothing worked. I've got it back for testing / fixing and can confirm the capacitor is getting red hot but everything else looks fine. No obvious shorts, things are wired as I sent it so it shouldn't be having any issues really.
It's being run off 12v mains transformer with the standard 5v voltage regulator as the outputs are LED strips, but within capacity for the darlington driver (300mA spread over 5 outputs ie 60mA each output)
Why would a capacitor suddenly get hot? Is it just a faulty capacitor?
Note: The board come pre-assembled so the only items I've added are the voltage regulator and the connector blocks for the power and outputs. The capacitor therefore should be the right way round.
The customer is in France but I supplied the transformer and so it's a 12v regulated power supply, only difference is it's EU plug rather than UK plug. I had wondered if it could possibly be suppling more than the 16v the capacitor is rated to but it would seem unlikely.
Everything is as I tested it apart from the transformer.
Thanks.