Two notes Torpedo Captor

[Nelsath]

Last night I ran my loadbox from my guitar amp, and it start to smell badly. I may have overcharged the power out to the loadbox. I decided to open the box and look for any visual damage. I saw three capacitors that leaked from the side and a black stain next to a resistor.

Questions are, how badly this seems to be? Should it be repaired or is it still possible to use it? How much would it cost me to be repaired?

I haven't much knowledge on electronics, only a few things. Probably if it needs to be repaired, I should find a technician to do the job.

 

[ramondo]

The yellowish/orange stuff by the caps is probably not leakage but a glue used by mfg. to prevent vibration problems.
Better photos of the whole board may be helpful along with full brand and model number. The glue may become conductive with age and heat.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

As already said, it's simply glue applied during manufacture, there's nothing visually wrong with it at all - although C1 looks like it 'may' be slightly domed, it's hard to tell from the angle of the picture.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

As the other guys say, the light colour stuff is just glue.
Photo from a review of the device:

(I see this has a larger type cap that the possibly swelled one in your unit?)

The part that concerns me is the black area that looks burned, between C4 and the large green resistor in your photo.

Can you post more pictures of both the top and bottom of the circuit board, so this can be examined better?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The part that concerns me is the black area that looks burned, between C4 and the large green resistor in your photo.

Can you post more pictures of both the top and bottom of the circuit board, so this can be examined better?

Yes, a better picture (or pictures) would help - from the original one it appears just to be the glue discolouring due to heat from the resistor.

 

[Nelsath]

Thanks for your reply.

I disassembled the box and took more pictures.

It's a loadbox Two Notes Torpedo Captor 16 Ohms.

Any suggestions about what to do, I appreciate.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

C1 is definitely domed, so should be replaced - as I suspected the 'black' mark is just discoloured glue from the hot resistor, so not a problem.

If you've got an ESR meter I would check the rest of the electrolytics as well - if not changing C1 'might' be all that's needed.

 

[ramondo]

Definitely check or change the black cap with the swollen top next to the green one. Its best to check out of circuit so you might as well replace it. Caps that go bad DO produce an odor and also change the functionality of the circuit. A great time to learn soldering.

 

[Nelsath]

Nigel: I have a ESR meter, but i'm not sure how to use it. I'll check some tutorials to learn it.

Ramondo: I've done some soldering stuffs, but never on boards, also I only have a pistol soldering iron. I'm not sure if I could manage the job.

This discoloured glue, is it necessary to remove next to the resistor?

 

[ramondo]

If your soldering iron is around 50 or so watts then you should be ok, if it's a 200 watt GUN then be real quick. Heat one leg then the other while rocking and removing.The glue should be removed as it may provide a conductive path (think carbon) between two traces.