Tantalum Popcorn - What to do (Was S-100 Bus Voltages)

From: Edwin P. Groot <epgroot_at_ucdavis.edu>
Date: Mon Jun 4 12:34:29 2001

     Well, I plugged in the boards and powered up the computer, and
promptly powered it down after a few loud pops - D'Oh! Nothing was
displayed on my teminal connected to the console serial line. The affected
boards are the CPU board and a serial board - some tantalum capacitors
blew. I'm assuming they're tantalum caps- they're not electrolytic
can-style, or ceramic disc-style, but look like a gob of shiny blue acrylic
paint on two leads. The board marks which lead is +.
     Are these tantalum caps common enough to buy at the local electronics
shop? We've got Radio Shack, but I heard they are overpriced. The caps to
be replaced were in the uF range.
     BTW this is a complete system and the cards are arranged (from low
slot # to high slot #): CPU, RAM, FD controller, Serial/Parallel,
Terminator. Will check with documentation that RAM and ROM banks, and I/O
is configured right once I get the boards fixed.

     Thanks,
     Edwin

At 11:08 PM 6/2/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Yes, I have done that. Another good trick when creating shorts is to
>cause a tantalum capacitor to burst into flames. Maybe we should start
>a thread on what kind of fire extinguishers people recommend.
>
>Louis
>
>
Received on Mon Jun 04 2001 - 12:34:29 BST