One thing I forgot to ask is how good are old, burned-in tantalums that test
good if salvaged for reuse from older equipment. Anyone have any data?
tnx
hank wd5jfr
"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
Many companies view power supply design as unchallenging, and many
engineers
see it as boring. So power supply design often gets relegated to dull
people or new grads. There is a grain of truth there, in that power
supply
design is a lot about remembering all the ways that previous designs have
failed and not doing that again, and not so much about applying the latest
technology that's coming down the pike.

The two best power supplier designers that I can bring to mind are (one) a
guy who never did get his BS in EE, but designed power supplies for
decades
and could tell you every possible way that one could fail and what to do
about it, and (two) a guy who usually does video design, but only because
he
does _everything_ right -- and when he does a power supply or is the
technical lead over someone doing a power supply it always works. Both of
these guys are technically paranoid and have long memories, which is
really
what it takes.

"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in message
...

snip some

My own theory on power supply
unreliability is that the companies assign newly graduated engineers to
design power supplies and those guys don't have enough experience to
understand the ravages of long term heat, continual cycling and the
crazy
stuff that can come down the AC power line!

snip some more

73
hank wd5jfr