I have been gradually working my way through my first Argonaut II. I
have had troubles with the inverter circuit that drives the display back
light. I replaced the two electrolytics in that circuit with tantalums
of the same ratings, and while it works, the one 30 MFD power line
bypass cap runs hot, and the display back light is dim. Since I have
the topside switch board out to replace the back light switch, I want to
replace the electrolytics on that board, too. It has been some years
since I had the chance to work with tantalum capacitors, and I recall
that the lead by the heavy black line on the package is the negative
lead. That is how I installed them in the inverter circuit. Yet the
one cap runs hot, the other one does not. Do I have a bad capacitor, or
is there some other problem here that I am not aware of? I figured that
tantalums would be much better capacitors than electrolytics, which is
why I have been trying them. Am I missing something here? Can someone
give me some pointers?
Thanks!
Steve WA9JML
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