Recapping a BBC Model B Power Supply
One of the issues that old equipment has is capacitor failure. And in mains-powered equipment, like power supplies, failure can be somewhat spectacular.
I’ve started restoring a BBC Model B. It’s a bit of a barn-find, that was donated by a friend who is clearing out his late uncle’s house. The BBC Micro looks like it has been well used, but should be repairable.
I made the schoolboy mistake of plugging in the power supply to test it. BBC Micro power supplies are notorious for going pop – they contain a couple of RIFA X2 capacitors on the primary side that do not age well. Thankfully I’d disconnected and removed the power supply before testing it. I think it lasted just long enough for me to locate my multimeter and test the first 5V line.
Here’s the video blog I made as I repaired the power supply.
As an aside, I’ve started improving accessibility by adding closed captions to my videos rather than relying upon YouTube auto-subtitles. As a partially deaf person I figured I should really practice what I preach.
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