Rick Dangerous Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I noticed Cosole 5 has a cap kit for the Jaguar: http://console5.com/store/atari-jaguar-cap-kit.html Anyone ever bothered or felt the need to replace caps on a jag? I feel like I've never noticed jailbars or rainbow banding, but someone was talking about it in a recent Raiden thread. Would a new Cap kit help with that or is it an unrelated problem? Having had many of my handheld and other consoles re-capped recently, and now having access to an awesome local AV mod guy, I am considering it. Any thoughts on new caps for the Jag, necessary, unnecessary, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo_rg Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I soldered a flux capacitor into my jag and it vanished back into 1993 in a puff of smoke. 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dangerous Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 I soldered a flux capacitor into my jag and it vanished back into 1993 in a puff of smoke. Did it write a pro-jaguar op-ed for an EGM holiday buyers guide, only to come back to 2016 and find the Jaguar IV the most popular home video game console on the market?! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerosquare Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 (edited) travistouchdown > In theory it can't hurt, but in practice I've never seen any Jaguar having problems due to capacitors (except damage due to someone using a power supply with the wrong polarity). So if your Jaguar works fine, I wouldn't bother, unless you want extra peace of mind. Edited May 2, 2016 by Zerosquare 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dangerous Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 travistouchdown > In theory it can't hurt, but in practice I've never seen any Jaguar having problems due to capacitors (except damage due to someone using a power supply with the wrong polarity). So if your Jaguar works fine, I wouldn't bother, unless you want extra peace of mind. Good to know. I mean they were made by IBM in the US so probably pretty high quality components used. Plus they still aren't that old in the scheme of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 You are right about the Jaguar not really needing it. Funny thing about the Jaguar... Atari sure fit to cut corners on game development, but they sure as hell didn't in the construction of the jaguar. Turns out that well over half of the caps used in the jaguar are in fact Nichicon brand capacitors. So yeah the jag is pretty well made considering. That said, I replaced the caps on my Jaguar and Jag CD due to low volume with both cart and CD games. I happen to have a strange revision jaguar and one of the caps caused severe coil whine after the caps were replaced. Turns out it is a semi known issue and two more caps later from Console 5, the issue was resolved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerosquare Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 (edited) You are right about the Jaguar not really needing it. Funny thing about the Jaguar... Atari sure fit to cut corners on game development, but they sure as hell didn't in the construction of the jaguar. Turns out that well over half of the caps used in the jaguar are in fact Nichicon brand capacitors. ...and yet, they omitted a simple diode, which would have prevented those who mistakenly used the power supply from another console from damaging their Jaguar (it's on the schematic, but they didn't put it on the actual PCBs, presumably to save a few cents). That's the Tramiel touch. Edited May 4, 2016 by Zerosquare 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dangerous Posted May 4, 2016 Author Share Posted May 4, 2016 ...and yet, they omitted a simple diode, which would have prevented those who mistakenly used the power supply from another console from damaging their Jaguar (it's on the schematic, but they didn't put it on the actual PCBs, presumably to save a few cents). That's the Tramiel touch. What I am dealing with for a friend right now! I ordered a U38 from Console 5 because my buddy plugged his NES power pack into his Jag and 20 seconds later the thing was smoking. You need to idiot proof things a little bit if possible... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Dangerous Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Wanted to do a 2020 check in on this. Anyone feeling that "its time" to replace Jag caps, or are they hanging in there pretty well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I haven't noticed any issues with mine since I replaced the caps in my Jag and JagCD 4 years ago. But I'm curious about the missing diode mentioned @Zerosquare. I've never looked but is there a spot of it on the PCB and they just jumpered across it or what? If we know the exact specs on that diode, is it something that would be a good idea to add into our Jags today for that extra bit of protection? Given how damn expensive Jag consoles are going for these days, it wouldn't hurt to make them that more future proof? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerosquare Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 The missing diode is SD1, below C142 near the power input connector: The original part number is SA20A: https://octopart.com/sa20a-littelfuse-31800?r=sp If you can't find it, try a 1N4007 diode instead. Since the diode is in (reverse) parallel with the power input, it will get very hot when the polarity is wrong, but provided you yank the power cord quickly enough it should prevent the rest of your Jaguar from being damaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 4 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said: Wanted to do a 2020 check in on this. Anyone feeling that "its time" to replace Jag caps, or are they hanging in there pretty well? I know it's all the rage nowadays to replace all of the caps in your old devices, but really, it's hardly necessary on most things as old as the Jag. The caps they used back then were fine, and unless your system is experiencing any kind of problems, you're better off keeping the old caps in there. Like someone else said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 13 hours ago, Zerosquare said: The missing diode is SD1, below C142 near the power input connector: The original part number is SA20A: https://octopart.com/sa20a-littelfuse-31800?r=sp If you can't find it, try a 1N4007 diode instead. Since the diode is in (reverse) parallel with the power input, it will get very hot when the polarity is wrong, but provided you yank the power cord quickly enough it should prevent the rest of your Jaguar from being damaged. I was advised that diode was strictly for surge protection only and not for protection against reverse polarity. Given that the SA20A is a TVS surge protection diode. https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/Littelfuse_TVS_Diode_SA_Datasheet.pdf-1317385.pdf I also agree with @Sauron that the caps in the Jaguar are likely fine given that high quality caps were used. But to say that devices from that timeframe one don't really require it is quite incorrect. (Looking at TurboDuo and Express). Additionally I have a Midi sound module made in 2003 that only provided output from the optical outpul and nothing from the analog outputs. The module was very small and all SMD inside but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until I started looking at the caps and saw that they were in fact leaking in several places on the board given how the solder looked near the legs/pads on he caps. Replaced them all out and sure enough the analog outputs are working great and the module is 100%. Point is that caps can and do go bad or bad batches of them in use in equipment. So it isn't going to hurt to replace them out to make sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerosquare Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 6 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said: I was advised that diode was strictly for surge protection only and not for protection against reverse polarity. Given that the SA20A is a TVS surge protection diode. It is a TVS diode indeed, but it should provide some protection against reverse polarity, since it's unidirectional and thus acts like a normal diode in that case. It's also supposed to fail shorted in case of overload. While it's not a "proper" reverse polarity protection method, it's still much better than nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gummy Bear Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 I replaced all the caps in mine. It's a kind of habit for me... All of my pre 2000 consoles have had new caps. Just because they look fine, doesn't mean they are fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 I dunno. I am a great believer in not fixing things that aren't broken. I have several systems, going back to a 1977 Sunnyvale 2600, and none of been recapped - and none have given me any problems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gummy Bear Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Even if old caps haven't leaked (yet), they are likely way outside of normal spec. I'm a big fan of keeping things running smoothly for as long as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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