Back to the Pioneer LaserActive PAC-S1, and today we’re removing the capacitors from the mainboard. There’s a rather generous collection of them on here, although the daughterboard looks even worse. Fortunately, I’ve got a video camera and a high-speed recording mode, so you won’t have to sit through every single minute of this!

I’ve encountered plenty of troublesome surface-mounted electrolytic capacitors in older equipment, particularly in the PC Engine and TurboGrafx range. These ones are from much the same era, so there’s a good chance at least some have started leaking. That’s enough reason for me to want them off the board.

I’m trying a slightly different removal method this time, using a pair of cutters to grip and gently work the capacitor bodies loose rather than my usual needle-nose pliers. The smaller ones are leaving their metal legs attached to the solder pads while the cans lift away. Not particularly elegant, perhaps, but it’s working rather well on this board.

Some of the capacitors are packed tightly together, and there’s the occasional chip getting in the way. Most are relatively small values, including quite a few 10 uF capacitors, along with larger 47 uF and 100 uF parts. Once I reached one of the 100 uF capacitors, there was no mistaking the mess underneath it. That one had definitely leaked!

After a fair bit of fiddling, all the surface-mounted electrolytic capacitors were off the mainboard. Beautiful! The solder pads were still looking considerably better than I expected, so this particular board seems to have tolerated the exercise rather well. There’s still the remaining leg material to remove and plenty of cleaning to do before any new capacitors can be fitted.

Next came the larger radial capacitor and rechargeable backup battery. Out came the Hakko 808 desoldering tool, which made short work of the capacitor connections. The battery was more stubborn, though, and I ended up spending quite a while trying to clear its mounting holes without damaging anything.

I also had a closer look at the battery specification. The one I removed was marked ML2016, but some of the replacement information I’d found pointed towards a different rechargeable lithium cell. I’m not convinced they’re necessarily interchangeable, so I’ll need to work out exactly what this circuit expects before fitting anything. Finding out by setting fire to a LaserActive would be a rather spectacular mistake!

For the new electrolytic capacitors, I’m planning to use Panasonic surface-mounted parts and a Rubycon radial capacitor. I’ve been able to choose higher voltage ratings in several places without changing the capacitance. For example, some of the 47 uF capacitors are going from 16 V to 35 V, the 100 uF parts from 6 V to 16 V, and the 10 uF parts from 16 V to 35 V.

The newer capacitors are also smaller, which makes life rather convenient when working with these crowded boards. Of course, I’ll still need to make sure the replacements are suitable for the circuit rather than simply choosing them because they fit. There’s quite enough work here already without creating new problems!

The old capacitors are now off the mainboard, and I’ve started cleaning away the grime and residue. There’s still solder-pad preparation and replacement work to do, so I can’t call this a completed recap just yet.

Mainboard capacitor removal, perfectly done for once! Now for the other board. Oh dear.