Caiman Mods

[Graybags]

Had the Caiman for around 3 of weeks now and it's smoothed and deepened up nicely, now beginning to get itchy fingers for these mods. Was originally just going to stash them away for a few weeks but not sure I can help myself now. Party time

Thanks Dave again for going above the call of duty in putting this together and Martin, Ron and Stan for offering up the Rubies.

Cracking!

[Stratmangler]

Had the Caiman for around 3 of weeks now and it's smoothed and deepened up nicely, now beginning to get itchy fingers for these mods. Was originally just going to stash them away for a few weeks but not sure I can help myself now. Party time

Thanks Dave again for going above the call of duty in putting this together and Martin, Ron and Stan for offering up the Rubies.

Cracking!

I'll give you some very sound advice - put your components in a safe place and enjoy your Caiman unchanged for a while more.

When you take your soldering iron to it you'll have to undergo a further running in period, and it'll not be a quick process.

Just my £ 0.02 worth.

Chris

[leo]

I'll give you some very sound advice - put your components in a safe place and enjoy your Caiman unchanged for a while more.

When you take your soldering iron to it you'll have to undergo a further running in period, and it'll not be a quick process.

Just my £ 0.02 worth.

Chris

Although I'm a known fiddler this is extremely good advice

[StanleyB]

The PCB I use for modification has not been in a case for months. It saves time taking it apart every time I get a bright idea.

[Tony G]

Given that the Rubycon non-polar seem to have achieved "unobtainium" status, are the Nichicon non-polar worth a go instead ?
Other polar types seem more of a sideways idea to me, though someone seemed happy with Silmic II.

[StanleyB]

With so many TC-7520s and Caimans out there, it is no surprise if we created a world shortage of the Rubycons.

As long as the caps are chunky 9(i.e. have a good diameter), they'll have enough of the 'right ingredients'. The skinny non-polarized ones are more for looks than for action.

[MartinT]

Given that the Rubycon non-polar seem to have achieved "unobtainium" status, are the Nichicon non-polar worth a go instead ?

The green Nichicon MUSE caps are fine and are the same size as the Rubycons.

[Covenant]

Jimmy at Tirna has been in touch to say that he is willing to do the upgrades. He has had some trouble with e-mails so apologies to anyone who has not had a reply.
He wants to do a trial run on one dac to see if there are any problems so dont send them off just yet.

[HighFidelityGuy]

I didn't run into any serious problems when I installed the Murrata's, Rubycon's and Wilma's the other day. The 5V reg was a bit more tricky to de-solder than the 10V one for some reason and the Rubycon caps are a bit wider than ones they replace which makes them a bit tricky to squeeze together. Probably the trickiest part is removing the opamp board for the first time due to the hot melt glue and sticky pad. That takes quite a lot of patients and care. Other than that it's pretty straight forward so I'm sure Tirna won't have any problems.

Good luck with the upgrades everyone!

[Tony G]

it is no surprise if we created a world shortage of the Rubycons

and the expletive deleted Muratas, Farnell UK seem to be the only ones with 7805 but don't have 7812 and want 20 squids min order and Farnell here have the 7812 ex US at no extra charge (though not cheap either). - grrrrrr - my rotten timing again - might have to repaint the bathroom instead.