[time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question

John Bievenour john at bvnhr.net
Fri May 1 21:42:46 UTC 2020


I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to SMD), so please forgive the basic question.

I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency (pin 3 never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle to fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000.

When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, which I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the right hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by a stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row.

I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of searching and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out:

1) is my identification correct?
2) is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the top makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ?
3) is the tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)?
4) what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)?
5) for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and series just by decoding the writing on it?

Thank you very much in advance.
- John


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