Ceramics for Cartridge Capacitor Replacements

[cptdipsh]

I'd say it's safe from the previous discussion!

There is no oscillation risk with the voltage regulator, there isn't greatly increased capacitance so the in-rush current should be OK (it's nearly the same 22uF at 5V DC bias thanks to the linked sims above, long traces/physical connection mechanism may also provide needed ohmage to control in-rush current issue, the capacitor isn't needed for successful operation anyway.

I approach projects in an Eye-of-Sauron way: get it done once and right and then memory-hole everything I learned about it. I saw the SNES itself needed its electrolytics replaced now (and did I it!), I can imagine a decade or two down the line cartridge caps might start leaking and I'd be sad I didn't just do it when I had everything loaded up in my mind.

So I did it now!

Definitely I will agree - right now there is no reason to go out of your way to replace cartridge caps unless you're already kitted up for doing all of your SNES' electrolytics. This is easy to tack onto a SNES electrolytic redo (and redo with polymers/1 ceramic, make sure to redo the soundboard caps if you got one! And replace the soundboard oscillator.). Objectively I have not seen any of my cartridge caps leaking - even one that was abused enough to make the battery leak. Well-cared-for cartridges should be fine for years more (maybe forever - most may just "dry out" and not leak, eventually).

I will report back if there are longevity issues associated with this, might as well also double as a canary-in-a-coalmine for future people wondering about cartridges. Input in this thread makes me confident there won't be longevity issues.

[93143]

I approach projects in an Eye-of-Sauron way: get it done once and right and then memory-hole everything I learned about it.

...oh, I think I get it. Because in the movie he sees you when you wear the ring, and then he forgets all about you when you take it off?

It's amazing how much less dumb the movies get when you've read the novel first and subconsciously shoehorn what you're seeing into the framework of what you already know from the book...

[Pokun]

I don't even remember that eye from the books, but it was a very long time ago I read them.

[93143]

I don't even remember that eye from the books, but it was a very long time ago I read them.

Okay, thread whiplash time I guess (probably gonna get cut and put in General Stuff):

It's less literal in the books. Sauron has re-formed his body (a terrifying visible manifestation of the evil of his mind and will, since he lost his shapeshifting ability in the Downfall of Númenor), and per Gollum the "Black Hand" has only four fingers (his defeat ~3000 years ago happened a bit differently). The line from the Akallabêth that says "the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure" refers to his gaze or attention, and should not be interpreted as implying that he has (or is) only one eye.

The "Eye of Sauron" is certainly a recurring image, not only in visions by the main characters but also in the livery of Mordor's orcs. But it seems at least partly mystical or metaphorical, representing Sauron's ability to search out and perceive things material, mental, and spiritual from a long way away. It's possibly related in part to the fact that the Dark Lord has obtained the Palantír of Minas Ithil (which is why using any of the other Palantíri is so dangerous), but even without the Stone a being of his nature would be capable of much more penetrating and longer-ranged perception than any man or elf.

Also, the effect of putting on the Ring is more subtle in the books. It doesn't expose you to Sauron's direct perception the same way, nor is it a long-range beacon for the Nazgûl (though it's worth noting that the Nazgûl are shown to be drawn to the Ring somewhat even without anybody wearing it, and putting it on would certainly strengthen this effect). If you're nearby, or at a high-visibility power site like the Seat of Seeing on Amon Hen, and Sauron or one of the Nazgûl is actively searching for you, wearing the Ring can get you located and caught fairly quickly. But Sam was able to use the Ring to hide from orcs in the Pass of Cirith Ungol, east of Minas Morgul and only a few hundred feet at most from Mordor proper, and nobody seems to have noticed (though he did feel "horribly and uniquely visible" and that "somewhere an Eye was searching for him").

When I read the books, I considered the Eye to be similar to Sauron's "arm", which also appears or is referred to a couple of times, and seems to represent his vaguely-defined ability to work his will at a distance. Some characters seem to see the "arm" as a vast, vague shadow, but it's not entirely clear if (say) a mouse, with no ability to apprehend the spiritual, would have seen anything at all.

...

Frodo's brief ordeal on Amon Hen seems at first glance to be the closest the books get to amnesia-Sauron from the movies. But in the book it's made clear that while Sauron noticed that someone was observing the Dark Tower from afar (one might say he felt the "Eye of Frodo" combining the powers of the Ring and of the Seat of Seeing), he did not instantly know who or precisely where, and had to search. You can be sure he did not forget this incident, but (thanks to Gandalf) he didn't really learn much of anything from it that he didn't already know. (This incident, by the way, also features the Arm of Sauron; if Frodo had kept the Ring on a moment longer it would have been bad...)

The most detailed description of the Eye of Sauron is from Frodo's vision in the Mirror of Galadriel:

In the black abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew, until it filled nearly all the Mirror. So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or to withdraw his gaze. The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.

Then the Eye began to rove, searching this way and that; and Frodo knew with certainty and horror that among the many things that it sought he himself was one. But he also knew that it could not see him - not yet, not unless he willed it.

The closest the books get to a literal, physical manifestation of the Eye of Sauron happens while Frodo and Sam are climbing Mount Doom, and roughly corresponds to a scene in the movie - but with an important difference: the Eye is not looking at them at any point:

One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed. The Eye was not turned to them: it was gazing north to where the Captains of the West stood at bay, and thither all its malice was now bent, as the Power moved to strike its deadly blow; but Frodo at that dreadful glimpse fell as one stricken mortally. His hand sought the chain about his neck.

Sauron's eyes have long been a distinguishing feature, perhaps dating all the way back to Tolkien's earliest writings, when he was Tevildo Prince of Cats (Tolkien was a dog person). In the Lay of Leithian, a much later work, Sauron the Deceiver (or Gorthaur the Cruel, or Thû, Lord of Werewolves) has pretty much settled into his final form as a character, and we get this (context: the heroes are disguised by powerful magic):

...his flaming eyes he on them bent,
and darkness black fell round them all.
Only they saw as through a pall
of eddying smoke those eyes profound
in which their senses choked and drowned.

He chanted a song of wizardry,
of piercing, opening, of treachery,
revealing, uncovering, betraying...

[cptdipsh]

I'm glad my tenuous-at-best metaphor spurred a very solid treatise on the Eye of Sauron! I meant that metaphor to mean something like "when the Eye of Sauron is looking at something it's intensely terrible"; when I start a project I try to do it intensely (sometimes too intensely and it's pretty terrible). The purpose of the intensity is that I want to ensure when I'm done I don't need to return to it. Again, tenuous metaphor at best but it felt fun~

Replacing the cartridge capacitors is definitely something I wanted to check off because electrolytics can fail, though clearly from my (limited) observations they aren't going to any time soon. But someone earlier in the thread (who likely sees many more cartridges than I) said they occasionally see leaks - so be wary travelers

[93143]

I'm glad my tenuous-at-best metaphor spurred a very solid treatise on the Eye of Sauron! I meant that metaphor to mean something like "when the Eye of Sauron is looking at something it's intensely terrible"; when I start a project I try to do it intensely (sometimes too intensely and it's pretty terrible). The purpose of the intensity is that I want to ensure when I'm done I don't need to return to it. Again, tenuous metaphor at best but it felt fun~

I see. That makes sense. Focus the full power of your mind on something, finish it, and then turn your attention elsewhere and flush the cache, losing the detailed understanding you've built up in your mind.

I think this sort of approach is probably common in people of high intelligence with the ability to focus intensely on something and the desire to exercise this ability to its fullest extent. I certainly do that sometimes, and the loss of all that intricate knowledge in my short-term memory has caught me out in situations where I really do need to remember what the heck I did.

I'm reminded of something byuu/Near once said, about how 65C816 assembly is a "write-only" language (he liked to exaggerate, but he had a point)...

(Sauron was probably like this. I wonder if he even remembers what he did to make the Master Ring. Fëanor said he couldn't recreate the Silmarils if he were to break them, and the context was that the goddess Yavanna wanted the light back because she couldn't recreate the Two Trees from scratch either.)

Replacing the cartridge capacitors is definitely something I wanted to check off because electrolytics can fail, though clearly from my (limited) observations they aren't going to any time soon. But someone earlier in the thread (who likely sees many more cartridges than I) said they occasionally see leaks - so be wary travelers

I've already lost a SNES to CPU failure, and I've never opened one; perhaps at some point I should see about recapping the one that's still working. Good to know that the cartridges can have this happen too...

I have a copy of Final Fantasy II that won't save properly. I suspect it's the battery; I haven't opened it in the ~25 years since I bought it secondhand, but maybe I should. It might be salvageable.

[cptdipsh]

I've already lost a SNES to CPU failure, and I've never opened one; perhaps at some point I should see about recapping the one that's still working. Good to know that the cartridges can have this happen too...

I have a copy of Final Fantasy II that won't save properly. I suspect it's the battery; I haven't opened it in the ~25 years since I bought it secondhand, but maybe I should. It might be salvageable.

I have the SNES with the CPU that will die. Hasn’t yet. In addition to the polymer replacements I’ve added ceramic caps on the power rails of the big chips and heatsinks. Targeting voltage spikes causing electromogration (decoupling caps) + electromigration due to high heat (heat sinks). Not sure which it is, from reading discussions it wasn’t clear why it dies, but those are two plausible causes and now they’re mitigated; I’ll find out eventually if it’s something else or it’s simply inevitable.

As for the battery, it’s easy! Get battery holders from Console5 and replace the tab battery with them (and a loose CR2032 Panasonic brand). You’ll need the special screw driver tip to open them too. The ifixit “moray” kit (cheapest kit) has it included (and the SNES one); lot of the cheap special screw drivers seem to be made of really soft metal that fails and strips. Takes some soldering, not too bad, and remember it’ll make a little Superfund site (the leaded solder).

Hope those tips help and thanks for the LOTR refresher

[Pokun]

I don't even remember that eye from the books, but it was a very long time ago I read them.

...
It's less literal in the books.
...
The line from the Akallabêth that says "the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure" refers to his gaze or attention, and should not be interpreted as implying that he has (or is) only one eye.

The "Eye of Sauron" is certainly a recurring image, not only in visions by the main characters but also in the livery of Mordor's orcs. But it seems at least partly mystical or metaphorical, representing Sauron's ability to search out and perceive things material, mental, and spiritual from a long way away.
...
The closest the books get to a literal, physical manifestation of the Eye of Sauron happens while Frodo and Sam are climbing Mount Doom, and roughly corresponds to a scene in the movie - but with an important difference: the Eye is not looking at them at any point

I see, so the eye was certainly in the book in some form, although it was (as common with Tolkien) described in a vague way that leaves the reader unsure if it's real or more of a description of the observer's feelings when seeing something mostly unfathomable.
I certainly remember Sauron's gaze in the crystal ball but not the searchlight-like eye of the tower. I remember lots of weird things though like Tom Bombadil which the movies skipped altogether.

I read the books sometime in the '90s so it's almost 30 years ago. I've decided to to reread the entire saga someday, including books I haven't read like Silmarillion.