So, I've been experimenting with an old Bitcoin miner for a project. Said Bitcoin miner draws 170W per blade with two blades, and takes PCI Express four-pin power connectors for its 12V needs. I've got an old PSU which claims 18A on its PCI-E rail and another 18A on another 12V rail (216W per rail, comfortably above the needs of the Bitcoin blades). Quick wiring mod and job's a good 'un. It's been running happy ever since. Until just now, when it exploded. POP! POP-POP-POP! Plumes of smoke! Angry UPSes bleeping at me! That oh-so-cancerous stench of an electrolytic capacitor which is mad as hell and just won't take it any more! IMG_20161208_110420 by Gareth Halfacree, on Flickr Whoopsie. Impressively, the UPSes kept everything up until I could reset the circuit breaker in the cellar (knocking the cat's litter tray down the cellar stairs in the process - the second time I've managed to do that negotiating the extremely cluttered hall that leads there) and nothing else appears to have died. Stinks in here still, though.
You were definitely cutting it close, and capacitor ageing was likely to blame. Ah well! No harm, no foul.
That cap is mains rated, so it wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with a heavily loaded 12V rail. It looks like a Nichicon, which is a good brand, so maybe something else failed first and just took the cap with it?
If I recall correctly capacitor ageing is about 10% of output capacity per year assuming worst case scenario. Sent from my SM-N915FY using Tapatalk
