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Hi there,

I am on the hunt for a replacement power capacitor for my Novak Atom. Should also be the same as used on the Cyclone from memory.

Would anyone know the actual specs for this particular unit? I have done some googling and can only find a reference to a part number. All the current ones for brushless controllers are different I am led to believe.

Any help appreciated!


Cheers

From a bit of poking around, the caps are 10v 4700uf and Novak won't specify the ESR, so people are recommending that a cap rated to 105 degrees should be a low enough ESR. This fits that spec....
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?vendor=0&keywords=493-11294

There are plenty of others so have a look, I linked to the one that provided the spec that were provided and had the longest average life at 105 degrees. If you can find an ESR value you could narrow it down better

I wrote to novak a few years ago with the same question. John responded back saying they are 16v 680uF caps. The part number is 5682 if you want genuine parts or you can buy them online for cheaper.

Interesting.... But id take a Novak techs advise over the bit I searched any day! In the manual it specs a part number 5670, which doesn't come up on the Novak chart, however in a pic of a cyclone which uses the same kit it shows this...proving Richies post

my later Cyclones came with Novak's capacitor-bank-on-a-PCB not just single cyl

This is quite confusing indeed. I found this page on the Novak site.

http://www.teamnovak.com/products/discontinued/power_cap.html

I guess as long as the capacitor doesn't damage the speedy it should matter.


Cheers

Found these at parts-express: https://www.parts-express.com/680uf-16v-high-temp-radial-capacitor--020-1712

For that application all you need is a regular cap. At least 12v working voltage. Higher if you are using 3s lipo or higher count nicd cells. 1000uf is probably an ideal value. Low ESR has some benefits but most standard parts now have decent ESR compared to years ago. Digikey mouser jameco many other places have these type in stock.

Thank you all for your help, I have located some 16v 1000uf units at my local electronics store.

Cheers,

Warren

I recently contacted Novak about the capacitors for the cyclone esc and was told the 5688 power cap is the replacement for the original one but this has recently been discontinued and they said the new triple power cap can be used also... I wanted a factory type look so I got Cpl of the 5688 to use.. The 5688 has a small pc board with the wires already soldered to it and the cyclone esc has the wires coming from the case already so I cut two lines either side of the pcb and pealed back the shrink to allow access to solder the esc wires to the board then fold back the shrink and cover the whole thing with some single cell shrink for that factory look. The pcb board does not need to be removed,it is fine to leave attached to cap... If you do much of a search you will find that they strongly recommend the use of rc specific power caps for the best performance and safety of your esc.. The esc manufacturer's don't exactly advertise the specs for their power cap they just provide basic information so it can be hard to make sense of them so if you plan on using your esc I would recommend the Novak caps only..

There is no magic in an electrolytic capacitor. Its simply there for transient load filtering. No worries on a generic replacement unless its a crappy vendor. Use japanese brands and you are good. Chemicon nichicon and panasonic are excellent choices.

The ones I sourced are 'Suntan' brand (no joke). Chinese manufacture I suspect. I'll see how they go.

Cheers

The Novaks seem to use Samxon caps which are generally regarded as "good" in the motherboard world.

The Samxon low ESR 680uf 16v caps are about $.44 a pop here
http://www.badcaps.net/store/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=115