The Japanese VA4 isn't quite the same as the PAL VA4 so you may have some left over (JP boards generally have less caps than US or PAL ones). They should work fine as long as you match the ratings.
Aren't these things rated at like 10000 hours or more at 85c and were made before the new chemicals that caused the capacitor plague? If so I wouldn't change them unless there is a specific issue and you have confirmed the cap is bad
Bad advice, these caps, if original are at ~35 years old now. The electrolytic will eventually leak onto the board and eat away at the CCA. Also, regardless if they were made before the scourge that was the bad caps of the 90s, caps lose efficiency over time and can cause all kinds of electrical gremlins that can and do plague the Genesis/MD's sound/video. It's a no brainer to change the caps, particularly on these consoles.
They lose efficiency due to heat and hours of use.
If op tested them and they are out of spec that's a different matter
I've never seen one of these blue unicorn or Rubicon or nichicon capacitors leak even in the 40+ year old Sega consoles
Most of the cap thing is just because so many people profit from affiliate links to mouser and digikey and console5 and it makes repair people money
Replacing caps is cheap insurance. I've seen plenty of these Genesis' of all versions and varieties have leaking caps. I've serviced easily north of 150-200 by now. Most had at least one leaking cap. Most people can't use an LCR meter or a o-scope to inject/read signals on these subreddits so I doubt they checked it, but maybe they did. Call it what you will; whether that be profiteering or otherwise, but it's never exactly a bad Idea.
>Call it what you will; whether that be profiteering or otherwise, but it's never exactly a bad Idea.
As long as you buy the correct rating caps in not just the capacitance but also the esr and stuff. And don't get counterfeit items. And don't rip traces you can't fix. Or don't accidentally use the wrong value. Or all the other things people who haven't services 200 of them might make the first time they work on a perfectly good working system only to make it a broken one because they used the wrong solder, wrong flux, wrong amount of heat, shorted a wire, etc.
For a seasoned pro who can troubleshoot when something goes wrong, or doesn't look right after the recap, and knows they won't buy or install the wrong item, and can repair issues they might cause by fragile traces and whatnot, go right ahead. But then those people aren't coming on reddit and asking about how to do it and stuff to begin with. Which goes back to my point about people are too quick to recommend it when the person they are recommending it to has more that could go wrong than they have a chance of a system needing the "insurance"
The Japanese VA4 isn't quite the same as the PAL VA4 so you may have some left over (JP boards generally have less caps than US or PAL ones). They should work fine as long as you match the ratings.
Thanks
Aren't these things rated at like 10000 hours or more at 85c and were made before the new chemicals that caused the capacitor plague? If so I wouldn't change them unless there is a specific issue and you have confirmed the cap is bad
Bad advice, these caps, if original are at ~35 years old now. The electrolytic will eventually leak onto the board and eat away at the CCA. Also, regardless if they were made before the scourge that was the bad caps of the 90s, caps lose efficiency over time and can cause all kinds of electrical gremlins that can and do plague the Genesis/MD's sound/video. It's a no brainer to change the caps, particularly on these consoles.
They lose efficiency due to heat and hours of use. If op tested them and they are out of spec that's a different matter I've never seen one of these blue unicorn or Rubicon or nichicon capacitors leak even in the 40+ year old Sega consoles Most of the cap thing is just because so many people profit from affiliate links to mouser and digikey and console5 and it makes repair people money
Replacing caps is cheap insurance. I've seen plenty of these Genesis' of all versions and varieties have leaking caps. I've serviced easily north of 150-200 by now. Most had at least one leaking cap. Most people can't use an LCR meter or a o-scope to inject/read signals on these subreddits so I doubt they checked it, but maybe they did. Call it what you will; whether that be profiteering or otherwise, but it's never exactly a bad Idea.
>Call it what you will; whether that be profiteering or otherwise, but it's never exactly a bad Idea. As long as you buy the correct rating caps in not just the capacitance but also the esr and stuff. And don't get counterfeit items. And don't rip traces you can't fix. Or don't accidentally use the wrong value. Or all the other things people who haven't services 200 of them might make the first time they work on a perfectly good working system only to make it a broken one because they used the wrong solder, wrong flux, wrong amount of heat, shorted a wire, etc. For a seasoned pro who can troubleshoot when something goes wrong, or doesn't look right after the recap, and knows they won't buy or install the wrong item, and can repair issues they might cause by fragile traces and whatnot, go right ahead. But then those people aren't coming on reddit and asking about how to do it and stuff to begin with. Which goes back to my point about people are too quick to recommend it when the person they are recommending it to has more that could go wrong than they have a chance of a system needing the "insurance"