Use Meanwell or equivalent drivers, very good quality, look for 85-277 VAC input range, that is wider than 90-260 and 100-250, and they will have better surge protection as well. (For panel lamps)...
LED tube driver circuits are sold here, 20 cents and up!
Just drill holes in the housing for ventilation...or mount them on a large heat sink, take proper rated wires to LED strip...those rarely fail, the LED strips.
I have 24 V / 10A SMPS, took them apart, I can vouch for the component and build quality of Meanwell, top class.
LED tube driver circuits are sold here, 20 cents and up!
Just drill holes in the housing for ventilation...or mount them on a large heat sink, take proper rated wires to LED strip...those rarely fail, the LED strips.
I have 24 V / 10A SMPS, took them apart, I can vouch for the component and build quality of Meanwell, top class.
MeanWell is indeed a good example of a Chinese manufacturer that knows what it's doing and does it well.
I have taken a good look at several of their PSUs and I'm always impressed. So when I started to see Japanese caps in some of their more affordable PSU ranges being replaced with Lelon and (IIRC) Jamicon, I wasn't worried. It's one of the reasons why I started this thread.
I have taken a good look at several of their PSUs and I'm always impressed. So when I started to see Japanese caps in some of their more affordable PSU ranges being replaced with Lelon and (IIRC) Jamicon, I wasn't worried. It's one of the reasons why I started this thread.
The irony about the strained relations between China and Taiwan is that a lot of the high end production units are owned by Taiwanese entities, and physical operations are in mainland China, high wages in Taiwan means they focus more on stuff like laptops.
Foxconn (Apple products maker), Gigabyte, Biostar, MSI, Asus /Asrock, and many others operate in this fashion.
It is the management's decision to source parts and build product, and that applies at other locations as well, due to lower wages and tariff advantages a lot of production has shifted to Vietnam, even Cambodia.
You are buying a MeanWell product, they are responsible , does not matter where it was made, it must be to their quality standards.
Foxconn (Apple products maker), Gigabyte, Biostar, MSI, Asus /Asrock, and many others operate in this fashion.
It is the management's decision to source parts and build product, and that applies at other locations as well, due to lower wages and tariff advantages a lot of production has shifted to Vietnam, even Cambodia.
You are buying a MeanWell product, they are responsible , does not matter where it was made, it must be to their quality standards.
In my field of injection molding, the government imposed stiff duties on Chinese machines, but a free trade agreement meant that Vietnamese machines came in duty free, so did product from Thailand.
Vietnam to USA is duty free...so Chinese machines are assembled after final machining in Vietnam, and come in duty free!
Daikin air conditioners used to come from Thailand to India, they are building a plant here once sufficient sales volume has been generated.
The components must meet the requirements of MeanWell, if they decide to use different brands, they must bear in mind the reputation and warranty costs of such decisions as well.
Vietnam to USA is duty free...so Chinese machines are assembled after final machining in Vietnam, and come in duty free!
Daikin air conditioners used to come from Thailand to India, they are building a plant here once sufficient sales volume has been generated.
The components must meet the requirements of MeanWell, if they decide to use different brands, they must bear in mind the reputation and warranty costs of such decisions as well.
"You are buying a MeanWell product, they are responsible , does not matter where it was made, it must be to their quality standards."
"The components must meet the requirements of MeanWell, if they decide to use different brands, they must bear in mind the reputation and warranty costs of such decisions as well."
Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make, legitimate Chinese brands can compete with Japanese caps on quality nowadays. I mean, it took Mean Well long enough to start using other than Japanese caps in their products, so they must have faith in them, and probably a lot of test data backing up their decisions.
"The components must meet the requirements of MeanWell, if they decide to use different brands, they must bear in mind the reputation and warranty costs of such decisions as well."
Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make, legitimate Chinese brands can compete with Japanese caps on quality nowadays. I mean, it took Mean Well long enough to start using other than Japanese caps in their products, so they must have faith in them, and probably a lot of test data backing up their decisions.
This irony could also apply to strained relations between China and Japan or South Korea, yet they too manufacture stuff in China. Better not delve any deeper into this on this forum, though.
I noticed this shift to Vietnam too. Marantz' parent company, Masimo, seems to have done the same. 10 years ago the high end Marantz stuff was made in Japan and the lower end stuff was made in China. Nowadays, the high end stuff is still made in Japan but the lower end stuff says "Made in Vietnam" on the back. I guess the other brands under Masimo's ownerswhip (Boston Acoustics, Bowers & Wilkins, Classé, Definitive Technology, Denon, Polk) are probably also made in either Japan or Vietnam.
Yes, Chinese manufacturers have been capable of making components to the highest standards for some time, when that kind of quality is required and the budget is there.
But from a DIY perspective, I'd still be wary of using Chinese electrolytic caps for a couple of reasons.
One is that I don't know which brands are the right quality, and will be reliable for a good long lifetime. I'm not sure the data is all in yet on that. The extra I need to pay for well-known Japanese brands is small on the tiny volumes I'll ever need.
Secondly, China appears to have no standards at all on labeling products (at least judging by what I've seen), so how can I know that some caps named as being a good brand really are that brand? Or that completely different quality caps aren't made with the same brand labeling in different factories?
...Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make.
You, and I, and everybody else on this forum often don't have, or don't use, the secure, vetted, professional distribution channels that Meanwell does. Or Dell. Or Apple. Pick the company you want.
So it doesn't matter if you find a certain brand in some box from some factory. It doesn't. It's irrelevant.
What matters is the distribution channel that you got your caps from is not the same as theirs, and "our" channels have some brand names - and their endless one letter different versions - so utterly contaminated with fakes that you will never know if what you have in your hand is even from the same continent, much less the same factory.
This is why I never buy parts outside of places like Digikey & Mouser.
You, and I, and everybody else on this forum often don't have, or don't use, the secure, vetted, professional distribution channels that Meanwell does. Or Dell. Or Apple. Pick the company you want.
So it doesn't matter if you find a certain brand in some box from some factory. It doesn't. It's irrelevant.
What matters is the distribution channel that you got your caps from is not the same as theirs, and "our" channels have some brand names - and their endless one letter different versions - so utterly contaminated with fakes that you will never know if what you have in your hand is even from the same continent, much less the same factory.
This is why I never buy parts outside of places like Digikey & Mouser.
Bought some 220uF 35v Samxon a few years ago , and I found one of them with "their top open " just sitting in a plastic case. Maybe improper storage with humid environment but I never seen caps go like that besides from working circuits.
My experience too.
To recap my F6B I avoided all famous named brands (Farnell and Mouser are probably Ok, but I didn't use them, I just eBay'd it), and instead chose Chinese branded items, as I figured they'd at least be trying.
I ended up with Changxin for most, they work fine for me and are better than the old 1977 Nichicon that were starting to leak (well, the 35V parts running at 30V leaked!). If I want them better, then I'll bypass with film.
I'm sure one day they'll fail, but 'getting what I paid for', even if the specs are exaggerated (I overspecced the voltages, the capacitances I measured were spot on) was better than some shiny fake.
I tend to avoid 'audio parts' on the basis that I'm pretty sure what I want a capacitor to do, and have become 'somewhat skeptical' of 'audio' parts aftter watching the Hifi industry decline from some interesting and imaginative stuff in the 1970s into fancy cable pushers, and 'mains conditioners'.
Hifi mains fuses, anyone? LOL.
My view of 'audio' mains cables, naturally, is unprintable, needless to say if a difference is heard than it's back to the drawing board for the amplifier designer, or the owner needs to get out more
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264409177371
Huawei Chang ( www.huaweiec.cn) is a reputable chinese manufacturer and tme.eu is selling some of their portfolio. I've seen Chang branded capacitors on consumer electronics boards from major manufacturers. ChengX ( chengx.com ) is a different well known brand, but I have only seen it on chinese boards. Changxin is yet another manufacturer, but as far as I know their capacitors are at lower quality tier. I bought some of the green Chengxin capacitors from ebay and they are somewhat ok, but ESR and loss factor aren't great, I will not use them as main filter capacitors inside a switched mode power supply. I was unable to find the specification sheet on the manufacturer website (they only list film capacitors), so it may be a rebranded product. I am using them to prototype and to repair cheap items that are likely to be scrapped in less than 10 years from now.
But that's not what this thread is about. It's not about wether or not we can get genuine items or by what supplier.
It is purely about the hypothesis that legitimate Chinese brands of capacitors can compete on quality with legitimate Japanese caps (or whatever other well known quality brands).
I'm aware about the counterfeiting business and buying off FleaBay and the likes, you just have to assume everything is fake until proven otherwise.
Chengxin or Changxin?
If I really needed 105C performance, running near the voltage limit and needing the lowESR for an SMPS than I'd probably go for a long life cap from Farnell. For an Toyota ECU recap I selected top brand long life caps.
For audio, I think topology and concept matter more, but when they are used a bit I'll post back how the Changxin perform, so far so good but I've only been testing, and the main caps for the output transistors have been bypassed anyway by 22uF films, so the sound is a bit unknown currently
I have had cheap unbranded caps bulge in cheap chinese class D amps, after not much usage, so I know stuff like that is out there, and after finding some boards I bought with fake LM2594 chips running at 50kHz (should be 150kHz) and reading of fake 7805 chips, it's a bit tragic Even fake opamps now, just 'why'?
Strangely Marantz gear 20-30 years ago was often labelled made in Singapore but actually made just over the border in a free trade zone in Malaysia