Pierced a capacitor on Arduino board

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

While using some cutters I accidentally took a small chunk off one of the electrolytic capacitors on my Arduino board. It's only a small piece but it was just enough to expose a bit of the inside of the capacitor. I covered the exposed part with some hot glue.
The board is behaving perfectly normally at the moment but should I be worried about future problems that may occur as a result? I don't know for sure but I get the feeling that the capacitor can take a bit of damage like this and still function.

I'm hoping someone can give me advice on whether I should replace this board or not to worry about it.

2

Not worry about it. Worst case, buy another cap and replace it. Sounds like you only took a piece of the cover off.

3

In case it shorts in the future, I would replace the cap now.

4

Pretty funny though. :wink: I pulled a pin out of a socket tonight, after I has about 8 components already soldered to it. :frowning:

These things happen. I'd replace the cap at your earliest opportunity. You know the corollary to Murphy's Law: it will fail at the worst possible time.

5

I'm hoping someone can give me advice on whether I should replace this board or not to worry about it.

I wouldn't worry about it as long as it works now and the damaged spot is sealed. You can always get an inexpensive backup board.

6

So we have half the responses saying it will be fine, the other half saying it will fail in the future.

Who can you believe?

Let's say 50% chance it will fail eventually!

I have to say - replace it. If that is, the continued reliability of the board is important to you. If just for the occasional experiment, no fuss.

7

Mauriciojosearcadio:
While using some cutters I accidentally took a small chunk off one of the electrolytic capacitors on my Arduino board. It's only a small piece but it was just enough to expose a bit of the inside of the capacitor. I covered the exposed part with some hot glue.
The board is behaving perfectly normally at the moment but should I be worried about future problems that may occur as a result? I don't know for sure but I get the feeling that the capacitor can take a bit of damage like this and still function.

I'm hoping someone can give me advice on whether I should replace this board or not to worry about it.

These are probably capacitors on the voltage regulator. There is a wide latitude of what is correct and in some cases whether it is even needed.

Will the cap short? Unlikely, it is more likely that the electrolyte might dry out and it will lose capacitance. Many electrolytics are scored on top to vent if they overheat, they puff up.

At this point I would do the least amount of damage. If you feel comfortable unsoldering a cap on a double sided board, replace it. Otherwise, you have sealed it back up, and it is stable. Electrolytics are fairly tough old school devices. Unless this is mission critical, I would move on.

8

Let's say 50% chance it will fail eventually!

Pretty much a given that man made products will fail 100% eventually. 8)