Capacitors, manuals for AG-1980P and AG-5710? [GUIDE]

[MrPete]

Now it's my turn to contribute a little bit to this community.

I've got an AG-5710p. I have service manuals for both the 5710 and 1980.

I've done a BIG pile of research:

• cap replacement recommendations from Panasonic over the last 25 years.
• Downloaded a ton of PDF files on that, plus
• several current catalogs
• cap availability and specs at digikey and mouser
• created cross reference spreadsheets for a lot of this
• validated via visual examination of caps and CBA's on my 5710

Attached is a multi-tab spreasheet with a lot of hopefully-helpful info:

• CBA list and ID's for 1980p and 5710, and how they correlate (or not)
• Cap list for both, how they correlate, Schematic C## values, CBA "series" (base Cnnn number) and marking Cnn numbers, and combined... all validated and cross correlated for 1980 and 5710
• Conversion from original Cap part numbers to current cap P/N's, then further to actual available cap's at both digikey and mouser (as of Dec 2022.)
• I just ordered a complete set of caps from Digikey. A little over US$70 including tax and shipping. (Mouser has NO stock and NO substitute at all for one cap )

A few notes and additional hints.

• Documented cap C#### is always a combination of two numbers:

1. The CBA printed cap # (usually a short number like C1-C99)
2. The CBA "series" base number, usually in the thousands, like C4800, C1000, etc.

• Some CBA's have a single series for the whole board
• Some CBA's, including the main board, have several physical sections
• NOTE that some caps are actually on the back side. These are always some kind of later engineering change and not well documented

• Panasonic has made MANY changes since these VCR's were made
• Whole series of caps have been updated to new series. Sometimes multiple version changes. Not easy to just convert from old to new
• More recently, they simply dropped manufacturing of ALL low capacitance 'lytic caps. There are no Panasonic 'lytic caps below 1 uF anymore.

Digikey and Mouser are both good vendors with interesting tools, but quite different. At this point I generally prefer Digikey tools.

(Note: you need to create a free account on each to use the tools I'll discuss)

Mouser:

• General part search is pretty nice: for each attribute you can select a value, OR select value then choose ">=" or "<="... so it's easy to say "16 volts OR MORE" for example.
• You can create a text file with part-number|myID|quantity rows, upload into the "Project Manager" as a "BOM" (then sort on myID to keep your own order, kinda) and see availability and cost of all parts at once
• You can add additional parts to a project
• You can NOT edit an existing part however. Easier to edit locally and upload a new set
• NOT always easy to find substitute parts for those unavailable... but there IS one good tool: once looking at a part, scroll down. There's a checkable list of attributes, then they will search for all parts that match. BUT it's not as flexible as their general part search...
• If a part is not available in stock, they don't suggest alternatives.

Digikey

• General part search is similarly nice
• For any given part, if not in stock there's a link to show suggested substitutions. Mostly nice.
• You can upload a list with "partNumber Quantity" rows. That becomes a list. Quick availability and cost of the whole pile.
• Easy to add parts to list, and to edit parts.
• Easy to both keep your desired part number, and add alternates (this is how part of my spreadsheet was made: the theoretical "correct" p/n, and separately which p/n I actually chose )
• Overall, I found it relatively quick to edit my list of over 50 p/n's and turn it into a list of actually available parts. Nice.

NOTES on attached XLS file

• CAPS tab is currently in P/N order (then sorted by CBA and Cnn)
• P/N tab highlights parts at DigiKey and Mouser whose available p/n was different from what is supposedly "ideal".
• If you examine the formulae behind the columns for Series, cV and cCap (code for Volts, code for Cap) etc, you can see how Panasonic P/N's break down into various component parts
• I did NOT pull in the cap diameters. That would have been a Good Thing. Maybe someone else can add that.
• There are one or two remaining anomalies. I'm waiting for a message back from Panasonic to resolve one key question... but I went ahead and ordered caps anyway

Here are additional PDF files I collected, possibly helpful

• AG-5710 Service Manual 1998. ALSO includes K-mech service/adjustment manual at the end (around p120?) (obviously scanned at not-perfect quality. Sorry )
• Several key Panasonic part discontinuation notices
• Documentation of Pan SMD caps, all series.

One last hint: to create an uploadable part list usable at Digikey,

• make a column in the P/N tab (AFTER the quantity col!)
• say "DK list" in row 1
• type this into row 2: =CONCATENATE(D2," ",F2)
• copy that to the rest of the rows
• now copy the whole shebang to your clipboard (select it all, press ctrl-C)
• log in to Digikey, create a list, and paste the above in.
• wait, wait, wait... then boom you have your parts list with cost and availability

[lordsmurf]

Nice contribution.

[MrPete]

BTW, there are TWO key differences between the 5710 and 1980:

• 1980 has a tuner
• 5710 has 25 pin RS-232 interface for external control

I don't care about either one, so those are meaningless to me.



BTW, I was briefly excited that the old B&H catalog LordSmurf shared showed some spec differences in the video sections between the two: 5710 with 47dB S/N, 1980 44dB... and they talked about Digital Noise Reduction on the 5710...


...until I dug in. Just marketing stuff.


Both are identical circuitry.
Both have 44dB S/N on VHS, 47dB on S-VHS
Both have DNR in their TBC circuits.

[bever]

Good info and thanks. I was probably at least partly responsible for the last info which was full of errors. IIRC and its been years ago I just ordered a bunch of caps that were the same uf value (digikey) and at least the minimum voltage value.
Sometimes it is hard to to get matching capacitance and voltage ratings in a replacement part. But yes some (many?) errors also probably. Now my real problem is I am just not good at smd compomet replacement. Too small and my eyesight is shite especially depth perception. I under stand the mechanics of it having held a F level NASA certification as well as commercial aerospace soldering certification. Well we all got problems right ha ha. Good Holidays all

[MrPete]

Definitely not going to be easy. I hope to use a nice big magnifying glass (ideal: a dissecting microscope )AND, I get to play with an amazing soldering tool, that produces instantaneous microwave radiation between the tips! Instant heat, instant off.

[MrPete]

Oops.

I just now received (FedEx delays) my Digikey order. I made a mistake: cell D3 in the current spreadsheet should be for a radial cap but I accidentally chose an SMD.


A more appropriate part, still available and with good ripple/ESR is Nichicon UHE2A560MPD


Updated spreadsheet attached.