ESC Power Cap Component

[monkeyracing]

Heya, I just replaced the power cap on one of my speed controls. I decided to cut the heat shrink off the one I removed and I'm wondering about a component attached to it.

It's a small PCB with what appear to be 4 very small, rectangular solder pads. The cap is attached to one end of it.

Is this some kind of heat sink, or could there be a component buried in it? It's completely flat, so I'm sure there's nothing under the solder. The other side of the PCB is completely blank.

Thanks for any insight you may offer.

[losikid]

Those pads are for, like a smd ceramic capacitor...That big electrolyte capacitor will help smooth out big power fluxuations, but there will still be alot of small ripples, the larger pads are for a cap to cover small to med ripples and the small pads are for tiny to small ripples.

[monkeyracing]

So...they've attached the board, but skipped the components for this application? Odd.

[ghtpdm5]

aye for sure on the components with austin. application wise he's a bit more learned than i, but definitely smd pads. you should easily be able to obtain the parts off the reel from digikey or mouser, and the larger ones are easy enough to install. the smaller ones can be a pain if you don't have the right tip or a nice tweezers.

what i do is lay out a nice pad of solder on one side, then place the component while still molten. then the component should be held in place nicely to do the other side easily. only things here that you really have to be careful of are nuking the pads or the ends of the cap. just be fairly quick about the heat and placement on the first side, other side is gravy if you can solder servo wire to a pad.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by monkeyracing

So...they've attached the board, but skipped the components for this application? Odd.

Ain't odd for china