How To Make Your Own Capacitor Discharge Tool

It is dangerous to work on a circuit board that has the big filter capacitor on it such as the one found in Switch
Mode Power Supplies.  One must discharge the voltage in the capacitor before begin any troubleshooting
work. Once it is discharged then you are safe to perform the troubleshooting job. There are couple of ways for
discharging the voltage in the capacitor and one of the safest ways to discharge the capacitor is by using
resistor.

 A filter capacitor in a switch mode power supply

This repair article is about how you can make a hand tool to discharge the big Switch Mode Power Supplies
(SMPS) filter capacitor using a simple  extract tool, two pieces of 470 Ohms x 7W resistors, two probe tips
and some shrinkable tube. The resistors are connected in series and you need to cover it with shrinkable
tubes. Please see the photos below:
 Shrink Tubes

You need to solder the 2 pieces of 470 ohm 7 watt resistors in series
It is easy to use. Just place the tool across the capacitor pins (either way) and wait for few seconds and the
voltage inside the capacitor will be discharged by the resistors.
Once the capacitor has been discharged to very low voltage, now you can start to perform the repair work.

Conclusion- Once the capacitor has fully discharged then the power supply is safe to work on it. This
handmade tool is cheap and easy to make and every repairer should have one in their repair bench.

Note: This discharge tool is capable only to discharge any electrolytic capacitor that has lower than 500Vdc.
Please do not use it to discharge any voltage that is higher than 500 VDC