Surface mount part replacement

[Christopher Bardin]

Yes, if the part had only two leads you can easily
replace it yourself.  Just pull gently (sideways) as
you heat the solder joint or you may pull the copper
pad off the board.  My advice is, don't remove the old
part until you have the new one at hand.  You may
forget the polarity.

Furthermore, you don't have to replace it with a
surface mount part, you can use a standard leaded part
of nominally the same electrical specifications. 
Surface mount is used only because it is far cheaper
to manufacture a board with surface mount parts, but
pretty much only for large production runs.  The board
itself is cheaper - no through-holes necessary for
component leads, but most importantly the processes of
placing and soldering surface mount components are
much more easily automated than can be done for leaded
components.  Untouched by human hands.

Finally, in my experience you can always replace an
aluminum electrolytic with a tantalum elelctrolytic of
equal or even considerably lower capacitance.  Just
observe the polarity and voltage rating.- Christopher Bardin

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