Problems with 5v regulator

[b52down]

as far as i know, the voltage rating on caps is irrelevant

since this is a switching regulator, it has a built in oscillator--the external circuitry is necessary in order to control the rate of the switching cycle--hence control the output voltage. Larger caps take longer to charge up than smaller caps--thus could affect the switching cycles. I'm fairly certain if you were to connect a 12,000 V cap to this set up, it will fail! There is both an input and output capacitor to accomodate both the input and output voltage--the spec sheet pretty much covers which components should be used for a particular application.

[timmeh87]

internal inductance is a factor, but i dont know if there is much difference between a 25 and 50 volt cap, or whatever.

at any rate, youre right that its still worth trying to swap them out. gotta eliminate all the variables.