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I'm finding that numerous builds of mine work excellently the first few times I use them. I box them up, and they suddenly don't work. Through fault finding, I've noticed each time it's not just a wiring/ground issue, but it's a component failing somewhere in the circuit. Is it common for components to work for a while before shorting out or dying? I'm starting to suspect some 1uf poly film caps as the suspect, as crazy as that sounds.

I'm building a Chunk Chunk and I would love to run it at 18 Volts with the road rage charge pump. I'm seeing a 1n4004 diode in the power filtering section of the schematic, so I'm wondering if I should place a 1N4746A (18V Zener) there instead.

Thanks!