@GeoPeg posted:John: I assume you tied your big cap to the 2nd cap on the board? I wonder why the diode wasn't added before the 1st cap?
There's a bridge rectifier at the input of the power to the board. That's normally all you see for a power supply, that produces DC of the proper polarity no matter what comes in, AC or DC. The exact purpose of the diode between the two caps is a bit of a mystery to me, I can only imagine it was to prevent the cap from discharging back through the input circuitry, not sure exactly why. I'd love to see a schematic of all the power input circuitry.