[sdiy] Starter Components - Capacitors

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Wednesday 12 January 2005 05:00 pm, Chris CROSSKEY wrote:
> Polystyrene for 10pf to 1nF in E6

Why go down as far as 10 pF?  I find it extremely rare to even run into values 
below 100 pF or so,  and most of those are ceramics.

> Polyester from 1nF to 1uF in E3

I don't see these going up to 1 uF all that often either.

> Tantalum from 1uF to 22uF in E3
> Some big electrolytics to use as power resevoirs.... say 2200uF at 40 or
> 63V and some 1000uF at 16 or 25V
>
> E6 series is 10, 22, 33, 47, 68, 100, 220, 330 etc
> E3 series is 10, 22, 47, 100, 220, 470 etc
>
> If you get offered some cheap caps at bigger than the values for there
> normal range (10uF polyesters, 2n2F polystyrene etc then snap em up :-))
> You could replace the polystyrene with silver mica, but I'd avoid ceramic
> until you know where you can get away with it and remember that if you fit
> the tantalums or electrolytics back to front they will explode on power
> up......

Yeah they will!  :-)

> chrisc
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James Howe" <jwh at allencreek.com>
> To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 9:19 PM
> Subject: [sdiy] Starter Components - Capacitors
>
> > Since I'm fairly new to synth-diy work, and electronics in general, I
> > don't have a large amount of electronic components laying around which I
> > can use to build things.  From looking at various synth schematics I can
> > get a pretty good idea of the types of transistors, diodes, op amps, etc.
> > to get.  Resistors are not a big problem either.  However, I'm stumped
> > when it comes to capacitors.  There are so many different types, sizes,
> > materials, etc. that I'm unsure of what to include in a set of basic
> > components to have on hand for building/experimentation purposes.  Can
> > anyone recommend a reasonable set of capacitors (size, type, etc) that
> > would be good to have on hand for synth work (i.e. building VCO's, VCA's,
> > etc.)

I'd suggest seeing what you can get a hold of as far as older equipment is 
concerned and scrapping stuff.  At least that's what works for me.  Newer is 
likely not to yield as much in the way of useful parts,  though of course 
some things are going to be in pretty much equipment,  like power supplies,  
etc.  I have big piles of this stuff,  boxes of resistors,  caps,  assorted 
semiconductors,  etc. and haven't had to buy much of anything in years.  <g>