Newbies Capacitor Rule-of-Thumb guide

[Chris60601]

Capacitor rule of thumb: What to use and when to use them
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1-999 pF - Generally we get Ceramic Caps. Sometimes you can find film caps in this range, but you're good with small ceramic caps. Get pin spacing of either 2.54 or 5mm.

1nF-1uF - Film caps. We like to use box film caps. You can also get Chiclet style caps, but film caps are pretty common and easy to find. You should be looking for pin spacing of 5mm, and voltages of 25-100V.

1uF-220uF - You will be looking at Aluminum Electrolytic capacitors, radial, of a diameter of 5mm where possible, and 6.3mm for 100uF and higher.

pF - ceramic caps
nF - box/film caps
uF - electrolytic caps.

[piltdownman]

Also, I always have a printed copy of these capacitor conversion charts on my table.  I refer to them all the time

http://www.higgs.com/archive/electronics/capacitance/capacitor-values.shtml

http://www.justradios.com/uFnFpF.html

[Peter Venkman]

What about Monolithic?

[Beaker]

Monolithics are an excellent choice, especially where space is tight. They usually span the high pF range, right through the nano Farad range, and up to around 22uF.

There's no real disadvantage to using them as they are low noise, and very, very cheap. They can break quite easily if you bend the legs too hard - though that has never happened to me.

One thing though - try and buy X7R versions as they have a 10% tolerance, while the Y5V caps are 25%. The Y5V have a much greater useable temperature range though (far above and below what we require).

[Peter Venkman]

I got some 100uf monolythics from Tayda to use on the Rub-a Dub Deluxe, but I think ive done something wrong with the board as the two ive built arent working. (i usuallu breadboard the circuit while I cut the tagboard and drill it, and solder a board up as im breadboarding it. a waste of time I know, but it works for me)

[Travis]

I've never seen 100uf monolithic ceramic caps at Tayda. Maybe you mean 1uf?

Are you using the right Belton brick version?

[Beaker]

Yeah, I've never seen 100uF for sale anywhere (though I do know they exist), let alone Tayda. Are you sure about this Peter?