Re: Tantalum/Multilayer Ceramic/Electrolytic and Polarity

Posted by nocentelli on Jan 07, 2015; 6:16pm
URL: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/Tantalum-Multilayer-Ceramic-Electrolytic-and-Polarity-tp16156p16352.html

induction wrote

If you accidentally install a cap backwards and supply power to the circuit, even for just a minute, take out that cap, throw it away, and replace it. It will fail, probably in the middle of a gig.

It can be worse than that: A while ago, I was breadboarding a circuit that used a bipolar supply. I had two large polarised electrolytic caps, one from +ve to ground, and one from -ve to ground, as per schematic. After some tinkering, i gave up on it, and switched the power back to single supply. However, i had left one electro in place but the wrong way across the rails. I connected the (9 volt) power, and very soon after there was a quiet "phut" sound, and the top of the cap blew off and spewed a foul-smelling plume of electrolyte into the air. Only seconds before, i had been leaning over peering at the board and so only narrowly avoided being blinded by the spray.