Of the brands I might basically trust, ELAC, Panasonic, Nichiron , they make dozens of different electrolytic caps.
Is there a brand by brand summary for selecting which cap for which application? Not value, voltage or even ESR, but what would the differences be in a 3000 hour vs 10,000 hour as a feedback blocking cap? ESR should not matter as it has a large series resistance. I don't see TC listed for most and not sure what effect DF has. One may be listed as " audio grade" . What the heck does that mean? Lower leakage? non-inductive wound? What does "computer grade " mean. Higher running temp capability? Higher ripple current? I see guidelines for anti-paralell use as long as DC is not over 10% of rating for lower distortion, but how does that compare to a NPE?
I did notice when getting some caps for my current project, they were listed as ELAC, but the brand markings on them were painted over. They were not cheaper than they should be, so the counterfeit alarm did not go immediately. ( I bought some Panasonic) I only was looking on E-Bay for quick access as it can take forever with very high shipping form "M-A-D" They are not immune to counterfeits either as I bought some counterfeit 2N2222as from Mouser. Beta was about 1/3. Good enough for what I needed, but crap.
FWIW, I found a nice summary from Jan Didden on resistors. Quite interesting. Bottom line is for the Dale 65 mil-spec series as lowest distortion and noise. I am sure there are some others.
Is there a brand by brand summary for selecting which cap for which application? Not value, voltage or even ESR, but what would the differences be in a 3000 hour vs 10,000 hour as a feedback blocking cap? ESR should not matter as it has a large series resistance. I don't see TC listed for most and not sure what effect DF has. One may be listed as " audio grade" . What the heck does that mean? Lower leakage? non-inductive wound? What does "computer grade " mean. Higher running temp capability? Higher ripple current? I see guidelines for anti-paralell use as long as DC is not over 10% of rating for lower distortion, but how does that compare to a NPE?
I did notice when getting some caps for my current project, they were listed as ELAC, but the brand markings on them were painted over. They were not cheaper than they should be, so the counterfeit alarm did not go immediately. ( I bought some Panasonic) I only was looking on E-Bay for quick access as it can take forever with very high shipping form "M-A-D" They are not immune to counterfeits either as I bought some counterfeit 2N2222as from Mouser. Beta was about 1/3. Good enough for what I needed, but crap.
FWIW, I found a nice summary from Jan Didden on resistors. Quite interesting. Bottom line is for the Dale 65 mil-spec series as lowest distortion and noise. I am sure there are some others.
They did not believe it, but I opened one and it was not the correct die. They have the clout to buy direct, but maybe some came through an intermediary. It was quite a few years ago.
I tend to just use cheapest from RS Components and not had any problems.
Buy 10uf 63v by the hundreds.
Buy 10uf 63v by the hundreds.
You are in North Carolina. Newark has a huge warehouse in South Carolina that sometimes sends me boxes surface UPS that get here in Louisville in 40 hours. Order by 10 AM, here by 5 PM next days sometimes surface rate. Warning, check the in stock box and watch shipping code. Newark stock from the UK can take 30 days due perhaps to customs delays at the border. Newark did take 4 or 5 days to ship during the 2020; I don't know if that was a cost cutting practice or just temporary due to covid. I'd never use ebay for an electrolytic cap. Newark puts a discount star on caps out of shelf life, which means you have to charge them up once before hammering them with full voltage. By contrast digikey once charged me full price for a cap 9 years old. Digikey does ship quickly from MN, and never ships from UK. E-bay always pushes lowest price to the top, which can be counterfeit, old stock, or whatever. Mouser charges me 50% more for freight, then ships by air if they ship on Thursday Friday. Mouser doesn't charge for the second box if an item is unexpectedly out of stock, newark does.
Add to your list of brands Rubicon & Kemet. I sometimes buy CDE or United Chemicon in 3300 uf up, if that is all that is in stock except screw top. If all that is in stock is 2000 hours below service life 85 C, I buy frome someone else. CDE & Chemicon have a higher ripple voltage allowed at end of life than Panasonic, nichicon, rubicon so I don't buy those much. At least the ones CDE & Chemicon I checked the datasheet. CDE comes from a country that previously trained workers to lie on paperwork. On semi & ST semi source good parts from there but that is not IMHO general practice.
I don't buy single e-caps for individual purpose, I buy 10 at a time usually. So same part # for feedback cap could be a PS rail cap in another board. For some organ boards I buy 61 or 122. In general the longest service life I can find also fills my need for ESR, ripple voltage, etc. These cost ~40% more, whoopie. Except for switcher supplies, those require low ESR caps for load side mains. I've installled about 400 e-caps since 2008 and haven't bought any garbage. None have needed replaced again. Which was not my experience buying e-caps from the TV parts store or from surplus house Stereo Cost Cutters. A CDE from Stereo Cost Cutters lasted 90 minutes. The second time I turned it on it leaked & blew the fuse. Parts store caps like Sprague Atomlytic or Blue Beaver or CDE yellow lasted 8 years max @ 2000 hours/yr. Symptoms that caused replacement: watts went to **** on rail caps, tube idle current went out of control on minus bias voltage.
I never buy tantalum caps if I can fit in something else, even COG ceramic. 90% of the tantalums in the hammond organs & dynaco equipment have been defective. Some hammond tantalums were replaced (by date code) 1 and 2 years after the organ was new. The >100 tantalums in an 1980 Allen 300 organ have held up okay.
Add to your list of brands Rubicon & Kemet. I sometimes buy CDE or United Chemicon in 3300 uf up, if that is all that is in stock except screw top. If all that is in stock is 2000 hours below service life 85 C, I buy frome someone else. CDE & Chemicon have a higher ripple voltage allowed at end of life than Panasonic, nichicon, rubicon so I don't buy those much. At least the ones CDE & Chemicon I checked the datasheet. CDE comes from a country that previously trained workers to lie on paperwork. On semi & ST semi source good parts from there but that is not IMHO general practice.
I don't buy single e-caps for individual purpose, I buy 10 at a time usually. So same part # for feedback cap could be a PS rail cap in another board. For some organ boards I buy 61 or 122. In general the longest service life I can find also fills my need for ESR, ripple voltage, etc. These cost ~40% more, whoopie. Except for switcher supplies, those require low ESR caps for load side mains. I've installled about 400 e-caps since 2008 and haven't bought any garbage. None have needed replaced again. Which was not my experience buying e-caps from the TV parts store or from surplus house Stereo Cost Cutters. A CDE from Stereo Cost Cutters lasted 90 minutes. The second time I turned it on it leaked & blew the fuse. Parts store caps like Sprague Atomlytic or Blue Beaver or CDE yellow lasted 8 years max @ 2000 hours/yr. Symptoms that caused replacement: watts went to **** on rail caps, tube idle current went out of control on minus bias voltage.
I never buy tantalum caps if I can fit in something else, even COG ceramic. 90% of the tantalums in the hammond organs & dynaco equipment have been defective. Some hammond tantalums were replaced (by date code) 1 and 2 years after the organ was new. The >100 tantalums in an 1980 Allen 300 organ have held up okay.
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Thanks. Taking notes.
Still, not much on which series within the line.
There are some newer ceramics I don't know much about. I am from the old X7R /Z5U failure days so I lean to films where I can. I remember we use a lot of 6.8u tans but had enough trouble with reliability, switched to electro's.
Newark shipping always killed me.
Louisville In. A lot of them. I used to work in Louisville Co. I think half the states have one. Someone said there over 20 "Sugarloaf Mtns" in the country.
Still, not much on which series within the line.
There are some newer ceramics I don't know much about. I am from the old X7R /Z5U failure days so I lean to films where I can. I remember we use a lot of 6.8u tans but had enough trouble with reliability, switched to electro's.
Newark shipping always killed me.
Louisville In. A lot of them. I used to work in Louisville Co. I think half the states have one. Someone said there over 20 "Sugarloaf Mtns" in the country.
I'm not fixed on any series cap. If the service life is over 3000 hours, brand is one of top 5, I haven't received any garbage. Everything either improved performance or equaled it. I measure watts on resistors out at the end of a repair on power amps. 95% of e-caps I bought were made in a country I wouldn't mind living in. I don't buy special "audio" caps at 100% premium. If the designers didn't parallel the mains caps with a small film cap for high frequencies (peavey does on PA product) then I can tack one one top the e-cap. Organs I repair don't need high frequencies.
Jeffersonville IN is part of Louisville KY metro area, Home of the UPS air hub. Our UPS truck service may be particularly good. UPS surface runs a day faster than FedEx (hub in Menphis) if I wasn't given a choice.
Jeffersonville IN is part of Louisville KY metro area, Home of the UPS air hub. Our UPS truck service may be particularly good. UPS surface runs a day faster than FedEx (hub in Menphis) if I wasn't given a choice.
X7R and X5R have different characteristics than Z5U/Y5V high capacity. Always use Murata for anything ceramic, as they are the only ones who know what they are making and have datasheets and models to prove it. (there are other great ceremics companies, like avx, but none with the support and data and explanation)
Ceramic capacitors are piezo components and as such, they are mechanical. Mechanical means breakage and mechanical aging.
if you need to use elyts, then higher nominal hour rate will be always better. Also higher temperature rating! The aging differences are like 100:1 to 1000:1 among the best and worst. And.. it's NichiCon, as in condenser = capacitor.
Z5U/Y5V are really great where their nonlinearty can be used, that is within some small voltage range, dampening the tendency to oscillations in CPU supplies. Tantalum = expensive + internal resistance
The ESR always matters as it increases with time and it's THE major source for internal heating., and thus aging, drying. And lastly, you can use miliature WIMA foil caps if the voltage rating is right