Capacitors And Resistors -A Parts Substitution Guide! 

To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab

Thanks Paul, you've been rolling out the videos lately -- it is much appreciated by many!

Some 30 years ago I spent 10 years as a bench tech at a TV shop. I repaired an average of 400 sets a year, along with countless home stereos, VCRs, Cd Players and did Sony warranty repairs on all their products. I am completely humbled by Mr Carlson. Thank you so much for sharing, I love the the videos!

Your videos are like free college, but without the passed out drunk roomate with the Che Guavera poster. Thank you for all of the great content.

this is content what the internet is made for not what it is now

I could not resist your capacity to make such good videos. Thank you.

EXCELLENT information - replacement selection for obsolete components can be tricky, but your specific explanation of why you chose that particular part for your current project followed up with a generic discussion of why (and how) the choice might be different for another project is interesting and extremely helpful. More "off the beaten path" discussions like this, please!!!

It never fails, no matter how many of your videos over how many years I watch every day I learned something new.

Brilliant component work! Impressive and educational! Thank you! ~

This is very informative. I think a similar video on choosing transistors would be super helpful. It's often difficult to determine which transistor parameters are important in a given circuit, and which could be better improved.

it's very therapeutic watching your videos. I'm not even an Electonics geek, more of a board swapper than anything. but I love your channel.

Most of this stuff is above my head but I still really enjoy your videos.

Well, in about the first 7 minutes Mr Carlson proves his absolute worth to the teaching. Almost always everything he does is Gold. As I have a CR91 waiting for me to tackle it (AKA heavy beast) I am watching this receiver series with great interest indeed.

Thanks Paul,..... the finer details that can be overlooked ....to frustration for a novice / hobbyist. It will all blend together as we learn from each other.

I have really been enjoying your videos and happy to be one of your patrons. I've been doing electronics since I was 12 and am now 58. I was licensed as a ham when tube electronics was transitioning to transistors. I learn something I didn't know every time I watch your videos. I hope to someday to restore a Hellicrafters SX-25 which was my first station receiver. The huge speaker could wake the dead. My mother was very patient. Keep the videos coming and thanks so much for sharing you knowledge.

Mr C., Thanks for the continuing education, much appreciated. Knowing which kind, what value and where in circuit substitutions are appropriate is so important as discussed here. Great video, see you soon. 👍👍

Still more gems of restoration information that can only come from hard won experience and a solid understanding of electronics.

Very interesting discussion... I think a good discussion is how come the electronics in these old radios look different than our modern equipment. All the components are point to point and floating in the air whereas we have PCB's and things look a lot more organized and cleaner. I know there's a good reason for it and I feel that the answer will lead to an interesting discussion... I should add that the topics I hear on this channel are always surprising and interesting to me, I have an AA degree in electronics, but we didn't cover tubes, except one class and we did one or two labs with them, and it was the last time they were teaching the class with tubes... that was back in 1983 or 1984... so electronics classes at my college are probably not going to feature tubes and all this old-tech... that I find fascinating like a history lesson in practical form as you restore these radios. And "B+" much respect for the high voltages, YIKES!!!

Really liked the conversation about keeping carbon resistors carbon and oscillator capacitor choice. Electronic component materials are often chosen for very specific reasons. It is very hard to go over every scenario with respect to materials and circuit applications, but you took a very good stab at it. At University it is usually a 1/2 year course. Good for you breaking it down.

Love the cadence you've been keeping with these videos. Glad all the work redesigning the lab seems to be paying off. Keep that Keurig chugging! 👍

I'm glad you made this video, it's really good info

Your advice and knowledge on the component level is much appreciated. I don't think there's anybody around who's talking with this much competence. I've learned truckloads from following you over the years. Cheers mate

Another fabulous video MCL! I must chime i can’t hardly wait until this channel steps up to Akli reel to reel and pioneer 1980 receivers

Thanks so much! I was going to write to you on Patreon and ask about some of these things. I purchased a note book to follow along so I can review later and get things rite when I start working on older things. This is the down to earth how to I needed to know. Thanks again.

Good choice with replacing components! I have noticed that in US made radio equipment from WWII and tube equipment made later almost never electrolytic caps were used. Probably because they were not considered reliable enough in storage. Instead, relatively small-value paper-in-oil caps (4-10 uF). Most of the smoothing was done with multi section filters with these and one or two big filter reactors. Sometimes the coils were even tuned to the ripple frequency

Love watching your videos Paul, lots to be learned from your information, repairing old tube equipment myself I learned lots , your a great Mentor your friend Jim Gauthier KD8FHC

Wow, a Mr. Carlson video blows by so fast, regardless of the length, so much invaluable information. Thanks, Paul.

Thanks Paul for the very informative points about capacitors and resistors in inductive resonant circuits and bypass applications!! you are a true wealth of knowledge in the electronic realm of science!!! Many thanks go to you in sharing that knowledge!!! John A Bellas KC2UVN 73's

I learn something new everyday. Usually from your channel Paul. Steve

I had some wise comments about my experiences........but as soon as I started typing it, you started talking about it. LOL. Very thorough.

"the king" of you are "all about electronics" - thank you

Man oh man oh man thanks Mr. Carlson. Been waiting for this one quite a while.

Paul, I really got some good info on this video! I didn't realize that it was that important to use carbon comp resistors where required. To me a resistor is just a resistor. I can only dream of having your knowledge of this old equipment. To me the modern day electronics is much easier to repair, just because most of it is just 'power rails' feeding IC's, where as this old equipment you HAVE to know your stuff! Thanks again for the informative video! Guess I may be too old to learn it all at 63 yrs before my time is up, too much to learn! 🤦‍♂ But I'm having fun watching your videos, I AM learning! 😉

I'd very much like to see you cover the candohm resistors. These continue to be a source of mystery and befuddlement for the junior tech. Also, a comprehensive stab at selenium diodes would also be a hugely beneficial topic. Thank you.

Thank you very much for this perfect explanation!

You are fascinating to me Sir! Best wishes from Pensacola, FL

Mr Carlsons lab you are good at restoring vintage shortwave receivers with ssb and alignment of vintage shortwave receivers

More good information from you, thanks! It's good to know why you substitute with certain types of components.

Another great lesson! Thanks, Paul.

That is one insane bench!

The Polypropylene Capacitors not only have a higher voltage rating, but also a much lower ESR than electrolytics. I just tested a new 2.2uf 630v polypropylene cap and it was reading "0" ohm ESR, then tested a few new 4.7uf 450v electrolytics and they tested about "7" ohms ESR, according to the ESR Capacitor Wizard tester I have.

I love listening and watching while you sharpen my pencil.....

Once again a very informative video. Thank you, Mr. Carlson

This is super helpful, as I've got a Collins 51J-4 and a Central Electronics 100V transmitter to work on.

Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and the time that you spend on it!

Oh…I’ve been waiting for just this! I’m at the level of cooking out of a can but I aspire to be a chef.

EXCELLENT video. Great content that all of us are in great need of. Video work is excellent as usual. Thank you for this work you do to help us "Tyro Novices" learn learn learn... greatly appreciated. God Bless...

Thanks Mr. C Eye opening information.

Oh boy, it's going to be a great Friday night ! 🍿 📽 Thanks for the vid !

I once had to replace a set of if transformers on my bc-611f. These are notorious for the wire breaking off in the center of the coil. Fortunately one side of the transformer was still ok and i could get an inductance reading. Any 455khz transformer would have done but i found one that was an almost exact match, all i had to do is toss a mica cap across the primarily and secondary to get the LC to 455 and I hot glued it into the old caseing. I now use it at the Xenia hamvention every year and it works great.

Very informative! Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.

I was just using two 450V electrolytics in series on the supply lines. 600VDC with cold tubes in my DIY amp, roughly 400VDC under load. In another project I just did delayed HV to solve the problem of some tubes arcing (a very "interesting" circuit) when cold.

Awesome as Always. Thank you so much...Very Helpful for me.

I was your 2nd Like this morning!! This video came at the right moment just as I was putting together a mouser order for caps and such, and for your course online .. Yes - Love your new training course in the patreon! So now I can better understand and follow this book I bought years ago Experimental Methods in RF Design - from ARRL which is now out of print.

Wow nice lab upgrade man! As always, informative and useful video! Keep up the good work, 10/10 :)

Nice information Mr Carlson sir I appreciate your hard work sir good video thanks for the sharing Nice information sir 👍❤.

Paul your amazing great explainations the best so far I have ever seen glad you take the time to share you knowledge Love your videos keep it up 73s wb7qxu

This helps me a lot! Going in the favorites!

Very informational; thanks for posting!

Wow! Great information! Thank you!

Great video Paul, thanks a lot!

Thanks Paul for this video. I found an old Robyn CB radio out in my garage and it has a lot of oil filled capacitors under the chassis. The radio works just fine and it's not really showing any obvious signs of failure, but I would like to at least replace the components before they fail.

Best channel on the web

Mr C on my TV , still awesome after many years

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

Great video! It was all very well explained!

Thank you for showing me this!

Mr Carlsons lab your utube videos are awesome 👌 👏 👍

Yes , many thanks Mr Carlson, as ever, another interesting video.

Thanks Paul, always very helpful videos.

Thanks Paul, I always learn a lot!

Looking forward to seeing the next video.

Thank you. That was helpful.

even the cool cheap Chinese hobby oscilloscopes can capture B+ spikes. I love trouble shooting with the O-scope. 😎 Thanks Mr. Carlson for the great info.

Bravo Paul trovo i tuoi video molto molto interessanti👍

Brilliant! Thanks huge for sharing young lad.

an invaluable video to a serious hobbyist.

I really enjoyed this video! Someday I would like to see you do a video on voltage multipliers in power supply circuits. Particularly in high current use such as the Heathkit HP-23 power supply. I can't find any good solid information on the values of capacitors in microfarads verses the current required for the supply. I know that esr is important in this application, but the size of the capacitor in capacitance also matters. I've always just gone big in the supplies I've built, but what do you REALLY need outside of keeping ripple down? Thanks for all of your videos! I learned SO much over the past 3 years!

Mr Carlsons lab your RCA shortwave receiver with ssb is cool

Good on this one Mr C. I relaxed

👍Thank you for another excellent video. The only thing I was curious about was the advice, if replacing a carbon resistor, to stick with carbon. Assuming they can handle the power, I tended to think metal film was usually better in RF circuits (less noise than carbon and more stable). Is there any special reasons for not replacing carbon with metal film please? Is it maybe that carbon is better at dissipating transient heat?

Very informative. Presumably, you could have also fitted two electrolytics (say 10uF, 350V) in series (with balancing resistors)? I agree that the two poloymers are better and will outlast any electrolytic, I was thinking of what general technicians may have available to use (sacrilege for such a transceiver, I know)

It was extensive again and a lot of background information. There for my thanks.

Very informative! Thanks. Just a remark: When replacing blocking or bypassung caps for HF application, the internal inductivity of the caps should be considered, bacause they are wound. Higher capacity means in general also higher inductivity and therefore problems at HF. I don´t know whether mica caps are better/worse in this respect than foil caps.

Thanks for the great video! Are you changing the mica caps, just for performance reasons? I understand that it’s necessary to change out electrolytic cap, in case they are dry.

I’ve been waiting for this .

I suspect that a lot of those old oil-filled caps had some variant of PCB, which is definitely not something you want to mess with.

So here's the deal as I have read it. Composition resistors are trimmed by reducing the size of the path in a non-inductive pattern. Films are non-inductive when they are made but are laser trimmed to value in a helical pattern underneath the protective coating. Hence, inductive. Also when wrapping a wire around a post to solder it in an RF circuit you have to make sure the wire or component lead quickly leaves the vicinity of the post so it doesn't contact the post again as it continues its wrap. You will get sporadic shifts in operating frequency. Ask me how I know.😜

I had a huge tray of micas I had gotten once. It got lost when I moved. I think I put them in a dresser that I left in a storage unit. Had micas in there all the way up to 12,000pF. So expensive to buy again today :( Hopefully whoever got the storage unit knew what they had. The other tray in there was all gold lead zener diodes. Makes me sick every time I think about it.

I love it good

Sometimes you have to be careful with "bypass" capacitors, especially in IF amplifiers running at a few MHz. The screen grid "bypass" are sometimes part of a neutralization scheme, and therefore need to have a kinda exact value. They often look inconspicious, having 4.7 or 5nF, but thats because they just designed the neutralization to use this common value.

Isn't the life of the radio receiver at least as long as the life of Mr Carlson?

oops, I may have to redo some my resistor swaps in a number of my radio projects. Thanks for the explanation.

Tanks Paul! It would be great to have a substitution guide on thermistors... I'm puzzling over a 35 year-old solid state circuit with some that seem to have no modern equivalent - I don't know what the characteristics are, and can't find anything on the web. Have thermistors been replaced by more modern circuit designs?

May I second the request for something similar on transistors? A little guidance on what to consider when you find a dead transistor in a piece of kit and have to find an alternative to replace it

I wish he’d produce more videos of repairing equipment that doesn’t have tubes or wafer switches. Tubes are only interesting in linear amplifiers or guitar amps in 2023.

The problem with these toxic components is that it's almost impossible to dispose of them. Here in the UK, I came across an open tin of Toluene which had been abandoned in a public park, and (doing my civic duty) took it home to prevent children or animals from coming into contact with it. End result: three years down the line, and it's sealed in a larger tin, that will now (apparently) live forever in my garden shed. No recycling or hazardous waste centre, is willing to take it off my hands, and even the government's environmental agency has stated that it's 100% my problem.

Those eye-bolt studs they use under the chassis, where can they be bought? I cannot find them by searching, and well, they look handy.

I do like old Russian PIO and Siemens MKV caps for speaker crossover applications very much. So far none has leaked, but they are more of a 1980s vintage and do not contain pcb oils. Some of those do have polymer or a hybrid construction with paper and copper foil in oil. So not all bathtub caps are bad in my humble opinion.

its just me or not, you look skinnier Paul, i hope you okay, love your teaching