To learn more about electronic's, and other "things" you may not know about, check out my Patreon site, click here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab Thanks to all for supporting this channel, you're keeping the video's coming!
Many years ago I was involved in developing sensitive alarm systems. We utilised the Piezo-electric effect of ceramic caps for vibration detection as part of an 'anti-tamper' warning sub circuit. Our ceramic cap piezo-detection circuit was much cheaper than the vibration detection devices used in previous systems and they turned out to be much more reliable, I believe there are still several of these alarm systems still in 24hr use today over 25years after installation. Sometimes the normally 'unwanted effects' of components can be put to good use. :-) Many thanks for these videos Paul. Keep up the good work Sir! 73.
Thank you for your videos. I've been an electrical and electronics hobbyist since 1964 when I was 10 years old. I destroyed my family's toaster when I took it apart out of curiosity. My parents bought another one and also bought me some tools and other second hand electrical things from a second hand store to pursue my interests. Later I got into repairing stereos, CB and other radio equipment, and designing electronic gadgets, like a signal system for model trains. I do enjoy your videos as I can always learn something from them.
I was wondering what replacement by type to use for these old bumble bee and paper type capacitors. The heat drift was amazing. Slowly rebuilding an old R-390A and you convinced me to remove the old caps. Thank you for making electronics fun while receiving a great education. Hope you never tire of making videos because I enjoy the training. Thank you Mr. Carlson, great job!
You did a super job today, appreciate you showing the different applications. one of your best tips. I believe you are the top electronic engineer on youtube, no one else comes close. Thumbs Up.
Shahriar of TheSignalPath is absolute top level as well and w2aew is an incredible teacher. Dave Jones is also usually very very good at teaching when he does his fundamental friday videos (unfortunately not so often).
Not to take away from Mr. Carlson’s EE (and teaching) skills, but I agree that there are a handful of other great engineers who (also) regularly put out content that shouldn’t be missed. For a different style and focus - though just as captivating - I recommend checking out “electronupdate.”
The tip about using Tantalum in a 555 circuit is just what I was looking for! I'm just beginning my foray into hobby electronics and your channel has been very educational, thank you.
It's been 37 years since I was in electronics school and working in the same industry for 36 years; so I get stuck with the type of electronics that I do (non-destructive test equipment). I really appreciate your refresher courses! Thanks kindly; you're a great teacher.
Excellent overview and tutorial for someone starting out. There is one application where I always replace ceramic capacitors. Old tube type CB radios often used either a dual section or two separate ceramic caps as line to ground safety caps. They are in service all the time since they are connected directly to the mains input they live a hard life. I have seen several of these plain blow up and flame out. I just uploaded a couple videos yesterday and today on a customers Tram D201 I restored and went over why the ceramic dual section bypass cap should be replaced. I use modern X1 / Y2 rated caps (the blue disc type) for line to ground and also add a X2 rated one (yellow box type) across the line for some additional filteting. Ever run into silver migration problems in the old mica mold caps. I did once and it drove ne nuts tracking down the culprit. Mike
+MikesRadioRepair .CBRadio Hi Mike, I have run across silver mica disease in some AA5 IF transformers. I use those 1206 NP0 parts displayed in the video as replacements. Those old Tram radio's are pretty neat, I have one as well, somewhere around here. Thanks for the kind comment!
Just learnt especially the Ceramic cap test for sonic interference and didnt know there was an antenna effect too. Thanks,you also gave clear illustration.
+w2aew Thanks for the kind words Alan! In the future, I will do a dedicated video on electrolytic's, complete with the usual examples. This video was already getting pretty long for a TTT. I always look forward to seeing that little notification pop up that says you have made a new video :^)
+w2aew Agreed, I think this effect is what many folk unwitingly experience most. The change in capacitance under DC bias would be good too,especially how the values can be changed perminantly under high voltage excursions
Mr. Carlson, I have to tell you how much I enjoy your videos. Everyone I have watched has been entertaining but most importantly educational. I recently became involved in restoring old ham Radio boat anchors and your videos have been invaluable. With your help I am relearning vacuum tube theory! Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more videos.
Hi, I've been in the electronics game a long time and have just learnt a hole lot about capicitors from your short video . Explains a lot why some of my circuits that have been built have performed poorly or not at all thanks for your time and effort you put in every week and numerous hours in prepration for each video session, I have appreciated your work. Regards David Grey
+David Grey Thanks David! I"m glad you are enjoying the video's. You must have made some video's yourself to know about the time. Thanks for your very kind words!
I'm just now getting started back in electronics from a class that I never got to complete just 1 semester on but I knew instantly that it was the only thing in school that I ever liked, besides the early math. So from the late 70's I guess it's about time I get the chance but only from a disability, so I'm learning a lot from your films, so don't give up on them. You are reaching the people who really want to learn this but never had the time to do so by reading everything involved with the learning process, thank you.
+Applied Science Thanks for the kind words Ben! Glad your enjoying the video's. I'm looking forward to another SEM video, that home made one was incredible!
Sir, thank you for making this video because as I was going through the engineering class at my college way back when, there wasn't this "qualitative" advice that your videos give as to what components to use. We just concentrated on the equations and circuits, but not what discrete device is good for what. So, Thank You for these videos.
Morning Mr. Carlson! I only recently started to run into the problems you can get from using the wrong capacitor, and this was super helpful. Thanks for the great rundown!
I wish you were my electronics lab instructor in college. I went to college in 1978 which I thought I knew most about capacitors. Now I am in my 60's and just about to retire and you came along and showed us things that should have been taught back then. This video showed why some of my home made circuits failed.
Glad I checked this video out...! That damn ceramic cap must have fooled me so many times thinking that my circuit concept was bad when infact it was that cap all along.
Great presentation. I'll have to save it to view later as I need to remind myself about what caps I should choose when I swap out old ones from my old equipment.
Paul, Thanks. What really sets your videos tutorials apart from the rest is that once you have explained theory, you shuffle off to the workbench and demonstrate with a simple setup. At least to my way of learning, that way of demonstrating really helps me to understand far better than your merely reciting theory. I am late for work each time you release a new video.........
From the bottom of my heart, thank you Carlson. You and other youtubers give me the oppetunity to learn electronics. Before youtube it was difficult to obtain education, anyway if you are from a small country like Denmark. This is what i dreamt about for 25 years. Please keep share.
This is a very good tutorial. I've been following a couple of your video's and let me tell you, you would make a very good teacher ! I learned more with you than when I was in high school in my electronics courses ! Keep it coming... teach me new things. I like to repair my old stuff but I don't have all the equipment necessary sometimes to do it. I'm also a HAM and i love your diagnostic skill in troubleshooting problems. 73 de André VE2WNF
Viewing in 2019. This was so informative and has helped greatly in clarifying the subject. I wish I had watched it a couple of days ago before I had to re-solder a tiny SMD cap in an RF tuner that had shifted due to my having to repair the RF socket. I wouldn't have worried so much about heat transfer. Thank you again Mr Carlson. Cheers.
Thanks a lot I’m just a simple guitar player trying to learn a little bit about my tube out and this is one of the first videos you’ve played it wasn’t way above my head
Paul, Very good explanation of the various capacitor types. Don't have any horror stories about tantalum caps, but in my youth we had some (temporary) fun making paper caps explode like firecrackers. That was definitely an extremely dangerous stunt that should not be done. Still have a scar on my forehead where one of the capacitor leads impaled itself. If it was one inch lower, and I had removed my glasses, I would have lost sight in my right eye. The high school lab instructor was not pleased and we ended up with a weeks worth of detention.
My friend built an amplifier with some fairly large paper caps that he somehow managed to solder the wrong way round, luckily it exploded when he was out of the room ! destroyed the amp and made a mess of his room, NEVER mess with electrical equipment unless you know what you are doing, and double check anything you know could be dangerous, my friend knew wiring the caps wrong could be bad news , but just had a brainfart, always double check!
happened to me a couple of days ago... just toooo late in the evening wanting to finish and test it before going to bed is not such a good idea ;-) Surprise surprise with a nice bang and hissing. Must have been 35 years ago or such when that happened to me last time before...
Great video. Shows an excellent reason, with demo, as to why not to use ceramics in an audio path. (would be nice to have seen tantalum distortions though. Speaking of tantalum caps, the biggest thing I dislike about them is when they fail, they usually short, with fireworks when used as power supply filters.)
fantastic presentation, Mr. Carlson. Absolutely the best description of capacitor characteristics and their uses, especially the temperature characteristic of the polystyrene. That was new to me, after 50 years. Thank you!
I keep comming back to see this video over and over again so I learn which caps to swap out with whats still inside my vacuum-tube test gear and radio's :) Excellent content and well described. I take my hat off for you, Mr Carlson
I'm glad I saw something in one of these I wasn't taught back in tech school. I never would have considered what vibrations would do to caps, very useful stuff here.
I ran across you channel while looking for updated electronics sites, I have been out of it for a very long time, (I date back to the old 285 computer, lol) you channel is very helpful and insiteful, thanks for posting and updating me...lol
Keep these videos up. I have learned more from a few of your videos and understand a lot better than I ever did during my school career. I really like the fact that you take time to explain theory and then show practical examples. Many electronic videos just say here is how we build it but do not really show or explain why certain things are the way they were. This really cleared up many questions I had about wondering why I cannot see capacitors like ones I own in devices.
Just caught this (after two years!). Good demonstration, but I wish you'd covered more than just polypropylene (& polystyrene) films. I think the public would be well-served to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various film dielectrics, including polycarbonate, polyethylene (/PET/PEN/PPS), Teflon, etc. Perhaps a "Part 2" specifically on film caps? I noticed "Raindrop Services" asking for it (about a year ago) as well.
Yes, it is a good idea. People think that some capacitors have some magical properties, say Teflon, or silver foil in oil, or Clarity Cap being better than Solen, so to bust the myths and give us guide what actually works properly in given circuit would be great idea for a video. I read stories, say, where Wima MKP supposedly sounds better than other brand, but I don't really buy it, and if it really does what's the reason for it (maybe accidentally polarity was reversed).
If you had told me that I would spend 24 minutes watching a video about capacitors this morning, I’d say you were crazy. I figured I’d watch the first two minutes and move on. This was an excellent video, while I don’t see myself designing circuits (I will copy them), this knowledge is useful in practice. I would like to have seen some segment on the leaky effect of the paper caps too, something to back up your claim (although I don’t doubt you).
Just check the DC resistance between the capacitor terminals. If the capacitor is not leaky the resistance will be high (tens of megohms at least), whereas if the capacitor is leaky the resistance will be much lower.
What would be the best choice for replacing basic through hole electrolytic capacitors in video game systems such as Sega Genesis,NES,and SNES? I mean of course other than just putting new ones of the same type. Also what would be a good type to substitute for basic Electrolytic through holes in Game cartridges? I have seen a few leak and make one hell of a mess on the board so am looking for solid alternatives.
Thank for the clarification Mr. C. Been a hobbyist for many years and that was a great tutorial. Seeing it as well as reading it really helps to reinforce the information.
Super useful & helpful to me. I was getting bewildered by the range of capacitors available & this set me right & allowed me to focus on what capacitors can provide the performance I need. Thank you for sharing!
Paul, a couple of things: there are, of course, disc ceramic NPO caps. These have their tops painted black. (Sometimes it's just a slight smudge on the top.) Also, would you ever do a video on measuring receiver sensitivity? Sure would be helpful from an expert. tnx es 73, Bill, k6whp
This is some really useful info. You discussed tons of gotchas I had no idea existed with capacitors, and I've replaced quite a few in devices that would be vulnerable to these gotchas. Keep up the awesome work!
Got out of the electronics profession years ago. Watching this reminds me of how much I enjoyed and still enjoy this field. Great video. Not for the uninterested viewers as seen by the negative thumbs down.
Useful stuff to know before I start my first old radio restoration. I'll look through your other videos as I'm sure you will have covered electrolytics somewhere.
This video deserves a million likes instead of some stupid kid smashing a grilled cheese on his face. When faced with the multitude of choices on DigiKey this gives you a great way to get to the perfect part. How about a video on electrolytic caps, trade offs for tolerance, high temp, and so forth, I've seen some with super lifespans and have not ordered them just chose a good brand matching basically what was originally used. I've always wondered if you were to recap a receiver completely with the extremely long life ones if other properties of the part would be an issue. I have one project from the 70s I havent torn into yet but it's a very nice unit and when I tear in I would love to design the boards to last 100 years, maybe it can live through a couple generations in my family, I'm pretty sure there are some downsides to the properties of those that would make them not the best choice
Ultra old school! Why, you whipper-snapper, if I wasn't retired I'd give you such a talking to! Ultra old school was field coil speakers and radio dials that went from 0-100. When you found a station you liked you wrote down where it was - tune in 37 for news and weather. And I'm not buying a hearing aid because they don't make any with loctal tubes - all the octal tubes fall out when I dance. When I got in to General Aviation (small aircraft) avionics in 1970 most of the equipment we worked on was hybrid - some transistors (at least in the power supplies and audio) and some tubes. By 1980 I don't think there were any tubes in the new equipment, and ICs (small scale) were appearing. Technology moves faster now!
Those ceramic caps also work in reverse as piezo speakers. The chirping noise from your laptop power 'brick'/cellphone charger/cfl bulbs? It's probably one of these :\
In English /oʊ/ and /zɪɹoʊ/ are synonyms in any numerical context. Saying NPO like he did is precisely identical to saying "NP zero". There is *no* difference.
I am sorry but no mention of electrolytics? I have some old Heathkit kits that have electrolytics. I assume, since they are decades old, have gone bad. Thanks for an otherwise great vid on caps.
To be fair, he kind of covered those when talking about the paper and foil caps. Electrolytics are the same thing, just paper and foil and the paper is soaked in an electrolyte. It's not that they're inherently bad, electrolytics do serve a purpose, particularly in achieving higher farad values than polyester or ceramic ones.
Thanks for reminding me they're aluminium canned paper jobs. So would I be mad to try and replace all aluminium electrolytics that I maybe replacing anyway (for example power supply) with poly or tantalums, ignoring expense and availability of farad capacity?
Tyeth Gundry Yes and no. There are some benefits to using electrolytics. Capacitors are more than just things that can store an electrical charge, and the makeup of them determines their overall activity in a circuit. Electrolytics are super common in power supplies for smoothing out ripple, which you'll want to achieve a smoother output voltage. I can't speak for ceramic or tantalum capacitors as I do not know enough about their major usages, but I know for a fact you'll find more electrolytics in high-voltage filtering applications than the other types, like in power supplies and amplifiers. That might be something you can do as a little fun project. Build your own power supply and test the outputs with different kinds of capacitors. You'd need a scope but I think the results would be interesting.
Electrolytic capacitors lose their capacity over time, even when just stored. At the same time they remain as much as big and weight as much. But they still can be used, though not in the most efficient way.
Paul, I have found when upgrading, restoring Telefunken tube type stereos, shielded capacitors. These are three legged types. I make my own since I’ve never been able to find any.
This just became my new favorite channel for electronic component diag. You actually managed to give me some information for building vibration sensors without even trying. lol
Enjoyed it Paul. This helps tremendously in understanding why there are such a wide variety of electronic parts on a chasis or circuit board. Please continue to do this with other components. Thanks J K
Thank you very much, Mr. Carlson. So many videos focus on the theoretical. You help take the concepts in the practical and application world. Thank you!
