how can polarized capacitor be reversed charged in a multivibrator, please help me to understand

Thread Starter

elerner

Joined Dec 13, 2023
4
how can a polarized capacitor be reversed charged in astable multivibrator, as it is stated that capacitors reverse charge their polarized during operation of astable multivibrator....please help me im a learner
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
11,463
Did you measure the voltage across the capacitor, or the voltage from one side of it to the other? I did the latter, and it goes from 1V to 4V, not going negative.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,826
The capacitors alternately charge in reverse to a small voltage:
In my simulation in post #4, the negative end of the transistor reaches +0.7V at the base of one transistor, and the positive end is at the almost 0V of the other saturated transistor collector, when the circuit switches causing the capacitor to charge with normal polarity by the 100k collector resistor.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
11,463
We are both right. Depends on the circuit. This circuit, modified from the example astable multivibrator circuit that comes with LTSPCE, does not have that problem. The voltage shown is across C1.

1702502907077.png
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
27,181
Not only can a capacitor be discharged to a lower voltage, at least some of them can be charged in the reverse direction, at least to some extent. There will be a fair amount of leakage current, which can often lead to overheating, and, if the power is not limited adequately, lead to failure and an explosion. So a reverse charge of some amount is entirely possible, BUT there is no reason to think that the performance will be as the specifications for the correct polarity.
 
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