Hello all,
I've been working on a new project to help me (and other newbies) on the types and selection of capacitors. I've never been sure why a person might choose capacitor X over capacitor Y in a given circuit.
When I'm trying to learn a new field, I often find that having a "30,000 foot view" of the field can be helpful. So I went to Wiki, and read a bit on capacitors, then thought "Instead of theoretical considerations, why not focus on capacitors that can be purchased for a project?".
So I made up a spreadsheet of all the different types of capacitors I could find.
The first three columns are the "type" of capacitor - example - electrolytic, solid polymer, smd.
The next column is the minimum capacitance that I could find in that series.
The fifth column is the maximum capacitance that I could find in that series.
The column thereafter is the maximum voltage I could find.
The next column is a vague representation of the cost.
The last column (page 2 of the file) are lame comments about some of the capacitors that were noted on the web.
I went to www.mouser.com, www.digikey.com, and www.jameco.com, and used the "highest" and "lowest" values I could find.
The values you note may not be consistent, but they are the best I could do.
A pdf of the spreadsheet is attached.
My questions to the experts:
Are there any other capacitors I've missed?
Would you rearrange them differently?
My guess is that the selection of capacitors by experts is something like:
1 - Calculate the value needed for a given circuit.
2 - Determine the maximum voltage that might hit the capacitor
3 - Determine the size of the capacitor you might need for the circuit.
4 - Go with the cheapest one that meets the above criteria?
Do you all agree?
Anything I missed?
I thank you in advance.
I've been working on a new project to help me (and other newbies) on the types and selection of capacitors. I've never been sure why a person might choose capacitor X over capacitor Y in a given circuit.
When I'm trying to learn a new field, I often find that having a "30,000 foot view" of the field can be helpful. So I went to Wiki, and read a bit on capacitors, then thought "Instead of theoretical considerations, why not focus on capacitors that can be purchased for a project?".
So I made up a spreadsheet of all the different types of capacitors I could find.
The first three columns are the "type" of capacitor - example - electrolytic, solid polymer, smd.
The next column is the minimum capacitance that I could find in that series.
The fifth column is the maximum capacitance that I could find in that series.
The column thereafter is the maximum voltage I could find.
The next column is a vague representation of the cost.
The last column (page 2 of the file) are lame comments about some of the capacitors that were noted on the web.
I went to www.mouser.com, www.digikey.com, and www.jameco.com, and used the "highest" and "lowest" values I could find.
The values you note may not be consistent, but they are the best I could do.
A pdf of the spreadsheet is attached.
My questions to the experts:
Are there any other capacitors I've missed?
Would you rearrange them differently?
My guess is that the selection of capacitors by experts is something like:
1 - Calculate the value needed for a given circuit.
2 - Determine the maximum voltage that might hit the capacitor
3 - Determine the size of the capacitor you might need for the circuit.
4 - Go with the cheapest one that meets the above criteria?
Do you all agree?
Anything I missed?
I thank you in advance.
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