some type of capacitor?

 

From the legend, it is a capacitor, and almost certainly an electrolytic.

 

it used to be the symbol for an electrolytic as mentioned above, more specifically a paper type, great big things.... but could take an amazing amount of stress

 

Ah, thanks. And 800V is the maximum voltage for the energy stored in the capacitor in E = 1/2 CV^2, before catastrophic failure?

 

Hello,

It more looks like 500 Volts, as the numbers are very fat printed.

Bertus

 

Hello,

It more looks like 500 Volts, as the numbers are very fat printed.

Bertus

Hmm it's hard to tell; looking at it again I think it is 900V actually!

 

Try buying one rated at 900 volts!
There is nothing over 650 volts in the Mouser search engine.

It's 40 uf @ 500 volts.

 

Alright, here is a little more of the schematic to put this to rest. The image I posted first is the third from the left in this pic.
No doubt to me the far left is 40uF /900V, the second from left is 40 uF/500V, the third in I thought originally was 40uF /800V (could be 500V, 900V), and the far right one is 30 uF/600V.
Note the roundness in the top right of the letter (viewed sideways) compared to the 5 and 9. Maybe they used to make 900V ones, this is from an old amplifier!

 

No. Use your common sense. Nobody would install hugely over rated capacitors when a 500 volt capacitor will do. Those are all in a string, so they must be surviving about the same voltage.

The fact that the printing is distorted doesn't change the ratings of the parts. That's why you came here for an answer.

 

No. Use your common sense. Nobody would install hugely over rated capacitors when a 500 volt capacitor will do. Those are all in a string, so they must be surviving about the same voltage.

The fact that the printing is distorted doesn't change the ratings of the parts. That's why you came here for an answer.

Can you explain why they would be hugely overrated at 900V? Thanks. It does make more sense for these just to be misprints, or distortions of the same number, since they seem to all be at the same voltage drop. The original diagram is pretty confusing to me, though.

 

A 900 volt rating is hugely over rated for a 500 volt job because 900 volts are 400 volts more than 500 volts.

 

It looks like 500 to me too

 

I vote for 500V, too. That's what it looks like AND the reasoning offered by #12 is spot on.

 

I vote for 500V, too. That's what it looks like AND the reasoning offered by #12 is spot on.

What is the Aircraft in your profile picture?

 

Can you explain why they would be hugely overrated at 900V?

I think part of the confusion is the fact that it's difficult to see if the caps are all wired in parallel. If they are, then there's no reason to have one rated 500v and another rated 900v- if you exceed the rating of the lowest one, it won't matter what the highest one rates. If on the other hand they are part of a different circuit..... well, I'm looking at a capacitor in my parts bin that's rated at 4uF at 900 volts, and I've got one sitting in the corner of my garage rated at 110uF at 28K volts (I don't think that one's an electrolytic however, since it's been leaking some kind of nasty oil out of the corner for the past couple months).

 

BTW- the leaking one is a kilojoule unit from a decommissioned accelerator. If anyone wants it, give me your freight billing number and it's yours, free.

 

I think part of the confusion is the fact that it's difficult to see if the caps are all wired in parallel. If they are, then there's no reason to have one rated 500v and another rated 900v- if you exceed the rating of the lowest one, it won't matter what the highest one rates. If on the other hand they are part of a different circuit..... well, I'm looking at a capacitor in my parts bin that's rated at 4uF at 900 volts, and I've got one sitting in the corner of my garage rated at 110uF at 28K volts (I don't think that one's an electrolytic however, since it's been leaking some kind of nasty oil out of the corner for the past couple months).

Looks like they are all connected together at the tops and bottoms, so that would be parallel connection. At the bottom is ground, and at the top is a bunch of other stuff I don't fully understand yet. It's particularly hard to read the labelling in just this one corner of the diagram.

 

Looks like they are all connected together at the tops and bottoms, so that would be parallel connection. At the bottom is ground, and at the top is a bunch of other stuff I don't fully understand yet. It's particularly hard to read the labelling in just this one corner of the diagram.

You often see multi-section caps depicted like that in the B+ divider circuit for tube amps.

 

Looks like an F-15. The top Gun Aircraft

 

Looks like an F-15. The top Gun Aircraft

The "Top Gun" aircraft was a Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Since replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet.

The F-15 Eagle is an Air Force fighter.