Active Surplus near downtown Toronto is a mess. They have many parts that are 40 and 50 years old. I bought some rare switches there for a low price.

I've only been to the downtown Toronto Active Surplus, and I agree that it is a mess. Parts are everywhere and not organized and all. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to find a film - polypropylene 12 nF capacitor in there ... or if there it will take me a day to find it hehe

You think the other stores you mentioned will have an inventory like Digikey / Mouser / Newark? Maybe not so much in the big and heavy stuff, but rather passive components and etc?

 

Electrosonic used to have any electronic part you could think about. I haven't looked lately so look on their website to see what they have today.

I use polyester, mylar or some other kind of metalized film capacitors with 5% tolerance. They are much more common and available than polypropylene.

I used Philips and Siemens polyester capacitors for many years. Now they got together and call themselves EPCOS.

 

Electrosonic used to have any electronic part you could think about. I haven't looked lately so look on their website to see what they have today.

I use polyester, mylar or some other kind of metalized film capacitors with 5% tolerance. They are much more common and available than polypropylene.

I used Philips and Siemens polyester capacitors for many years. Now they got together and call themselves EPCOS.

Oh, I have to use polypropylene because of its low-absorption low-loss properties. I'm making an LC circuit that can retain it's signal for the longest duration, so a square-wave signal to my LC circuit that has polypropylene dielectric will keep the signal at max for the longest time ... at least theoretically that's what my research on LC circuits and materials has shown.

 

Oh, I have to use polypropylene because of its low-absorption low-loss properties. I'm making an LC circuit that can retain it's signal for the longest duration, so a square-wave signal to my LC circuit that has polypropylene dielectric will keep the signal at max for the longest time ... at least theoretically that's what my research on LC circuits and materials has shown.

Half the power of a square-wave is in its harmonics that a tuned LC circuit ignores. You should use a sine-wave input.
The resistance of the inductor creates far more loss than the dielectric of its tuning capacitor.

A colour TV uses a crystal as a tuned circuit to keep ringing for the short duration colour burst than an LC circuit.

 

Half the power of a square-wave is in its harmonics that a tuned LC circuit ignores. You should use a sine-wave input.
The resistance of the inductor creates far more loss than the dielectric of its tuning capacitor.

A colour TV uses a crystal as a tuned circuit to keep ringing for the short duration colour burst than an LC circuit.

I'm not sure if you read my other threads on the project I'm working on, but here's a brief summary:

I'm trying to magnetically couple two LC circuits so I can power a load wirelessly from 2-3 feet away. My primary consists of a function generator to supply the power and resonant frequency of the LC, and then hopefully the primary LC will set up a huge magnetic field that my other LC, same material and same resonant frequency, can pick it up 2-3 feet away. Any suggestions AudioGuru?

 

Magnetic coupling disappears with distance.
A radio transmitter uses a huge amount of power. The receiving radio receives almost no power.
Nobody has ever sent power 2-3 feet away.

 

Magnetic coupling disappears with distance.
A radio transmitter uses a huge amount of power. The receiving radio receives almost no power.
Nobody has ever sent power 2-3 feet away.

Gee I hate to say but it's been done many times since 2007. I don't think you're up-to-date on this sort of technology. It's not radio at all. The whole point is to send power through magnetic fields and evanescent tunneling. Did you have a look at what the M.I.T professor did? He was able to send power 7 feet away using magnetic coupling! Anyways, thanks for your help!

 

An electric toothbrush receives magnetic power to charge its battery when it is only 1mm away.

 

An electric toothbrush receives magnetic power to charge its battery when it is only 1mm away.

The experiment conducted at M.I.T weren't to power a toothbrush; They successfully powered a lightbulb 2 meters away (~7 feet). After that initial experiment, they were able to send power to LCD Television sets and cellphones, etc. The electric toothbrush is just a simple transformer that uses electromagnetic induction without any resonance or efficiency improvements.

 

Electronic components. There are bound to be mail order places within Canada.

 

Digikey and Newark are American but their electronic parts can be ordered online or by phone from Canada and they can be delivered the next morning if you want.

 

Digikey and Newark are American but their electronic parts can be ordered online or by phone from Canada and they can be delivered the next morning if you want.

It costs so much for shipping doh. I need a couple of capacitors and a couple of other passive components and the delivery alone is $20. The capacitors themselves cost $3 lol.