questions about capacitors

[cain]

please help... i have a capacitor thats yellow with a brown stripe. on the capacitor, there are 3 numbers:
447
10k
034

what do those numbers mean? can anyone tell me what mF this capacitor is? i need to replace it. it's plastic, i think. but it definitely withstood the high temperature of the soldering iron. PICTURE

 

[Eli]

What type of cap is it? ie: ceramic disc, polarized electrolytic? Something tells me it's a small ah heck.

Does it say 10k or 10,000?

 

[cain]

its tiny, it says 10k, but the k has a bar on top of it. it's absolyutely inmportant for me to replace it, need to solder it back onto my phone. but the metal connectors on the capacitor is broken

 

[cain]

anyone?

 

[Eli]

Hmm....

I do believe it would be 0.047pF, or 0.000000047uF.

The K should stand for +/- 10%.

I might be wrong tho... I'm new to reading capacitor codes.

 

[cain]

i looked online, i think uF>pF

 

[xirtam]

I thought you'd use the 034. 3*10^4 picofarads, or .03 microfarads.

.047 pF is extremely small... don't think it'd be that small. Where'd you get the capacitor from?

Edit: phone. I still think it would be .03 uF. Take it into radio shack? You've got questions, they've got answers... but most of them probably won't have that answer. Rat shack's gotten less knowledgable in recent years.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: cain
i looked online, i think uF>pF

It does. He still did the conversion right. uF (it's actually a scripted m, not a u), is microfarads, which is 1.0 *10^-6. pF is 1.0*10^-12.

 

[cain]

ok posted picture, got it from my cellphone, need to put it back. (cell still works, but reception not so good now)

 

[cain]

anyone?

 

[xirtam]

I'm going to go with the 477. It's not a ceramic disk type capacitor. Looks fairly big... bigger than you'd need for a 30 nF cap.

477 would be 4.7 * 10 ^ 7, which would be 47,000,000, or 47 uF. If it's 034, it'd be 3 * 10^4, which would be .03 uF. Problem I have with using those numbers is that I think it ought to be 303 if they wanted to represent the value that way.

 

[cain]

ok, 47 uF seems a bit high for a cellphone though. this capacitor is tiny, it looks big in the picture only because i took it close up. doesnt 303 mean 3000pF?

 

[xirtam]

Actually I have to modify that. 47*10^7, or 470,000,000pF = 470 uF. It looks like it could be that big from looking at the picture, anyway. I'm guessing the 034 is some kind of identification code for the manufacturer or something.

 

[xirtam]

If it really is tiny, go with 30 nF. 3 * 10^4, 303 would be 30*10^3, which is the same. 30,000 pF = 30 nF = .03 uF.

 

[geno]

wow, I must suck at electronics, I always thought caps were cylindrical

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: geno
wow, I must suck at electronics, I always thought caps were cylindrical

They come in all shapes and sizes. Some come in small ceramic discs. The ones you're thinking of are cylindrical and are called "electrolytic capacitors." They're also my favorite to read because they typically have the values posted directly on them and usually range from .1 uF up to 1 F, maybe higher. Others come in rectangular packages.

 

[Eli]

Umm, wtf? There's no way in hell that is a 470uF cap, lol.

Come on guys, it's a surface mount capacitor.. A bigger specimen yes, but it's TINY.

To the OP... Are you prepared to try and solder something like that back on? It's going to be a MAJOR PITA.

 

[Colt45]

Its a Tantalatum cap (so polarity DOES matter).

477 = 47 x 10^7 pF, which works out to 470 000 000pF, which is 470uF.

10K = 10v rating, and K is tolerance.. I forget what K is.. 20%?

034 is datecode or somesuch jazz.

I work with SMT daily

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Colt45
Its a Tantalatum cap (so polarity DOES matter).

477 = 47 x 10^7 pF, which works out to 470 000 000pF, which is 470uF.

10K = 10v rating, and K is tolerance.. I forget what K is.. 20%?

034 is datecode or somesuch jazz.

I work with SMT daily

Wow, so 470uf is correct?!

/slowly walks out of thread, tail between legs

I didn't think they could fit so much in such a small thing. :Q

Edit: Well, I'm aware that there are ultracaps, but ... damn.. lol

 

[xirtam]

Think K is 10%.

 

[Eli]

I thought SMD capacitors were pretty much analogous with ceramics... Is there such thing as a 470uf ceramic cap? ... that isn't as big as a dinner plate? lol

 

[Colt45]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Colt45
Its a Tantalatum cap (so polarity DOES matter).

477 = 47 x 10^7 pF, which works out to 470 000 000pF, which is 470uF.

10K = 10v rating, and K is tolerance.. I forget what K is.. 20%?

034 is datecode or somesuch jazz.

I work with SMT daily

Wow, so 470uf is correct?!

/slowly walks out of thread, tail between legs

I didn't think they could fit so much in such a small thing. :Q

Edit: Well, I'm aware that there are ultracaps, but ... damn.. lol

Tantals pack a lot of punch in a small area, but they are finnicky (you can usually put an over rated voltage on a 'lytic without it blowing up too fast.... tantals not so.. from what i remember.)
I don't think they're very cheap either.

keep in mind its only a 10v rating. if it had a 50v rating it would have to be much bigger.. value of capacitance, material, and voltage rating all play a part in the size of the capacitor.

 

[xirtam]

The ceramic disc type capacitors don't ever have that much capacity. But this is different. It's gotta be 470 uF. I don't know what the 034 is... some kind of identifier, but I don't think it has anything to do with the value anymore. I wanted it to, as it made more sense for a capacitor of that size to be 30 nF instead of 470 uF, but I can't justify interpretting a 034 as the value.

And by the way, I think Eli was right about one thing. It's going to be a major pain to solder back on.

 

[cain]

yeah i won't be soldering it back on, just gonna find another one and put it on. so it's possible to find another capacitor that is 470 uF, regardless of shape, and solder that one on?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Yup, definately a tantalum, 470uF 10V. The size is measured by approximate hundreths of an inch long by wide, or the metric equivilient (ie: 1206=3216)