Sourcing and Choosing Capacitors

W

werm42

New member
I've searched here a bunch, so I apologize in advance (and secretly hope) that a resource already exists for deciding between which types/material capacitors to choose for which types of projects?

Film, Ceramic, Paper-in-Oil, Silver Mica, Polystyrene, Tropical Fish — i just don't want to build something that sounds like ass.

Thanks in advance!
 
Basically if it's below 1000pf (1nf) you'll want ceramic (I use mlcc), if it's 1.1nf - 1000 nf (1uf) you'll want polyester film that look like little boxes.

If it's above 1uf you'll be looking at electrolytics which are the upright cylinders. These are generally polarised meaning current goes one way so they have a negative and positive side to conduct this current. These are generally used in filtering but occasionally seen in the signal path if a big value cap is called for (coupling caps for example).

You're probably going to wonder about voltage at some point. This is the power handling of the capacitor and also determines it's physical size. This doesn't really come into play with anything other than electrolytics for pedal builds. You'll see most film caps are 63v or 100v and they all fit fine inside pedal enclosures.

For electrolytic caps a good rule of thumb is double your intended voltage, so if you're running a 9v supply look for caps rated 18v or higher. If you're at 18v then look for 36v and higher and so on. I just have a huge pile of 100uf/100v caps for filtering purposes and I like the chubby look.

You've probably seen those giant soda can looking caps in amp builds. They're the same thing as in pedals only rated for a much higher voltage so they're bigger. We don't need 450v caps in pedals.
 
I've copied the AionFX master list table into a blank template. You can make a copy of that and punch in your numbers and the mouser part lists comes up automatically.

You can then paste the part list here and it will make your cart for you. It's easy, but maybe more expensive than using Tayda parts like the more experienced users here. The list uses the common part selection methodology in the link above me by werm42.

If you just want to see the master list for reference, the Aion list is here.
 
beachbum said:
I've copied the AionFX master list table into a blank template. You can make a copy of that and punch in your numbers and the mouser part lists comes up automatically.

You can then paste the part list here and it will make your cart for you. It's easy, but maybe more expensive than using Tayda parts like the more experienced users here. The list uses the common part selection methodology in the link above me by werm42.

If you just want to see the master list for reference, the Aion list is here.
Click to expand...
Hey, that's awesome that you would take this a step further. Had I known I could order everything through Mouser in 1 shot, I might've done that — it took me 2 hours to put each component in the cart individually using a different store.
 
Yeah I like it better this way even if it does cost more. I wouldn't be able to keep track of multiple shipments for multiple suppliers. And then if you want to reorder to make the same pedal, you can save the import as a project and just dump that into your cart anytime.
 
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