Capacitor question

[graham-xrf]

I can buy a new one locally for R240(around $4), and I know it is not that much ...

Yikes!
I never knew that the Rand was going the way of the $Zim.

So about R180 gets you a loaf of bread? I know it makes me sound incredibly old, but there was a time I could change ONE Rand for 99cents of a Rhodesian Dollar, or half a British Pound. This would be at the railway station in Francistown Botswana.

Of course, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, and their finance ministers apparently had no idea of how big was a million of anything! If one had such a thing as $1000 notes (they don't exist), made of normal thickness banknote paper, and you could stack them until you had a pile adding up to one trillion (you can't), they never figured the pile would be 65 miles high!

That note was worth $35 US dollars on the day of issue, and after 11 days, you would not care if you used it for toilet paper. Their currency collapsed completely, and to this day, one can use US dollars, Euros, and just about any other foreign currency instead.

[BTW - I once stood up against that pile of rocks for a photo ]

 

[Suzuki4evr]

Yikes!
I never knew that the Rand was going the way of the $Zim.

So about R180 gets you a loaf of bread? I know it makes me sound incredibly old, but there was a time I could change ONE Rand for 99cents of a Rhodesian Dollar, or half a British Pound. This would be at the railway station in Francistown Botswana.

Of course, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, and their finance ministers apparently had no idea of how big was a million of anything! If one had such a thing as $1000 notes (they don't exist), made of normal thickness banknote paper, and you could stack them until you had a pile adding up to one trillion (you can't), they never figured the pile would be 65 miles high!

That note was worth $35 US dollars on the day of issue, and after 11 days, you would not care if you used it for toilet paper. Their currency collapsed completely, and to this day, one can use US dollars, Euros, and just about any other foreign currency instead.

[BTW - I once stood up against that pile of rocks for a photo ]

View attachment 433601

Sorry Graham I see I have made a mistake, but I corrected it. The cap is about $14, I accidentally left out the 1 infront of the 4 in my previous post.

But our Rand is still in shambles and so is our country. I am not going to go into a political conversation just to avoid any problems,but what I will say is......CORRUPTION and INCOMPETENCE is my country's downfall. And I want leave it at that because that has nothing to do with capacitors.

 

[silence dogood]

Suzuki4evr, in your case, I'm going to modify my advice. Yes, you can use a used capacitor. First, make sure that it is the same capacitance and voltage ratings. Second, look and smell it. If it has any bulges, leakage, cracks, smells and looks burnt, throw it away. You can take an ohmmeter to test it. First, short out the capacitor with ideally 1k resistor. You could use a screwdriver, but you might see a spark. Ironically, a spark is a good sign. Set your ohmmeter about 10k or 20k depending on the meter, sometimes you may have to try a different scale. If you do, short out the capacitor first then start over. On an analog meter, the needle will go to zero and then creep back up to infinity. Digital meter will go to zero and then a bunch of expanding numbers till it reaches infinity. In most cases, it's probably okay. If it does not go to zero, it's probably open or has a resistance. No good. If it goes to zero or any other number and stays there, no good. The reason that I'm adamant about new capacitors is it's a lot cheaper and easier to replace a new capacitor than deal with burnt motors, transformers, power transistors that could had been cause by a weak, or bad, or wrong rating capacitor. One more thing, you can use a capacitor that is physically a different size. It can be mounted outboard, as long as electrically it is right value.

 

[Suzuki4evr]

Suzuki4evr, in your case, I'm going to modify my advice. Yes, you can use a used capacitor. First, make sure that it is the same capacitance and voltage ratings. Second, look and smell it. If it has any bulges, leakage, cracks, smells and looks burnt, throw it away. You can take an ohmmeter to test it. First, short out the capacitor with ideally 1k resistor. You could use a screwdriver, but you might see a spark. Ironically, a spark is a good sign. Set your ohmmeter about 10k or 20k depending on the meter, sometimes you may have to try a different scale. If you do, short out the capacitor first then start over. On an analog meter, the needle will go to zero and then creep back up to infinity. Digital meter will go to zero and then a bunch of expanding numbers till it reaches infinity. In most cases, it's probably okay. If it does not go to zero, it's probably open or has a resistance. No good. If it goes to zero or any other number and stays there, no good. The reason that I'm adamant about new capacitors is it's a lot cheaper and easier to replace a new capacitor than deal with burnt motors, transformers, power transistors that could had been cause by a weak, or bad, or wrong rating capacitor. One more thing, you can use a capacitor that is physically a different size. It can be mounted outboard, as long as electrically it is right value.

You gave me good advice thanks. One more question.......Is there a positive and negative wire or does it not matter which wire goes where?

 

[silence dogood]

On a polarize capacitor, yes. When you measure or mount the capacitor, the +(positive) goes to +, the -(negative) goes to -. On a nonpolar capacitor, it does not matter. Except if there is a metal casing, many times that goes to ground. The lone wire will go to the hot. Glad to help, and I hope that this works out.

 

[Suzuki4evr]

Well all is well and working........for now at least I just had to make a VEEEERY simple cap holder of sorts,but it does the job. I'm a happy camper.



Thanks for all the contributions.

Michael