Best Capacitors

Thanks! I will go for 5%.

Capacitor tolerances are usually way less precise than resistor tolerances and that's OK because generally we are using them to get some decoupling done or to keep a crystal oscillating. I am not sure you can get 1% except in polystyrene and other exotic construction caps which are limited to pretty small values and expensive. 10% is good unless the circuit calls for a precision part which I have just not seen in digital electronics so far. Probably there are more applications for it on the analog side.

My electrolytics are all Nichicon VR -- 20% tolerance. In most cases, these are bulk supply caps, so anything within a country mile of spec is just fine. In the cases where they are timing caps, they are timing circuits where the margin for error is likewise large. Otherwise, I would use a dedicated timer of some sort. Typically, it's more like an AC loss detector or 555-based flasher.

The ceramics I buy are 5% I think. For decoupling, it doesn't matter at all. For crystals, I like to keep them within 10% tops -- less if possible. In my audio circuits, I use Wima film caps at 5% tolerance, because the 1% parts are more expensive, and in some cases (filters) I would have to use really low values for the precision parts to be available at all. This leads to higher parasitic capacitance influence, and thus a loss of that perfect 0.1% tolerance I paid so much for.

I buy 1% resistors (except the 1W+ ones) because they're cheap, and then my inventory serves me well for both moderate precision and general-purpose use.

best website for cheap shit is www.taydaelectronics.com

standard NPN transistors for 13c, 555 timers for 10c, this place is a goldmine.
I had to buy 600 LEDs for my LED cube. I live in ireland, and to buy them from radionics here it would have cost me 140 euros. From tayda, it only cost 36! and that included shipping from HK!
great website/shop.

retrolefty:
Just be thankful your not trying to enter into the world of 'golden ear' audiophiles. They select and buy their capacitors as if they are rare vintages of wine.

http://www.dedicatedaudio.com/capacitors

V-Cap capacitors - VH Audio

Compare products from over 25,000 stores

Ha. Ha. What a bunch of tools.

eriknyquist:
best website for cheap shit is www.taydaelectronics.com

standard NPN transistors for 13c, 555 timers for 10c, this place is a goldmine.
I had to buy 600 LEDs for my LED cube. I live in ireland, and to buy them from radionics here it would have cost me 140 euros. From tayda, it only cost 36! and that included shipping from HK!
great website/shop.

I love them but they do not do pre-made kits and you can find better buys on the same items sometimes by looking over reputable eBay sellers with 1000+ sales. I've put together a couple of "kits" of inductors (my two LRC meters says their inductors are pretty loose on their numbers too) and caps with them and it's a bit of a pain. With that said, they are great, ship out of Colorado, and get it to me in under 7 days usually. I think they aggregate out there in Colorado so a lot of this is in the USA when they ship.

JoeN:

retrolefty:
Just be thankful your not trying to enter into the world of 'golden ear' audiophiles. They select and buy their capacitors as if they are rare vintages of wine.

http://www.dedicatedaudio.com/capacitors

V-Cap capacitors - VH Audio

Compare products from over 25,000 stores

Ha. Ha. What a bunch of tools.

I actually consider many audiophiles (aka golden ears) 'victims' that are feed upon by rather unscrupulous electronic suppliers that know better but can't help relaxing their morals for the temptation of high margins/easy profits that selling to such a population can be had. Many such audiophiles have a high emotional attachment to their love of music and the audio equipment they use to playback their music on.

As I said they give electronic components and circuits the same emotional attributes one might give to wine or art appreciation. When told about measurements (or even well run double blind hearing tests) not supporting such opinions on such 'magic component' they will just say that you are not measuring the right thing or that measurements can never substitute for one's refined hearing properties.

But in most cases such people can certainly afford their rather uneducated technical opinions with a higher then normal 'disposable income', so it's not surprising that there are people that will encourage such beliefs just for the easy profits. So as I said they are in many cases as much victims just succuming to other audiophile peer pressure and the technical gobbly gook that certain predatory electronic dealers are happy to feast upon.

Lefty

Depends on what you want to do with them.

Electrolytic caps are usually higher values (in the microfarad to thousands of microfarad range) and are used for low frequency filtering and power supplies. They, however, have a relatively high ESR and are useless at high frequencies, making them worthless for bypass capacitors.

Mylar and ceramic caps are much better as bypass caps, have a much lower ESR and lower leakage, but are only available in the picofarad to fractions of a microfarad range.

Which capacitor you use depends on what you need to do... there is no one "universal" type.

Radio Shack. The prices aren't that great, but if you only need a few and you're in a hurry, that's the place to get them.

+1 for ebay. Something like this would be a good start:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-Pcs-50-Values-Ceramic-Disc-Capacitors-Kits-New-/130485675439?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e618d65af

1000 caps and 50 different values for $6. There's lots of different cap assortments available. Don't go too crazy, as caps are so cheap that (to me) it's easier to just add whatever caps you need the order when buying other parts for a project. Having an assortment on hand to "try things out" is good, though.

JoshD:
+1 for ebay. Something like this would be a good start:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-Pcs-50-Values-Ceramic-Disc-Capacitors-Kits-New-/130485675439?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e618d65af

1000 caps and 50 different values for $6. There's lots of different cap assortments available. Don't go too crazy, as caps are so cheap that (to me) it's easier to just add whatever caps you need the order when buying other parts for a project. Having an assortment on hand to "try things out" is good, though.

Just what I needed, 20 1pf caps, never going to run out of that popular value ever again. :smiley:

Lefty

retrolefty:
Just what I needed, 20 1pf caps, never going to run out of that popular value ever again. :smiley:

Lefty

Yeah, but it was only a dollar more than the smaller assortments... They get me like that on ebay all the time.

"I know I only need one ne555, but for another dollar I can have 10!"

JoshD:
"I know I only need one ne555, but for another dollar I can have 10!"

...but you'd never go without festive blinkenlights ever again :smiley:

JoshD:
Yeah, but it was only a dollar more than the smaller assortments... They get me like that on ebay all the time.

"I know I only need one ne555, but for another dollar I can have 10!"

That gets me at Digikey too. "I only need 5 over the next year or so but look at that price break at 25 pieces! ATMega328Ps for life!" An additional rationalization is that you make the effective shipping cost per piece less too. Win-Win! XD

I have that problem with starter kits. I'm trying to build a library of SMD resistors, for instance. The only kits I find are either high tolerance (5% film, nah...), or have way too many values. (I don't need 1.2 and 1.22k.. if I do, I'll order them specifically.) So, it's back to Digikey ordering each value in a series, but then I see the steep discount at quantities and I find myself ordering 100 each of 20 values and holy cow the costs add up. :slight_smile:

SirNickity:
I have that problem with starter kits. I'm trying to build a library of SMD resistors, for instance. The only kits I find are either high tolerance (5% film, nah...), or have way too many values. (I don't need 1.2 and 1.22k.. if I do, I'll order them specifically.) So, it's back to Digikey ordering each value in a series, but then I see the steep discount at quantities and I find myself ordering 100 each of 20 values and holy cow the costs add up. :slight_smile:

Costs might add up slower here: http://www.taydaelectronics.com/resistors.html

Lefty

Niiiice. Although I have to assume those aren't thin film. Not sure how much difference it makes, but I hear they're "quieter" for audio use. For a penny apiece, I might start here though. Thanks for the link.

SirNickity:
Niiiice. Although I have to assume those aren't thin film. Not sure how much difference it makes, but I hear they're "quieter" for audio use. For a penny apiece, I might start here though. Thanks for the link.

Audiophiles 'golden ears' hear and say lots of things that never seem to be able to be proven by actual measurements or well designed double blind listening tests, I wouldn't let such 'opinions' guide your selection of components. When you select a resistor it's not like picking out the wine that will go best with your dinner. :wink:

Lefty

True, but measurable differences in Johnson/Nyquist noise is not exactly the same thing as installing a new $1000 power cord. :wink: Whether it makes a difference within a system... ehh.. shrug