Which Capacitors are these on the board (see picture) ?

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hey Falks,

I've the AMS1117-3.3 board. I wonder which capacitors are being used on these boards ? I wann know the red circled Capacitors.

Maybe you can recognize these ? (Sorry, I've no clue)

Unbenannt
Unbenannt1179×519 84.6 KB

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2

They are SMD MLCC caps.

on these boards

What boards?

104 is a 100nF cap and 106 is a 10uF cap

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3

Okay, and what kind of caps ?

I've found the datasheed, but I really can't read them out:

I Speak German, therefore, it is difficult to understand these. And as a beginner, it is more difficult :smiley:

4

MLCC, like I said

If you're a beginner, why do you need to know about SMD caps? What are you trying to do? If you can't read a data sheet, designing will be really difficult for you. It's a basic skill.

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5

All 4 capacitors are for the 3.3v regulator.

The values of the capacitors is written on the PCB just below the capacitors.

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6

Hi @LarryD again you :smiley:

Greetings from Germany.

And to @anon57585045 yes, I will find it out. Believe it or not, but this is my hobby. I'm doing this ESP and Arduino stuff for 4 years now. And I really had never heard that these numbers are unic :smiley: But I am learning. But one thing is for sure: the most things I have learned, are because of errors and mistakes I made. Not only on electronics, but also in general live. So, I've become an ESP8266 (90%) expert. Only by doing mistakes and error. Finaly: I wish I had learned this earlier in my live. I simply like this stuff.

7

The first two digits are the value, times 10 to the power of the last digit, picofarads.

So 104 = 10 times 10^4 = 100,000 pF = 0.1uF

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8

wow, I just have learned again :smiley: thanks man. This is important stuff.

9

Some caps have the code printed on them.

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10

I will save this absolutely :smiley:

11

As you may know, it's rare to see the values marked on the board.

And those SMT capacitors often aren't marked so you have to keep track of them when you take them out of the packaging.

90% of the time they are 0.1uF "bypass" capacitors and 90% of the time a 0.1uF cap will work in place of a lower value (especially in digital circuits). Of course the other 10% can be a big problem if wrong! :smiley: :smiley:

Quickly scanning-through the datasheet I think the board manufacturer didn't exactly follow the chip manufacturer's recommendations. And the datasheet may be incomplete or unclear.

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12

Memorize:

  • 106 = 10 µF
  • 105 = 1 µF
  • 104 = .1 µF

:wink:

13

Okay, good to know.

Okay, but how could I now whether the SMS caps are tantalum, or ceramic or else ?

14

IIRC by their colour....ceramic are that brown (EDIT)white, grey and black colour, tantalum are an orange colour....Electrolytic (EDIT)generally come in a cylindrical case.

15

Okay Thanks. But, here is a but:

A professional once, recommended me to use these following capacitors for the AMS1117-3.3, so was he wrong ?

ESP8266 - 100nF ceramik - 10yF Electrolytic - AMS1117 - 10yF Electrolytic - 100nF ceramik

So, was he wrong ? I would assume, that the board see on the first post, is the correct ones, or not ?

16

No, He was correct....That could quite likely mean the board wasn't made correct.

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17

10uF is now available in MLCC. I don't bother with electrolytics for that size any more.

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18

@theeccentricgenius @anon57585045 :+1: okay thanks.

19

I quite forgot about that.

You're welcome @hello_freinds.
What @anon57585045 said confirms the board is made correctly.

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20

Tantalums have some nice characteristics but they are larger and more expensive.

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