Stocking up on capacitors - Help Needed!

[Ritalin]

So I recently found a local 'surplus' store that as tons of random capacitors at $0.25 each, which so far seems like a good deal, but some of the brands I haven't heard of and I know some of you guys are particular on series. I cross referenced with the list that was post on another thread of 'good capacitors' and came across some, but others I don't know about. The nice thing is that there are 4 of these stores and supposedly they have a different inventory, so I'll have to go to each one and see what they have.

Is there any of these capacitors that I should go and buy them out cause it's that good of a capacitor? (See list in attachments)

[retiredcaps]

Given the low cost of digikey.com USA shipping (around $2.75 USD), 48 hour delivery of parts, wider selection (like Panasonic FR caps), I would personally order from digikey.com. You can easily burn up $2.75 in gas going to/from the store versus shipping.

Having said that, if my local Canadian electronics store carried some of these caps for 25 cents, I would buy some of the low ESR caps like Panasonic FC because digikey shipping to Canada is $8 USD.

Others, obviously, will have their own opinions/suggestions.

[Pyr0Beast]

Useless caps for most recaps of mainboards.

[Ritalin]

As I've stated before, I'm still new to this whole cap thing so as of right now I don't get what the difference is in series. I mainly go through 300uF/470uF/680uF/820uF at about 25V/35V/50V depending on the LCD's power board. I haven't done motherboards yet. But if you guys say they're junk, I'll trust ya. I'll probably buy a couple for older LCDs that I don't care about, but newer ones I'll just get the ones you guys say to get.

[Pyr0Beast]

Depends how old they are. But given they are surplus parts, they aren't fresh out of the factory.

[retiredcaps]

Originally Posted by Ritalin

I don't get what the difference is in series.

Manufacturers like Panasonic make different "series" of caps for different applications.

Each series will have the same uF and voltage, but totally different ESR (ohms) and ripple characteristics.

SMPS applications (like a lcd power supply) require low ESR caps. Panasonic FR and FM are 2 series that are low ESR caps. Panasonic FC is low ESR, but not as low as FR and FM.

Other Panasonic series are general purpose caps. They have a higher ESR and/or lower ripple.

PCBONEZ talks about all the above at

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpos...30&postcount=7

[Ritalin]

Originally Posted by retiredcaps

Manufacturers like Panasonic make different "series" of caps for different applications.

Each series will have the same uF and voltage, but totally different ESR (ohms) and ripple characteristics.

SMPS applications (like a lcd power supply) require low ESR caps. Panasonic FR and FM are 2 series that are low ESR caps. Panasonic FC is low ESR, but not as low as FR and FM.

Other Panasonic series are general purpose caps. They have a higher ESR and/or lower ripple.

PCBONEZ talks about all the above at

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpos...30&postcount=7

Is it bad that you use higher ESR caps in something like a LCD monitor? Will it fail sooner, affect performance, etc ??

[retiredcaps]

Originally Posted by Ritalin

Is it bad that you use higher ESR caps in something like a LCD monitor? Will it fail sooner, affect performance, etc ??

A cap that has too high ESR will affect the performance of the power supply. The most obvious is that the SMPS won't work at all.

Almost all modern consumer based electronics like TVs, lcds, dvd players, etc have a SMPS power supply.

[jetadm123]

You should place your orders through digikey, since they're located in the same state you're in. Just use USPS First Class shipping for the lowest cost ship rate.

[brethin]

Or order what you need from here if he has them.