Definitive Capacitor Identification Chart (w pictures)?

[ziplock9000]

I've been looking for a definitive capacitor type identification chart for weeks now that includes visuals and have not found one that covers all of the ones I have or have seen. It seems even the most extensive ones I've found on the internet are often missing the ones I have.
Does anyone know where one exists and better still one that includes not only the visual identification, but how to read the values?

Thanks.

[Benta]

I've never seen something like that, and doubt that it exists.

[ziplock9000]

I've never seen something like that, and doubt that it exists.

I've seen partial charts, partial lists, galleries of images for types. But they have all been bits and pieces and not the big picture.

So I'd not be surprised if there was one and tbh more surprised there isn't one.
Potentially a good project to crowd source here on the EEVBlog. People could upload images and we could help identify them, building up charts as we go?

[tautech]

There's a handy little chart in the Jaycar catalogue but ATM my internet is so slow it would take a age to download it and snip it out for you.
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/catalogue

They used to give a card chart away as a handout at the counter that had 4 and 5 band resistors, a capacitance chart and LED resistor calcs and I'm pretty sure you can snip them all from the catalogue.

[ziplock9000]

There's a handy little chart in the Jaycar catalogue but ATM my internet is so slow it would take a age to download it and snip it out for you.
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/catalogue

They used to give a card chart away as a handout at the counter that had 4 and 5 band resistors, a capacitance chart and LED resistor calcs and I'm pretty sure you can snip them all from the catalogue.

I just had a quick look at the image of the one in that catalogue on page 7. It's nowhere near extensive enough. It doesn't show the physical images of each capacitor type and the codes for each type. Thanks though.

[Vtile]

There's a handy little chart in the Jaycar catalogue but ATM my internet is so slow it would take a age to download it and snip it out for you.
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/catalogue

They used to give a card chart away as a handout at the counter that had 4 and 5 band resistors, a capacitance chart and LED resistor calcs and I'm pretty sure you can snip them all from the catalogue.

I just had a quick look at the image of the one in that catalogue on page 7. It's nowhere near extensive enough. It doesn't show the physical images of each capacitor type and the codes for each type. Thanks though.

Compose a such chart and share with the community. I'm sure you will get plenty of help for such project from here if you get stuckt.

[tautech]

There's a handy little chart in the Jaycar catalogue but ATM my internet is so slow it would take a age to download it and snip it out for you.
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/catalogue

They used to give a card chart away as a handout at the counter that had 4 and 5 band resistors, a capacitance chart and LED resistor calcs and I'm pretty sure you can snip them all from the catalogue.

I just had a quick look at the image of the one in that catalogue on page 7. It's nowhere near extensive enough. It doesn't show the physical images of each capacitor type and the codes for each type. Thanks though.

Compose a such chart and share with the community. I'm sure you will get plenty of help for such project from here if you get stuckt.

Thanks for reminding me to look further into this.
A few minutes Googling find this image that's probably a good starting point for such a project:



Another for old Mica caps that are rarely seen today:


And this one for simple unit conversion:


BTW, I've grabbed the first pic and started overlaying some text in it. It's a 22Mb jpg so will need some editing before it's suitable for up and downloads. There's a couple of obscure ones I don't know but when it's finished others will let us know what they are and it'll be easy to fill in the missing/unknown ones and upload again

[SeanB]

Put the high res 22M image on Tin's Xdevs site, and link it here, plus put a 1M lower resolution imge in the forum as backup. That way the high res images are available for those that want them, while the low res one is fine for those who do not.

[ziplock9000]

Compose a such chart and share with the community. I'm sure you will get plenty of help for such project from here if you get stuckt.

Yeah I proposed doing this in Reply #2.  Hopefully I can get around to it on here at some point.

[tautech]

Some small start that will need some input and corrections.



1. Dipped MLCC ??
2. Dipped HV cap, sometimes Y rated
3. Ceranic disc
4. Ceramic cap dipped
5. Tantalum ?
6. Solid Tantalum
7. Tantalum ?
8. Film cap X2 rated
9. Film cap X2 end view
10. Film cap
11. Film cap polarised
12. MLCC SMD
13. Varicaps ?
14. Tantalum bead
15. Aluminum Electrolytic, polarised
16. Supercap
17. Tantalum SMD
18. Aluminum Electrolytic SMD, polarised
19. Aluminum Electrolytic, Non-polarised
20.

Corrections and additions welcomed. 

By all means grab the txt file below and edit and place it back with a reply.

[ziplock9000]

Thank's mate. I'll start recording this. Maybe in some sort of public wiki rather than something like a public Google Docs.
Does EEVblog have a wiki by any chance?

[bktemp]

4 is probably a MLCC
5 is a foil capacitor made bei WIMA (probably FKS series)
6 is also a foil capacitor, but without the additional protective case (only thin film of lacquer)
11 there are also similar looking electrolytic capacitors, so it is hard to tell. (>10uF it is probably electrolytic, <1uF is foil capacitor). This one has 3.9nF, so it is a foil capacitor.
12 the large WIMA one is a foil capacitor: http://www.wima.com/EN/tpl_products_smd_overview.htm
There are also similar looking ones like nr 6 but SMD.
13 is a feed through capacitor
20 could be a supercap or a battery or something in between

[tautech]

Thank's mate. I'll start recording this. Maybe in some sort of public wiki rather than something like a public Google Docs.
Does EEVblog have a wiki by any chance?

It's in no way ready for such tributes if any. 

When I first put the image up, it was straight from the source where I found it, so if you Quote it the URL becomes visible and anybody then can grab it and have a go themselves. 


Daves Wiki is on his main EEVblog site.

[tautech]

4 is probably a MLCC
5 is a foil capacitor made bei WIMA (probably FKS series)
6 is also a foil capacitor, but without the additional protective case (only thin film of lacquer)
11 there ara also similar looking electrolytic capacitors
12 the large WIMA one is a foil capacitor: http://www.wima.com/EN/tpl_products_smd_overview.htm
There are also similar looking ones like nr 6 but SMD.
13 is a feed through capacitor
20 could be a supercap or a battery or something in between

Yep, I got a few nearly right and I think it best to leave some corrections come in for a day or so and then we can all have a good  over which we call what. 

[ziplock9000]

Well I've created the Wiki and added the first set of images.
If someone could start populating the names that have been suggested so far please?
Just an FYI, please don't remove suggestions from other people just yet unless you're an expert as we are still crowdsourcing this. 

http://electronicsreference.wikia.com/wiki/Capacitors

There's prolly a lot more we can do in the future with this wiki too.

[CatalinaWOW]

I started taking pictures of a couple of the common types that I have which are not yet in the photo and realized a few things.

1.  I am going to have to do quite a bit of photo set up to get decent pictures.  Maybe even a microscope.

2.  A scale will be useful for identification, particularly for those who don't know already what the type is.

3.  Much of the critical information is not in the color or shape.  The ceramic type for example.  Not sure how best to flag this in an identification chart.  Maybe an inset for the generic type with the inset focused on identification of the variations.  Same thing could apply to electrolytic types.

[timb]

I've actually been working on something like this. Basically a A3 size component reference chart with pictures of different types of common passives, showing what they are and how to read off the codes (if they have any).

I'd be happy to post it here and then add to it as people send me high quality photos of new types.

[free_electron]

1 is a silver-mica.
4 is an mlcc ( essentially a 0603, with leads welded on and dipped in epoxy)
5 6 ad 7 are film caps. The red one is a wima. The silver one is siemens and the black one probably a sprague. These can be different types of films. Polyester, polyethylene, polysulphone,
10 and 11 are film caps. Polysterene or polyester. These are NOT polarised !. The stripe indicates the terminal connected to the outer electrode. That should be connected to the lowest impedance node. That way the outer electrode 'shields' the weak driving node.
13 are feed-trhru capacitors.

There are many missing. Solid tantalums, solid aluminums, sibatits, to name a few.

And when to comes to mlcc.... class 1 , class 2 class 3. Etc ..

Same for those smd electrolytics. They could be oscons , sold electrolyte , vibration resistant ( those have thicker plastic shims that grasp the indentation in the body. Often they also have helper electrodes..

[ziplock9000]

I started taking pictures of a couple of the common types that I have which are not yet in the photo and realized a few things.

1.  I am going to have to do quite a bit of photo set up to get decent pictures.  Maybe even a microscope.

2.  A scale will be useful for identification, particularly for those who don't know already what the type is.

3.  Much of the critical information is not in the color or shape.  The ceramic type for example.  Not sure how best to flag this in an identification chart.  Maybe an inset for the generic type with the inset focused on identification of the variations.  Same thing could apply to electrolytic types.

At the moment just capturing all of that is the most important part, dissecting and classifying the data can some at a later point.

[ziplock9000]

I've actually been working on something like this. Basically a A3 size component reference chart with pictures of different types of common passives, showing what they are and how to read off the codes (if they have any).

I'd be happy to post it here and then add to it as people send me high quality photos of new types.

If you could add them to the wiki I've setup it would be better. A forum might be good to collect data, but nowhere near as good as a wiki for displaying it.
http://electronicsreference.wikia.com/wiki/Capacitors

[xrunner]

Cool project! I'm gonna follow this 

[ziplock9000]

Ok, I've added everyone's suggestions thus far to the wiki. I'm going to do some hi-res DSL photography of my own now and add them to the wiki.

If possible, instead of putting suggestions here, can you guys and gals add them directly to the wiki instead? Less copy and paste for me. Thanks 

I'll also be adding more columns to the table as they become obvious, like "polarized" and SMD etc:D

[tautech]

5 6 ad 7 are film caps. The red one is a wima. The silver one is siemens and the black one probably a sprague.

I'm sure I've seen solid Tantalums like that too, they weigh like lead in your hand. 

[xrunner]

What's next?

The definitive transistor identification chart,

the definitive ___________ identification chart? 

[ziplock9000]

What's next?

The definitive transistor identification chart,

the definitive ___________ identification chart? 

Why not?

[free_electron]

What's next?

The definitive transistor identification chart,

the definitive ___________ identification chart? 

The definitive  pantone 768 red, pvc from dupont type r97-3j, insulated, 0.3mm wall with 2% tolerance , thermoplastic ,onyx-chemicals type plu-5-d pantone 907 white ink 9 dot matrix printed legend, ul listed, 105 degree c , stranded 98% oxygen free copper , 12 strands , twisted on a 1 inch turnlength , on 500 m rolls from belkin produced on 27 february 2001 at 19:47pm from factory nine , lot 5007 and handled by operatur yu-chen with 204 meters remaining on the roll ... wire guide ...  ( i have one reel of that )

[ziplock9000]

I've added some more higher resolution images to the wiki that need identification.

[bktemp]

Having so many similar images (all the blue/brown/reddish capacitors) probably doesn't help much. They are all film capacitors, but the exact construction and material is often impossible to identify without having the datasheet.
Sometimes there is some text on the capacitors like PP. MPP, or MKP. Then it uses most likely polypropylene film for reduced losses, otherwise it is probably polyester film.

Also there are many types of electrolytic capacitors. If you can identify the manufacturer you may be able to find a datasheet, otherweise you often only know it is an electrolytic capacitor with xxV and yyuF, but you can't say if it is a low ESR, a general purpose one or some more specialised type unless you know exactly the circuit where it came from and have enough experience to tell what type of electrolytic capacitor is needed for the specific application.

[ziplock9000]

Having so many similar images (all the blue/brown/reddish capacitors) probably doesn't help much. They are all film capacitors, but the exact construction and material is often impossible to identify without having the datasheet.
Sometimes there is some text on the capacitors like PP. MPP, or MKP. Then it uses most likely polypropylene film for reduced losses, otherwise it is probably polyester film.

Also there are many types of electrolytic capacitors. If you can identify the manufacturer you may be able to find a datasheet, otherweise you often only know it is an electrolytic capacitor with xxV and yyuF, but you can't say if it is a low ESR, a general purpose one or some more specialised type unless you know exactly the circuit where it came from and have enough experience to tell what type of electrolytic capacitor is needed for the specific application.

Any chance you could add that information to the wiki as I'm not sure which you're referring to. Thanks.

[bktemp]

I have added text to most of the capacitors.
All pictures of film capacitors above the MPP polypropylene one are very similar. I doubt all of them are needed, because they all have the same colour and shape and no other unique features.
Instead of adding more and more pictures, it would be better to arrange them in groups and add some more information on how to distinguish between the capacitor types.

[ziplock9000]

I have added text to most of the capacitors.
All pictures of film capacitors above the MPP polypropylene one are very similar. I doubt all of them are needed, because they all have the same colour and shape and no other unique features.
Instead of adding more and more pictures, it would be better to arrange them in groups and add some more information on how to distinguish between the capacitor types.

Thanks, your help is appreciated. Ultimately that's what will happen once we know some are the same.

[CatalinaWOW]

Added a couple more.

[tpowell1830]

What's next?

The definitive transistor identification chart,

the definitive ___________ identification chart? 

Sure why not, resistors, op amps, (add your own)... 

However, Ziplock, this is a huge undertaking, but I think it is a great idea and needs doing. Learn a treasure as you go as well.
This what the internet is for...

PEACE===>T

[Vtile]

Here is one a bit more exotic for these days. It is "SuperElectric" (must be manufacturers brandname) 10000pF = 10nF and 2000Vdc Trolitul capacitor from somewhere WW2 era +-10 years propably. This is not paper or wax condensator, but a polystyrene.

TROLITUL
n. Poly(styrene), manufactured by Dynamit Nobel, Germany.
http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-30160-0_11940

I I don't know how these ages, the typical min/max frequenzy limits given for polystyrene by Electronics Engineer's Reference Book (through google books) is given DC up to 10 GHz (10000 MHz).

[Pedro26]

Does the Wiki still exist? I used to have printed copies of the catalogues for RS components, Farnells, CPC, and Maplins, and with them I could identify most capacitors I came across, often their manufacturer too. Unfortunately, these ‘disappeared’ following a house move, a big loss when dealing  with legacy electronics.