| Electronics > Beginners |
| Why do SMT capacitors have no markings? |
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| lazarusr:
N00b question: Why do 0603 MLC capacitors have no markings? If the strips become separated from their packaging/reel there is no easy way to tell what value they are. There doesn't seem to be any difficulty putting markings on 0603 resistors. |
| tooki:
I've wondered this, too! |
| T3sl4co1l:
Because it's the default option? :-// Lots of things in life are that way, simply because they are that way. There needn't be a reason, let alone a good one, why something is the way it is. :( Marked caps do exist, I've seen them before! They're very rare though. Equally so, one might ask -- why bother marking resistors at all? Some 0603s and most 0402s are unmarked, but the larger ones usually are marked. Haven't seen marked ferrite beads or other multilayer inductors. Those should be equally plausible as capacitors are, but probably just aren't as common, so, even if they're marked as often, I've probably just not seen one yet. (Wound parts usually are marked.) Tim |
| lazarusr:
Actually, the more I think about it, the real question is probably why bother marking resistors? Plainly, component manufacturers are more interested in industrial clients who will use multiple reels at a time and aren’t really interested in what the components look like once on the board and certainly aren’t interested in retaining tiny strips of components. |
| Ian.M:
Serviceability. Resistors commonly fail by changing value, and their values tend to affect the DC working point of the circuit, so the repair tech needs to be able to see their values at a glance. Capacitors, not so much. |
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