What cap is this

[snipersquad100]

Found this schematic but im not sure what cap this is. Symbol show its polarized but the value as far as I know is 3.3uf 63v which is a polyester cap which are not polarized.
help please

[houdini]

And a tantalum or electrolytic cap cant have this value why?

[snipersquad100]

so its a mistake on the schematic

[mariush]

Looks like a polarized (the thick part is - )  3.3uF / 63v electrolytic capacitor.

The + side of a capacitor can be connected to ground if there's a split power supply or the capacitor is in front of a negative voltage regulator, for example like in this circuit :



In the picture above, C30 and C32's + side is connected to the ground wire. 78L05 above is a +5v linear regulator, and the 79L05 below is a -5v regulator.

[aargee]

A look at the whole section of the circuit would be useful, I'm not sure the capacitor symbol is really showing polarisation, what does the number 5 relate to? Are you saying that the circuit does in fact have a polyester cap in this spot? Polarised and non-polarised electrolytics are available in this value range as are non polarised polyester types.

[c4757p]

Looks like a polarized (the thick part is - )  3.3uF / 63v electrolytic capacitor.

The + side of a capacitor can be connected to ground if there's a split power supply or the capacitor is in front of a negative voltage regulator

The thick part is positive.

[mariush]

The thick part is positive.

Hmm you may be right... thing is there's so many capacitor notations it's hard to tell with just a small picture. The OP should have posted a larger screenshot.

[c4757p]

The huge number of capacitor notations is really, really annoying. I'm pretty sure about this one, though. That's the style used by KiCad.

[snipersquad100]

Im not sure what cap it is, all I know is what you see in the pic. Its a 555 oscillating circuit, and the number 5 you see is just pin 5 of the 555 timer. I try a electrolytic and breadboard it up. Thanks guys.

[mariush]

Well, read the datasheet of the 555 and try to understand what those pins do and what that pin's purpose is.

After all why are you breadboarding that, don't you actually want to learn what happens there?

[vlf3]

Since it's a 555 timer chip, then pin 5 is a control input, but in your case it looks like it's not used; so normally one would use a cap from pin 5 to ground, the -Neg supply rail, to reduce any risk of noise pick-up into pin 5 control.

To answer your question; the cap shown is polarised, being a "3.3Mfd or uf" and it might be required ? if, the 555 is driving an output power device that's creating a lot of noise within the circuits DC supply rails... "if that's not the case" and your 555 is on it's own, just doing some simple low power output work, then any non-polarised cap within the value range of 10 to 100nf, would do the job.

[c4757p]

That is one motherf-ing big cap on a 555 CV pin! I have yet to see a 555 circuit that needs more than 100nF there. The vast majority don't need one at all if you decouple VCC properly.

[Psi]

Yes, when you have that notation (a short thick line and a thin square bracket shape around it) the smaller thick line is positive.

It's a bit confusing because it looks kind of like the battery symbol where the longer line is positive.

[vlf3]

That is one motherf-ing big cap on a 555 CV pin! I have yet to see a 555 circuit that needs more than 100nF there. The vast majority don't need one at all if you decouple VCC properly

Yes,  c4757p is correct... in particular the last section of the reply: 

The vast majority don't need one at all if you decouple VCC properly

Since we were only able to see just the cap value, and then told it's a 555, the picture becomes that more clear; for members who know this long standing chip, and it's history... with so many variations that were never intended, to become a work-horse beyond it's intended timer function: reference threshold, Schmitt, flip-flop, one-shot, oscillator, and more creative implementations around this chip.