The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) hosted Hamvention 2023 in Xenia, Ohio, on the weekend of May 19th. This annual event is the largest gathering of amateur radio operators. Sprawled across the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center are commercial vendors selling gear or services, educational talks, license exams, and a massive flea market.
Ceramic capacitors change capacitance with applied voltage, temperature, and age. They are the most popular electronic component, yet many do not understand what causes this capacitance to change. In this video, James teams up with Murata to see what happens to a simple timer circuit when changing a capacitor from a 1206 case size to a much smaller 0201.
Whether you are just getting started in electronics or you have boxes of parts, it is good to know what are the most critical parts to have in your kit. James asked the element 14 community for what they considered to be essential passive components like resistors, capacitors, switches, wires, and even diodes. In this video, he consolidated their puts and explains what to think about when buying these parts for your kit.
Learn how to use an LCR meter, such as the Tenma 72-10465, to measure reactive components. An LCR meter uses an AC signal at different frequencies to characterize capacitors, inductors, and even resistors. They can also provide impedance measurements. These include phase angle, ESR, quality factor, and dissipation factor.
You can even use the 72-10465 to sort components by their tolerance range.
There are three capacitor measurements you need to know how to make: capacitance, leakage current, and equivalent series resistance. Capacitance is easy to measure if you have a current limited supply or can use a resistor. Apply a voltage, then time how long it takes to charge up. You might need to use an oscilloscope or even an Arduino for the second part. Leakage current is the easiest of the three, apply a voltage (ideally through a resistor) for a few minutes, and then measure the current. ESR requires some special tricks. Since it is the resistance of the “wires” connecting to the capacitive element’s anode and code, you have to measure resistance without charging up the capacitor. (Otherwise, you get leakage.)
In the post Measuring Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor’s ESR, I go through those methods in more detail. I also introduce the PEAK Electronics ESR70. It’s a pocket-sized instrument that measures both Capacitance and ESR. There’s a button you can touch, or it detects when a new capacitor is connected. Check out my Workbench Wednesdays review where I go into depth about how the meter works (and whether or not I like it.) Oh one bonus feature, it works while in-circuit!
As of this post, it has been almost six years since I first wrote about capacitors on my blog. The article was the Arduino GSM Shield’s capacitor has a serious design flaw. Wow, how time passes.
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