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Resistors and capacitors may also be referred to with
shorthand notation on the printed circuit board when
there is a decimal in the value. For example, the place
on the board for the 4.7K resistor will read 4K7 and the
spot for a 2.2nF capacitor will read 2n2. This is done to
save space on the board and make the labels as clear
as possible.
Some capacitors have polarity and some don’t. It’s
extremely important to install polarized caps correctly
in a circuit. The negative lead will often be indicated
by a band of arrows pointing to the negative lead and
will be shorter than the positive lead. The positive lead
of an electrolytic cap will be longer and won’t have
any arrows pointing to it.
Installing capacitors with the polarity backwards will
make the circuit malfunction and quickly destroy the
capacitor— even causing it to explode.
CAPACITORS
The two main uses of capacitors are to store electricity
and to block the flow of DC current.
Capacitor values are typically printed on the
component. The key values with caps are their voltage
and capacitance.
The voltage spec for a cap refers to how much DC
voltage it can handle at any given time. If this rating is
exceeded, the capacitor will fail.
Capacitance, measured in farads, refers to how
much electricity a capacitor can hold. One farad (1F)
would be much too large for use in a pedal. Caps
for pedals are rated between millionths of a farad,
called microfarads (μF), billionths of a farad, called
nanofarads (nF), or trillionths of a farad: picofarads
(pF). .001μF = 1nF = 1,000pF.
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