CAPACITOR COLOUR CODE

The basic unit of capacitance is the Farad, named after the Michael Faraday.
Capacitance is usually measured in microfarads, abbreviated F, or picoFarads (pF).
The unit Farad is used in converting formulas and other calculations. A F
(microfarad) is on millionth of a Farad (10
-6
F) and a pF picoFarads is one-millionth
of a microfarad (10
-12
F).
A capacitor is a device that stores an electrical charge or energy on it's plates. These
plates are placed very close together with an insulator in between to prevent the plates
from touching each other, and a type of dielectric. A capacitor can carry a voltage
equal to the battery or input voltage. Usually a capacitor has more than two plates
depending on the capacitance or dielectric type. Once charged the discharge rate can
be influenced by another source. This action can create oscillation, or be used for
electronic timing. The rate in witch the capacitor charges and discharges can be used
to create a filter, or limit unwanted noise. There is lots more we can do with capacitors
too.

Capacitor Codes:
I guess you would really like to know how to read all those different codes. Not to
worry, it is not as difficult as it appears. Some capacitors just tell you right out. Take
your electrolytic and large body types of capacitors: these usually have the value
printed on the body of the cap. For example,:100F 250V, or something like that
would be imprinted right on the body. It would also have marks pointing to the
negative end of the capacitor.
Start here for the smaller non-polarized and old type capacitors!
It's mostly the smaller caps have two or three numbers printed on them, some
with one or two letters added to that value. Take a look at the table below.


As you can see it all looks very simple. If a capacitor is marked like this 105, it just
means 10+5zeros = 10 + 00000 = 1,000,000pF = 1000 nF = 1 F. And that's exactly
the way you write it too. Value is always
in pF (PicoFarads). The letters added to
the value is the tolerance and in some
cases a second letter is the temperature
coefficient mostly only used in military
applications, or industrial components.

So, for example, it you have a ceramic
capacitor with 474J printed on it:
47+4zeros = 470000 = 470,000pF, J=5%
tolerance. (470,000pF = 470nF =
0.47F) The only major thing to
remember here is to move the decimal
point back six place for (uf) and three for (nf). Below in table A, is a simple version
for direct conversions to make it easier for you.

TABLE A
coded-decipher-value(pf)-value(nf)-value(uf)......coded-decipher-value(pf)-value(nf)-value(uf)
102 10+00 =1,000pf 1nf .001uf 333 33+000 33,000pf 33nf 0.033uf
103 10+000 =10,000pf 10nf .01uf

334 33+0000 330,000pf 330nf 0.33uf
104 10+0000 =100,000pf 100nf .1uf

472 47+00 4,700pf 4.7nf 0.0047uf
222 22+00 =2,200pf 2.2nf .0022uf

473 47+000 47000pf 47nf 0.047uf
223 22+000 =22,000pf 22nf .022uf

502 50+00 5,000 5nf 0.005uf
224 22+0000 220,000pf 220nf .22uf

503 50+000 50,000pf 50nf 0.05uf
332 33+00 3300pf 3.3nf .0033uf

504 50+0000 500,000pf 500nf 0.5uf
Other capacitors may just have 0.1 or 0.01 printed on them. If so, this represents
the value in F. Thus 0.1 means just 0.1 F. If you want this value in nanoFarads (nf)
just move the decimal three places to the right which makes it 100nF capacitor. Some
caps will have a value then a letter. For example .068K, in this case its a .068uf 10%
capacitor. Again just take a look at FIG 2.

The chart below is a simple conversion chart. It will help you understand how we
convert uf to pf and nf.

Converting uf-nf-pf
microFarads (F) nanoFarads (nF) picoFarads (pF)
0.000001F = 0.001nF = 1pF
0.00001F = 0.01nF = 10pF
0.0001F = 0.1nF = 100pF
0.001F = 1nF = 1000pF
0.01F = 10nF = 10,000pF
0.1F = 100nF = 100,000pF
1F = 1000nF = 1,000,000pF
10F = 10,000nF = 10,000,000pF
100F = 100,000nF = 100,000,000pF
Decoding the Old Capacitors
This chart will help figure out those codes on the Mica molded type capacitors.
However they rearly go bad. I don't think I ever found a bad one myself. Keep in mind
this translates them to pf or MMF. Don't worry they both mean the same thing. This
example below would translate to 47pf, or 47MMF.

.