Capacitor lead spacing for veroboard

[Killthepopular]

What size capacitors do i need to buy for a vero build? Apparently adjacent holes are usually about 2.5mm apart. Does this mean that for adjacent holes i want a cap with a 2.5mm lead spacing? 5mm for a cap that spans 3 holes. 7.5mm for 4 holes, 10mm for 5 holes etc?

[PRR]

> Apparently adjacent holes are usually about 2.5mm

Holes ARE 0.1 inch apart.

In some (most) lands the sticks are marked in mm, and today most datasheets are in mm.

Strictly 1 inch is 25.4mm (exact), so as you get to many-hole spreads those 0.4mm errors may accumulate. (Or they may really be built to 2.54mm increments.) But for caps in pedals, your math looks right.

[anotherjim]

Unless you want to spend an awfully long time hunting the right size parts, we usually go with what we're given. Most caps used are radial leaded and the most common values will be closer to 3 hole spaces - almost 5mm. Rather than skip a track, it can be better to mount the cap along the track with a track cut in between. Caps that are 2.5mm spaces will only be in the lower pF size for non-polarized and up to 100uF and 50v rating or thereabouts.
It isn't illegal to bend the wires in or out to suit the required spacing or mount diagonally.

[duck_arse]

in some countries, ......

.... It isn't illegal to bend the wires in or out to suit the required spacing or mount diagonally.

[StephenGiles]

Just bend the leads to fit as you go.

[amptramp]

Every vero board I have seen uses 0.1 inch = 2.54 mm spacing.  Bending the leads (provided it is not too close to the body of the device) is good in that it provides strain relief.

[ElectricDruid]

What size the caps are will depend on what type and value the caps are. The fact they're for a Vero build or not doesn't really enter into it much, to be honest.

The good news is that almost all caps follow standard pin spacings, either 0.1"/2.54mm for smaller electrolytics and some little box film caps, a *lot* of stuff is on a 0.2"/5.08mm pitch, and some larger film caps are on 0.3"/7.62mm AKA 7.5mm. Axial caps can be much longer, and anything high voltage tends to be larger. If you have some stuff on 0.4"/10mm, then cool. I don't use components that large very often, but they turn up in amp builds.

Don't worry about the difference between metric and imperial sizing for caps - for veroboard purposes, 5.08mm is the same as 5mm and 2.54mm is definitely the same as 2.5mm. As PRR said, it might make a difference on larger sizes (where the errors start to accumulate) but those parts aren't likely in stompbox builds, for the most part.

Buy the parts you need keeping just one eye on whether they're reasonable for your 0.1/2.5mm grid and you'll be fine.

HTH,
Tom