Noob question re. Capacitor markings / Aion Halo

[joer3155]

Hi,
I’m building my first pedal from a kit from Aion. The kit is great, and it seems easy enough.

But there are two different film capacitors in the kit the I’m not certain how to identify their values. Per the build docs, one should be 10nF and the other should be 3.9nF. I’ve searched KEMET, WIMA, Mouser, etc. etc. to try and decipher the markings, but no luck. And I don’t (yet) have a DMM that reads capacitance.

I think the WIMA is the 10nF but want to be sure.

The WIMA is marked:
0.01
-63

The KEMET is marked:
PHE426
100-
BH6

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Myampgoesto12]

The WIMA is the 10nf, I'm not sure about the other cap's marking. If all other caps in the circuit match up then I'd say that's your 3.9.

Before you slap those on your board double check your other caps.

What part of the circuit is the 3.9 for? Any chance of seeing a schematic?

[joer3155]

Thanks very much.
Here's the schematic:

[joer3155]

So first important lesson: always check the schematic. The docs for the kit didn’t include the schematic, so I dug it out of the doc for the PCB.

It looks like it won’t matter which cap goes where, given how they’re tied to the mids switch - as long as I’m consistent.

(There are actually 2 of each cap - I left this info out initially since it wasn’t relevant to my question.)


Thanks again

[DIY Bass]

How many of each type do you have.  Given that there is no 3 or 9 on the markings of the blue cap, I doubt very much that it is 3.9nF.  I would say that it is likely to be 100nF - and there looks like quite a few of those in the schematic

[joer3155]

I'm sure about the other caps on the board. 

I have four left, two of each type that I described. I guess it's possible that two of the parts in the kit are incorrect.

The DMM with Capacitance reading is on its way...

[Myampgoesto12]

Interesting, if those caps measure to 100s then that kit had a bit of a mistake in packaging before shipping. Maybe not likely but possible.

Heck if it ends up being that, you could just parallel the remaining caps for the other side of the switch. It may not be spec, but it would be 210nf if you used all of them.

In case they are only 100n's and if you would rather have the stock value, you could just leave the 3.9 position empty until you get a hold of the proper cap, since its in a frequency selector and nothing major like power supply or coupling / decoupling caps.

[duck_arse]

I think we are missing some information. capacitors will often have a marking on them like "PHE426" or "1806" or something. just type that number into yr fave seach engine, see what comes back. in this case, thanks to mouser, we get this DATASHEET:
https://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/KEMETPHE426Datasheet.pdf
which includes a lot of stuff. of interest is that the range does not go lower than 1nF, 1000pF, 0,001 uF. also mentioned is that the cap markings conform to IEC 60062. when we type that into a search hole, we find something like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60062
from that page, I'd say either the cap was 100pF, derived from the "100-" mark (which is the voltage rating), or that there was another marking somewhere on the cap, looks like "0u1" - but I didn't read the whole page, too long.

the WIMA cap is 10nF, 63V.

always look for a datasheet.

[edit :] ALSO, and most importantly, welcome to the forum.

[joer3155]

....Heck if it ends up being that, you could just parallel the remaining caps for the other side of the switch. It may not be spec, but it would be 210nf if you used all of them....
.

Thanks. I'm mainly impatient to get it done and try it out. But I also don't want to get it wrong and have to desolder stuff...  So at this point I'll wait for the meter to arrive.

[joer3155]

I think we are missing some information. capacitors will often have a marking on them like "PHE426" or "1806" or something. just type that number into yr fave seach engine, see what comes back. in this case, thanks to mouser, we get this DATASHEET:
https://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/KEMETPHE426Datasheet.pdf

always look for a datasheet.

Thanks. I did look for and find the data sheet, but couldn't find the label from this cap. 

[joer3155]

I think we are missing some informationg...that there was another marking somewhere on the cap, looks like "0u1"...


[edit :] ALSO, and most importantly, welcome to the forum.

Well sure enough there's marking on the edge of the cap that I missed.... 
The KEMET is 3.9nF. Sorry to waste all your time. Thanks again for the help.

[duck_arse]

ahh, well, for our records, might we see that extra info in photo form? please?

[joer3155]

ahh, well, for our records, might we see that extra info in photo form? please?

Posting the photo, as I try and overcome  my embarrassment....




They're the blue caps on the right of the board.
I finished up the soldering / assembly and plugged it in, and it works - thank goodness!

Nice kit by Aion for a first go.  Next, I'm going to build a few dirt pedals from PCBs.

[aion]

Looks awesome, and glad you got it working! DIY pedalbuilding is loaded with mistakes you'll only ever make once, and knowing where to look for the values is one of those. In this case PHE426 is the series from the manufacturer (Kemet).

I've started including the alternate value notation (i.e. both 0.01uF as well as 10n) in newer kit docs, but haven't gone back in yet and added this to the Halo kit. But yes, it's confusing when you are told to look for one value and the capacitor is marked differently!

Schematic is toward the end of the docs, on page 23 if you missed it.

[joer3155]

Yup...Feel like a dope for missing the marking.   
I got "tunnel vision" and focused on the fact that I couldn't find any info or pictures on line that explained the markings on the side of the cap, so figured it must be some code that I didn't know how to interpret.

[Myampgoesto12]

Looks awesome, and glad you got it working! DIY pedalbuilding is loaded with mistakes you'll only ever make once, and knowing where to look for the values is one of those.

Hah once.. I still have to think about which way to wire my pots.. too much. Hah.  Got lucky on my phaser, not so lucky on my first active circuit (lpb1)