A simple qestion...(plese)

[Someone Electro]

How do i know the capacity of a ceramic capacitor? :?:

If on the capacitator is labled:
104
LP

Then the capacity is 104 pF? :roll:

PS:
I know its a stupid qestion but i never used a ceramic capacitor!

 

[olly_k]

It works very similar to a resistor code except minus the colours. So your 104 capacitor is in fact 1 0 0,000 = 100nF. The third digit is usually the multiplier if you haven't already guested!

 

[laroche73]

reading cap values

Olly's answered the question perfectly well, just piping in with my $0.02.
Most caps are spec'd in pF, unless otherwise indicated. Just convert the 3rd number on the cap to zeros, so 103 becomes 10,000pf => 10nF => .01uF. and 104 is 10 0,000pF => 100nf => 0.1uF. Engineers prefer to move the decimal point three places at a time, it's simple and easy to remember. Small-valued caps usually have only the pF number printed on them, so you'll see something like 47, or 680. A capacitor's physical size is a rough indicator of how to interpret the number printed on it, though watch out for the newer "supercaps" (1 Farad@2.5V in a thumbnail sized-package can be found).

It probably isn't needed on this board, but

pF = picoFarads = 10^-12 Farads
nF = nanoFarads 10^-9
uF = picoFarads 10^-6

- CAL