Capacitors for crystal

I've tried several different crystals (from 7 to 17 MHz) without the two capacitors to ground, and they all seem to work fine (although I don't have a frequency counter to check the accuracy). What is the purpose of the capacitors, and is it acceptable to omit them?

Thanks.

Dan East

Dan East said:

I've tried several different crystals (from 7 to 17 MHz) without the two capacitors to ground, and they all seem to work fine (although I don't have a frequency counter to check the accuracy). What is the purpose of the capacitors, and is it acceptable to omit them?

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The oscillator design requires the capacitors, you may be lucky and have sufficient stray capacitance for it to work - but it seems far more sensible to include the capacitors and keep everything within their specifications.

Personally I wouldn't omit them, you are reducing the potential reliability of the circuit.