Any electricians help identify this component

riddlermarc · 14 Oct 2006 at 13:57

I took my vintage Colorsound wah (-wah pedal) out of my kit bag the other day and it rattled worryingly, upon closer inspection one of the components on the pcb has disintegrated and fallen off :eek:

I know enough about basic electrics to assume from the markings it's some sort of resistor but I'm not sure? What is it called and can you still get these parts?

There is a surviving one of these on the pcb, the sort of greenish block near the top with the two white wires running to it:

(you can see the posts of the broken one still in the pcb to the left of the picture)..

The markings from the knackered one show:

And the body of the broken part looks like this when pulled apart slightly:

I really want to get it fixed, it's an original 70's wah-wah with the original tropical fish caps!

Cheers

Jokester · 14 Oct 2006 at 14:00

I think it might be a capacitor, possibly 10nF, but that would just be a guess.

Jokester

Dr.EM · 14 Oct 2006 at 14:24

It's a capacitor, 10nF, 250v rating. Appears to be an open construction stacked polysester/mylar? They don't make them like that anymore and they were notorious for breaking. Replace with a modern boxed one (metallised polysester) of the same value, don't worry about the voltage rating, lower 63v units will be fine

VeNT · 14 Oct 2006 at 14:29

you had best match the two capacitors tho, replace both if posable as if they have different discharge rates it could effect the circuit as a whole.

riddlermarc · 14 Oct 2006 at 14:43

woohoo, cheers very much guys - I'm assuming I can get these down at my local "large electrical component retailer"?

EDIT: something like:

a range of multilayer
metallised polyester film capacitors that are epoxy resin sealed in a flame-retardant thermoplastic case (UL94VO).
These low-cost capacitors have a high CV to volume ratio and are highly reliable and stable over a very wide temperature range (-5C to +100C). The capacitors are non-inductive with a standard 5mm lead spacing and are primarily intended for PCB mounting. Conform to IEC 384-1/384-2 and CECC 30000/30400.

So if I buy two of the 10n ones?

Mik3 · 14 Oct 2006 at 14:46

riddlermarc said:
woohoo, cheers very much guys - I'm assuming I can get these down at my local "large electrical component retailer"?

I would think so. If you cant get hold of any from a local shop, email me your addy and I will post some to you tomorrow.

Dr.EM · 14 Oct 2006 at 15:26

Yes, they are the ones I'd use. Metallised polysester are very good as part of filter circuits, as are mylar and the rather more obscure paper-oil caps. As suggested, it's probably best to replace the other ones of the old construction so they all match and so hopefully it won't fail again too soon.

Bailey_sufc · 14 Oct 2006 at 15:47

Jokester said:
I think it might be a capacitor, possibly 10nF, but that would just be a guess.

Jokester

its uf not nf uf mean micro farads

daz · 14 Oct 2006 at 15:51

Bailey_sufc said:
its uf not nf uf mean micro farads

The cap says 10n... hence nanofarads.

nutcase · 14 Oct 2006 at 16:40

Yup, I read that as nanofarads as well.

What is it, pico, nano, micro for the various things? Then of course whole farads, for the chunky monkey caps

Lashout_UK · 14 Oct 2006 at 16:52

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix

nutcase · 14 Oct 2006 at 17:18

cheat

I was dragging the depths of my secondary edumacation.

Dr.EM · 14 Oct 2006 at 17:24

Definately 10nF, you can tell by the size if nothing else.