0:10 hi there if you're into restoring old
0:12 receivers or old radios and restoring
0:14 old guitar amplifiers or even building
0:16 amplifiers you probably find this
0:18 information rather interesting so those
0:21 orange dip Brown dip Green Dip and those
0:23 little yellow axial leaded capacitors
0:25 and many more capacitors have a polarity
0:26 in circuit and should be installed in
0:29 the circuit the correct way in order for
0:31 them not to pick up hum from adjacent
0:34 parts of your amplifier or radio or to
0:35 pick up interference from adjacent parts
0:37 of the chassis whatever they're
0:39 installed into so in this video what
0:41 we're going to do is we're going to
0:43 discuss why these capacitors have a
0:45 polarity and then we're going to build a
0:47 little circuit that will help us locate
0:49 this polarity quickly we all know that
0:51 if you're restoring an old radio or an
0:52 old guitar amplifier they usually have a
0:54 handful of capacitors in them and you
0:55 really don't want to be doing this while
0:57 you're restoring the receiver or
0:59 amplifier so we're going to build a
1:00 little circuit that'll help you grade
1:02 them with an oscilloscope very quickly
1:03 and then you with a little felt marker
1:06 you can mark the band end or as it was
1:08 called in the old days the outside foil
1:11 end of the capacitor so let's get into
1:13 the video and start discussing why these
1:15 capacitors actually have a
1:18 polarity here we have two very common
1:19 circuits that you'll find in a lot of
1:22 vacuum tube gear this upper circuit here
1:23 you'll notice is in a lot of guitar
1:25 amplifiers or High Fidelity amplifiers
1:28 or stereo receivers this really is just
1:30 an an audio amplification ation chain
1:32 here this bottom portion of the
1:34 schematic I've kind of drawn to
1:36 represent either an if amplifier or an
1:38 audio amplifier of course we'd have to
1:40 amend this Transformer to represent
1:41 either or but we're not going to get too
1:43 crazy about that right now because it's
1:45 all about just learning which way we
1:47 need to install our new capacitors in
1:49 this circuit for the best circuit
1:52 performance and the least amount of
1:54 interference so way back in the day they
1:57 used to make capacitors that looked like
1:59 this and if you ever find a capacitor
2:00 like this
2:02 in any kind of gear that you're working
2:04 on it has to go uh these are all faulty
2:08 by now and they leak now when I talk
2:10 about leaking I don't mean that they
2:11 leak physically they're not leaking a
2:14 substance like oil or goop out of them
2:17 they leak DC across them so whenever you
2:19 hear the term leaky capacitor that means
2:21 that they're leaking direct current
2:23 through them capacitors are supposed to
2:26 block DC and pass alternating current
2:28 through them so when they leak that
2:29 means that this capacitor is a
2:32 effectively turning into a resistor and
2:35 that is no good for the next stage so
2:37 what happens in these capacitors is
2:39 they've got paper inside of them that's
2:41 gone acidic and it's basically just
2:44 turning into a big resistor right now
2:45 and when these capacitors turn into
2:47 resistors they bias up the next stage
2:49 and cause the tube over here to draw
2:51 heavy current it causes damage to the
2:53 Circuit you burnout plate resistors and
2:55 if Transformers and it does all sorts of
2:57 bad things so you want to get rid of
2:59 these capacitors and replace them with a
3:01 modern equivalent like a um an orange
3:03 dip or a brown dip and I'll grab one of
3:06 those here in just a minute to show you
3:07 so back in the day when these were brand
3:08 new they're great capacitors they didn't
3:10 leak or anything and uh they were nice
3:13 enough to Mark the outside foil end of
3:15 the capacitor by putting a band on it
3:17 and printing outside foil on it now the
3:21 outside foil end means that this lead on
3:23 the capacitor comes into here and it
3:26 also attaches to an outside foil jacket
3:28 that's just right underneath this paper
3:31 here and it Shields the entire capacitor
3:33 so if we were to tie this to the chassis
3:35 this whole capacitor would be shielded
3:36 right up to this point right to where
3:38 this lead goes in this lead goes it to
3:42 the inside layers so in effect these
3:44 capacitors actually do have a polarity
3:47 now so do a lot of the modern capacitors
3:49 and if they're built correctly they'll
3:51 actually be made with you know Metalized
3:54 polypropylene or uh you know PVC or
3:55 whatever they're building their new
3:57 capacitors with and of course whichever
3:59 new style capacitor that you end up buying
4:00 buying
4:02 they will have an outside foil jacket
4:04 connected to one end it's just that they
4:07 didn't spend the time to actually mark
4:09 it and that's what we're going to do in
4:10 this video is we're going to locate that
4:13 outer uh outer foil or the outer
4:15 Metalized polypropylene layer so that
4:17 when you install your capacitors into
4:19 circuit you're going to pick up less hum
4:22 and a less uh adjacent interference and
4:24 um you know there you're not going to
4:25 get oscillation because you have a
4:28 really large exposed surface hooked to a
4:30 high impedance portion of your your
4:33 circuit so now these capacitors we'll
4:35 just use this as an example for a modern
4:38 capacitor so say this was a a brand new
4:40 modern capacitor okay if we were to
4:43 install this into the circuit this end
4:45 here would go to the lower impedance
4:48 Point always so this end here with the
4:50 with a band if we were to use this as an
4:53 RF bypassing capacitor would always go
4:55 to the Chassy and this would go to the
4:57 the grid of the tube say the screen grid
4:59 if we wanted to keep RF off the screen
5:00 grid or something like that it would go
5:03 like this because when we tie this end
5:05 the chassis this entire capacitor is
5:07 shielded right up to this point now if
5:09 we hook this up in reverse and say we
5:11 tied this end of the chassis and this
5:13 end of the tube socket we'd have all of
5:16 this area that is completely exposed
5:18 right up to this point so of course we
5:19 don't want to have that because that's
5:22 more exposed area and of course we're
5:24 going to pick up more interference that
5:26 way especially if we have a a filament
5:28 or a heater Line running past this
5:30 that's that's definitely no good we
5:33 definitely want this end to the chassis
5:36 side now when we're hooking this up to a
5:37 standard audio amplification circuit
5:40 here this capacitor would go in this way
5:42 because the band end or the outside foil
5:44 end always goes to the lower impedance
5:46 portion of the circuit and the lower
5:49 impedance portion of the circuit most of
5:51 the time is the plate of the preceding
5:54 stage here or the earlier stage I should
5:57 say so this band end will always go
6:00 towards the plate and this end always
6:02 goes towards the Grid in this particular
6:04 circuit and in this capacitor would be
6:05 the same way and if we had a capacitor
6:08 on the input here it would be the exact
6:09 same way
6:12 again on this bottom circuit here we'll
6:13 notice that there is a capacitor missing
6:15 on the screen grid and this would be
6:18 considered an RF bypass capacitor we
6:20 want to keep RF off the screen grid here
6:21 because we don't want this screen grid
6:23 to amplify any kind of oscillations or
6:25 any kind of interference that's in the
6:29 chassis so by mounting this capacitor in
6:31 we would have to mount the band end to
6:32 the ground or the chassis and that would
6:35 tie to the screen grid now of course we
6:37 don't want a lot of lead inductance
6:39 there so we want to keep the lead as
6:41 short as possible but again you have to
6:43 use some common sense you don't want an
6:45 extremely short lead so that when you're
6:47 soldering it if you have a newer
6:49 capacitor you're going to melt the poly
6:50 uh the Metalized polypropylene with the
6:52 heat of your soldering iron you'll
6:53 probably need to leave a little bit of
6:56 lead so that it'll dissipate some heat
6:59 so again these capacitors need to go in
7:01 like this and they need to go in like
7:04 this and they need to go in like this
7:06 okay so depending on uh what stage or
7:09 what U what kind of schematic you've got
7:13 going on so now we have new capacitors
7:15 that look like this right here you can
7:17 see this this has no markings on it and
7:19 when these capacitors are created
7:21 they're going down the assembly line
7:22 this way and then they get the the
7:25 writing or the printing on them this way
7:27 or they'll get them on this way because
7:28 it really doesn't matter they're in a
7:29 machine that doesn't really pick pick
7:32 which way they go down the line so uh
7:34 they could be any old way and we need to
7:37 find out which end which lead is
7:39 attached to the outermost Metalized
7:42 polypropylene or we could call it the
7:44 the actual shielding inside the
7:46 capacitor which would be the outer the
7:49 outer layer the outermost layer of this
7:51 capacitor and that's very important so
7:53 that we install this into the circuit
7:56 the correct way cuz we don't know now a
7:58 lot of people think that when they buy
8:00 these orange dip Capac
8:01 that oh look they've been really nice
8:06 and they've marked that well really have
8:08 they this is how you test for the
8:11 outside shielded end of your capacitor
8:13 or the outside foil end or outside
8:15 Metalized polypropylene layer however
8:16 you want to call it we're really just
8:19 looking for the shielded end of your
8:21 capacitor and this is how you find it
8:23 using an oscilloscope and a very simple
8:24 little setup like this which is
8:26 basically just a BNC cable with a center
8:28 conductor attached to an alligator clip
8:30 and the Shi is also attached to an
8:32 alligator clip I have them right now
8:33 just clipped together to keep the noise
8:34 off the
8:37 screen so if you have a newer modern DSO
8:39 that goes down to about 5 molts per
8:41 division you should be absolutely fine
8:43 uh right now this is running at 2 molts
8:45 per Division and uh you know we're not
8:46 going to get too accurate with the
8:48 readings because really I'm just acting
8:51 as a random hum antenna in order to uh
8:53 to determine the outside foil end of
8:55 these capacitors and I'll explain that
8:57 here quite shortly so the first
8:58 capacitor we're going to look at is this
9:01 old wax capacitor now we wouldn't want
9:02 to use this in circuit because this
9:05 capacitor is well past its due date but
9:07 we're really just looking at a shielding
9:09 aspect of this capacitor so this will be
9:12 just fine for this test so what I'm
9:13 going to do is I'll hook this into
9:15 circuit the correct way and we'll look
9:16 at the signal on the screen in the
9:18 amplitude here and then we'll reverse
9:20 this capacitor and see the
9:23 differences so right now I'm just
9:24 connecting this thing up and this is the
9:26 way that it should normally be I'm
9:28 acting as the hum antenna right now I'm
9:31 uh holding the the case of the capacitor
9:33 right now so you could look at me as a
9:36 very nearby uh heater Line running past
9:38 this capacitor in in a chassis or
9:39 something like
9:42 that so that's the amplitude that we got
9:43 with it hooked up the correct way you
9:45 can see the banded end is connected to
9:47 the outside Shield of the cable this is
9:49 the lower impedance portion of the
9:52 circuit this would be the chassis and
9:54 we're always looking for the lowest
9:56 amplitude when we have found the lowest
9:59 amplitude we have the capacitor hooked
10:00 up the the correct way when the
10:02 amplitude is high it's hooked up
10:04 backwards so what I'll do is I'll hook
10:10 way and we can tell that we have this
10:12 hooked up backwards because now the
10:15 outside foil which is the the shielding
10:17 on this capacitor is capacitively
10:19 coupling to me and I'm feeding signal
10:22 into my oscilloscope so that we can see
10:24 here very simply that this capacitor is
10:26 now hooked up backwards remember we're
10:29 always looking for the lowest amplitude
10:31 and then we know when the negative or
10:33 the common lead of our oscilloscope is
10:35 hooked to that end when we have the
10:37 lowest amplitude that is the end that we
10:40 will Mark as the outside shielded end or
10:42 the outside foil end or whatever you
10:45 want to call it so that's this capacitor
10:48 here so let's grab a newer orange dip
10:50 capacitor and take a look at it so
10:53 here's a newer orange dip capacitor and
10:55 we have a line here and we might think
10:58 that oh that line indicates the outside
11:00 foil end well let's test that out I'll
11:02 just hook the capacitor up to it right
11:05 now it's much easier to hook this up off
11:09 of screen here so there we go so now
11:12 I've got this outside uh Shield of my
11:14 braid hooked up to this end this would
11:16 be considered the chassis and this here
11:18 would be considered the part that goes
11:20 into the high higher impedance portion
11:23 of the circuit okay so now what I'll do
11:25 is I'll flip these leads around now if I
11:27 flip these leads around and the
11:30 amplitude goes down that means that this
11:33 side is not the outside foil end
11:36 remember the side that the shielding is
11:39 on is always when the amplitude is lower
11:42 is the outside foil end so what I'll do
11:50 now and look at that we have lower
11:53 amplitude here so this line here does
11:56 not denote the outside foil end this
11:58 side here is the shielded end of this capacitor
12:05 so again I'll hook this back into
12:08 circuit the other way and we can see
12:10 that we have more amplitude this
12:20 around you can see that there's almost
12:23 nothing there so this side here would be
12:25 the side that we would want to connect
12:27 to the chassis we would mark this side
12:30 here with a line as the outside
12:33 foil okay so let's grab another orange
12:36 dip capacitor right here and test it out
12:39 the same way so I'll hook this up the
12:40 way that we would think that it's hooked
12:42 up this is the band end here so we'd
12:46 figure that that is the outside foil all
12:48 right so now what I'll do is I'll
12:55 leads and we can clearly see with this
12:57 capacitor that this side here is
13:00 definitely not the outside foil or the
13:02 outside Metalized polypropylene or
13:05 whatever Metalized PVC this here this
13:08 side is so this here would be considered
13:10 the shielded end of the capacitor this
13:12 is the side that would attach to the
13:21 this and you can very clearly see that
13:28 end so let's test an older capacitor
13:30 here here I have an older kind of a
13:32 burgundy dip I don't know what you would
13:34 call this but let's uh consider the line
13:38 end on this one as the outside foil so
13:46 now okay so here we
13:49 go all right you see the line is on this
13:51 end and we have the common or the
13:53 negative lead hooked up here all right
14:01 and we can see on this capacitor that
14:04 line does denote the outside shielded
14:06 end of the
14:09 capacitor so on this capacitor you could
14:12 regard this line as correct now whether
14:13 these capacitors are going down the run
14:15 like this and they're going down the run
14:16 like this we don't really know cuz I
14:18 don't have more of these to test but it
14:20 just so happens on this capacitor that
14:23 this end here is the shielded
14:27 end okay so let's take a look at this
14:30 old General instruments capacitor all
14:32 right and let's test it out and see if
14:36 this band end is the outside foil so
14:37 I'll hook this one up the way we would
14:39 think it would be hooked up
14:42 properly again we have the band end
14:44 hooked to the ground or the common this
14:47 would be considered the chassis
14:59 it and we can clearly see that this is
15:01 not the outside foil end on this
15:04 capacitor either so really the bands on
15:07 the ends really can be considered either
15:10 way with a lot of these capacitors so
15:12 really you need to test them in order to
15:14 really know what side is the outside
15:17 foil and you can very very clearly see
15:25 capacitors so I'll grab one of my my
15:26 brown dip ones
15:29 here all right and I'll hold this one
15:31 this one has absolutely no markings on
15:34 it so we'll test this one out here you
15:36 can see this one
15:48 leads it's just shorting there we got
15:51 these leads all twisted up there we go
15:54 so we can clearly see that this end here
15:57 is the band end right here even though
15:59 there are no markings on this capacitor
16:01 so you can see the differences there
16:02 there's the lower amplitude this way and
16:09 leads and we can see that we have higher
16:16 way so this end here is the shielded
16:18 end so now what we want to do is since
16:20 we're going to be testing these things
16:22 you know we're going to you know if
16:23 you're replacing a whole lot of these
16:25 things in a radio you're going to be you
16:27 know basically have a small bag full of
16:29 these things so you don't want to be
16:31 doing this as you're you know putting
16:32 these things in the radio you kind of
16:34 want to pre-grade these things and find
16:35 out which end really is the band end so
16:37 that you do install these things
16:39 correctly to short these leads out here
16:42 so um so what we're going to do is
16:44 create a small circuit that does this a
16:46 little bit easier for us and um we'll
16:48 check out maybe uh a couple of different
16:51 ideas and see what we can uh design here
16:53 and make a little uh make a little test
16:54 jig for these
16:57 things before I start building a small
16:59 project I usually like to check my own
17:01 stock and see if I have enough parts and
17:03 pieces to make this with the with the
17:04 parts that I have on
17:07 hand so I would like to build this into
17:09 a smaller Project Box and it just so
17:11 happens that I have another one around I
17:13 built the TDR out of the same one I
17:15 can't find the other Project Box I put
17:18 it in a very safe place so that uh I
17:20 would find it the next time as I can uh
17:22 as I can now see so anyways I'll locate
17:24 this other Project Box it looks just
17:26 like this one here except of course
17:28 there's nothing in it it's just a solid
17:31 you know uh cast box here so I'll end up
17:33 using this box here and the reason I
17:36 want to use this box over a plastic box
17:38 is this is completely shielded you got
17:39 to remember we have an oscilloscope
17:41 that's down at about 5 molts per
17:44 Division and maybe even 1 molt per
17:46 division so if we have a plastic box a
17:48 lot of noise is going to get into there
17:50 from anything that's basically around it
17:52 the thing is uh any kind of wire length
17:55 inside this box if it was plastic would
17:57 act as an antenna and we'd be picking up
17:59 all sorts of just noise and random
18:01 garbage so what we want to do is we want
18:04 to have everything enclosed in a solid
18:06 uh a cast box
18:08 here another thing that we have to think
18:10 about is you know a battery so I'm going
18:12 to need to install a battery in here and
18:13 I'm most likely going to end up using a
18:16 9volt battery for this so you know it's
18:17 going to take up a small portion of this
18:20 box so I have to locate things inside of
18:23 this project box so that you know this
18:24 whole thing will work out you know I
18:26 need to put a BNC Jack on here you know
18:29 I need to put a switch on it somewhere
18:30 the battery will have to be mounted in
18:32 here there'll have to be a small circuit
18:34 board in here that uh you know all of
18:36 our parts and pieces are going to be on
18:38 and we also have to think if we're going
18:40 to say I'm going to have two alligator
18:42 clips sticking out of the top of this
18:45 box or something like that all right now
18:48 I'm going to also have to have an LED
18:50 beside each alligator clip so that I
18:51 know when this thing is moving around
18:53 like this when it's reversing the
18:55 polarity of the capacitor so that we can
18:57 note the you know the amplitude
18:58 difference on the screen we're going to
19:00 have to have something that's going to
19:03 Mark the side that's the band end so I'm
19:04 going to have to have maybe some rubber
19:06 grommets and then you know maybe some
19:09 LEDs on the top of the box so everything
19:10 has to be taken into account because we
19:12 can't you know push the battery down on
19:14 top of the LEDs and we also need uh
19:17 space for the um for the wires to come
19:19 out of the top of the box so the battery
19:21 will have to sit over to one side and
19:22 this is all stuff that you have to think
19:25 about before you plan this so what you
19:26 do is of course you get your box and you
19:28 know you you put the battery inside and
19:30 you move things around and you know uh
19:32 you Pond over some things for a little
19:35 while and then when you you know come to
19:36 uh thinking okay you know this layout is
19:38 going to work then of course you can
19:42 start building with that layout so now
19:45 in order for this to make testing easier
19:46 we obviously need some form of a circuit
19:49 that's going to take this uh you know
19:51 capacitor and it's going to reverse it
19:53 and of course we don't want any imposed
19:56 noise from the circuit that it's around
19:58 so in order to make a circuit that's
20:00 going to reverse this we're going to
20:17 this so we can look at this as right
20:19 here if we were to have the capacitor
20:21 under test right
20:24 here so this is the capacitor under test
20:27 okay and say uh this here is the uh the scope
20:29 scope
20:32 common and uh this is the scope you know
20:33 the the center conductor we'll just put
20:36 plus here for just for uh ease of of
20:38 drawing okay so this is the center
20:41 conductor of the oscilloscope probe and
20:44 this here is the scope uh probe common
20:46 so if we want to have this in the
20:48 circuit say this is the negative side of
20:50 the capacitor here we're going to need
20:53 to close this switch and we're going to
20:55 need to close this switch in order for
20:58 the positive probe of our oscilloscope
20:59 or the Center conductor of the cable to
21:01 be attached to this side of the
21:04 capacitor which then would make this
21:06 this side here and then of course this
21:07 would run to ground so you can see we
21:10 have a circuit here now so then in order
21:12 to reverse this capacitor in order to
21:14 flip it these two switches would have to
21:17 open and then this switch and this
21:19 switch would have to close and then of
21:21 course that would make this side running
21:23 up to the uh to the center conductor
21:25 here and then this side here would end
21:28 up becoming the common side because this
21:30 would which is connected to ground and
21:32 we're going to also need some form of uh
21:37 say an LED or something at this point to
21:40 denote when this side here is the the
21:43 common side or whether this side here is
21:44 going to be the common side so we're
21:48 going to also need two LEDs to do that
21:50 so now we can do this with relays and of
21:51 course we're going to have a little bit
21:53 of current consumption if we do that
21:54 we're going to hear click click click
21:57 click inside this box or we can do this
21:59 with an IC and I'll probably end up
22:01 using an IC because there's uh you know
22:04 limited Uh current draw with an IC we
22:06 you know there's a bunch of ic's that
22:09 that basically work as um uh single pole
22:10 single throw
22:12 switches and you know I'll find
22:15 something that's rather common to use
22:17 and uh we'll make this particular
22:18 circuit using a bunch of ic's now if we
22:20 use an IC and it's got a bunch of fats
22:23 inside it we're going to also want to
22:24 have something on you know this
22:27 particular Point here which basically is
22:30 you know two diod like this one diode
22:32 like this and one diode like this and
22:35 that's going to also limit this
22:38 basically to about6 or 7 of a volt on
22:39 each side so just say there's a bit of a
22:41 charge on that capacitor say you forgot
22:44 to discharge it a little bit or if
22:45 there's you know you have a static
22:48 you're not going to zap this IC if we
22:49 use an IC so this is basically just
22:51 going to protect it and limit the
22:53 voltage that goes into the circuit now
22:55 of course you would always make sure
22:57 every single capacitor is discharged
22:59 before you stick it in into circuit and
23:01 all this is going to do is protect the
23:03 IC that these switches are in and of
23:05 course we would want the same thing on
23:08 this particular side here and uh it
23:11 would be exactly like this so basically
23:13 all that's doing is this is limiting
23:14 this uh input circuit where our
23:17 capacitor under test is to about 7 of a
23:19 volt now keep in mind that we're testing
23:22 most of this down at around oh know 10
23:24 you know maybe uh you know with our
23:26 amplitude maybe we're exceeding 50 60 70
23:28 molts with the hum in our and that we're
23:32 imposing into this capacitor who knows
23:34 but this is going to be up around 6 or
23:38 700 Mills just about a volt so um you
23:41 know this is uh well beyond our our uh
23:44 our test so this is just protecting this
23:46 here so now what we're going to also
23:47 need to do is we're going to need to
23:49 implement some sort of a circuit that's
23:51 going to close these two and close these
23:53 two and then it's going to have to do
23:55 this right in order to flip this
23:57 capacitor back and forth and back and
23:59 forth so we're going to need some sort
24:02 of a flip flop probably a dtype flip
24:04 flop or something like that and then uh
24:06 if this is an in an IC these are going
24:10 to be controlled so this side here right
24:13 and this side here would go to one leg
24:16 of the flip-flop and then this side here
24:18 and of course this side here would go to
24:20 another part of the FP flip-flop now
24:22 keep in mind that this is just only a
24:24 rough sketch and I'm just trying to get
24:26 the idea across when it comes to
24:28 actually designing this we'll go over to
24:30 the White board and uh take a look at it
24:32 there so now that we have a flip-flop
24:34 that's basically just going back and
24:36 forth like this you know once this when
24:38 this side is positive say um you know
24:40 we're going to probably not use a um
24:42 just a
24:47 74hc we'll probably use a CD 74hc ic's
24:48 for this because we're dealing with a
24:51 9volt battery uh just 74hc logic is
24:53 usually only good to between about 5 and
24:56 7 volts maximum so we're going to be
24:57 using a 9vt battery so we're going to be
24:59 wanting to use uh uh parts that start
25:01 with CD and of course we'll take a look
25:04 at the data sheet just to make sure that
25:06 uh you know it will be fine around the
25:09 9vt area so now that we have this this
25:11 uh this type flip-flop here now we need
25:14 also a timer that's going to set out a
25:16 pulse into this that's going to tell
25:19 this to go back and forth like this so
25:21 of course when this side is high this
25:22 side is low right and then when this
25:24 side is high this side is low so
25:25 basically what this is going to do is
25:27 it's just going to close these two
25:29 switches and then close these two
25:31 switches and then close these two so you
25:32 know when these two are closed these are
25:34 open obviously and it's just going to go
25:37 back and forth like this and we also
25:39 want to set the timing rate of this
25:42 timer so that when we have this thing on
25:44 the bench and we're looking at say our
25:46 oscilloscope here we want it to go slow
25:48 enough so that when we can see the
25:50 amplitude change on our oscilloscope the
25:52 amplitude goes down and then the
25:54 amplitude goes up we want to have a
25:56 chance when it goes down again to look
25:59 at the box and note which led on which
26:02 side of the box is going to be lit up so
26:03 when we know that you know the amplitude
26:06 is low and this led is lit up we'll know
26:07 that this side here would be the band
26:10 end of the capacitor so that's what we
26:11 want to try and do so these are the
26:13 parameters that we're basically dealing
26:15 with we have a 9volt battery so we know
26:17 that we're going to need like U you know
26:21 a CD 74hc parts or just CD Parts uh the
26:23 555 timer is good for 9 volts so we
26:24 don't really have to worry about that
26:27 we'll use a 555 over here probably a d
26:30 flip-flop or something like that and uh
26:32 I'll have to figure out some really
26:35 common part for this so that way uh you
26:37 know it's easy to to put together now if
26:38 you have a bigger box you don't need to
26:40 use a small box like I'm doing you can
26:42 build this onto that um you know that
26:44 protoboard stuff and you can use through
26:46 whole ic's I'll probably end up building
26:49 this for myself with surface mount stuff
26:51 just so that I can fit it right inside
26:52 this box and then you know this box will
26:54 have a b and c come off of it and then a
26:56 power switch and it'll probably have two
26:59 little alligator clips now now the the
27:00 cables that are going to come out of
27:02 this box I want to be shielded right up
27:04 to the alligator clips because uh you
27:06 know if we have just two long wire
27:07 sticking out of here those are really
27:10 two acting as two antennas so the more
27:11 shielding we can get right up to the
27:14 alligator clips the better so I'll have
27:16 two small shielded pieces of coax coming
27:17 up here and of course we want you know a
27:19 little bit of lead length so we can move
27:21 them around if we have you know a large
27:23 axial capacitor we can clip them onto
27:25 the ends or if we have one of the uh the
27:28 newer style ones I'll grab this one here
27:29 we have one of the newer style ones like
27:31 this you know we can just you know put
27:32 the two leads together and clip them in
27:35 like this so the whole idea is to make
27:36 this thing functional especially if
27:38 you're going through all sorts of
27:39 different types of capacitors you know
27:41 we want this thing to be about just as
27:44 versatile as we can make it so now that
27:46 we have the plan here I'll figure out a
27:48 an actual circuit and I'll draw it up
27:50 and we'll head on over to the Whiteboard
27:52 and I'll explain it
27:54 there this is the circuit I've designed
27:56 for our little capacitor test jig so I
28:00 ended up using a CD 74hc
28:02 4066 to flip the capacitor around in
28:06 circuit now this is an IC and it's a CD
28:10 74hc 466 it's not just a 74hc 4066 and
28:12 the reason that I used this one is that
28:14 it will go up to 10 volts remember that
28:16 we need to keep the supply voltage of
28:19 our ic's well within a safe zone I'm
28:21 using a 9volt battery over here to power
28:23 this and again this is all just due to
28:25 size constraints uh I have that little
28:27 aluminum box or that little cast box
28:28 that I showed showed you that I'm going
28:30 to end up fitting this all in uh if it's
28:32 around here somewhere I still haven't
28:34 found it but uh I'll fit all that into
28:37 that box uh again you know you can build
28:38 this into any kind of size box if you
28:41 have a larger aluminum box you can uh
28:42 you know of course uh use a different
28:45 kind of battery style power source for
28:46 this you know a bunch of able a
28:48 batteries or whatever fits in that box
28:50 just keep in mind that the box has to be
28:52 either solid metal or solid aluminum or
28:55 a cast box some sort of conductive box
28:56 because uh again our oscilloscope is
28:59 running down you know between 1 and 5 Ms
29:00 that's going to pick up any kind of
29:02 noise uh no power supplies running into
29:04 this thing at all it should be battery
29:07 powered so we'll get back to the Circuit
29:09 I've drawn this IC the same way that you
29:10 would kind of look at relays just to
29:12 make it a little bit easier to
29:14 understand so how this IC works is
29:16 really quite simple it really is just
29:20 four switches inside of one IC so pin 13
29:22 pin 5 Pin 12 and pin 6 are the control
29:25 pins so if say pin 13 goes High that'll
29:27 connect pin two and pin one so
29:28 technically it just closes a switch
29:31 inside so pin 13 and pin 6 are tied
29:33 together pin 12 and pin 3 are tied
29:35 together so basically it's just closing
29:37 the switches like this and this is all
29:39 done within an IC there's very low
29:40 current consumption you don't get the
29:43 clicking from a relay and uh you know
29:45 it's a it's a real consistent test
29:46 because we're using fets inside this in
29:49 order to switch this in circuit now
29:50 there will be a little bit of uh
29:52 resistance in the switch and I'll
29:54 explain that in a little bit it's
29:56 between 15 and 20 ohms but that's
29:58 absolutely fine for testing these Capac
29:59 capacitors there'll be no issues with
30:01 this whatsoever so this was a really
30:05 good solution the cd74 84066 is a really
30:07 common part it's an off-the-shelf part
30:08 you should be able to find that with no
30:10 problems again you can build this
30:11 through hole you don't need to build
30:12 this surface mount the only reason I'm
30:14 building this surface mount is because
30:16 in my little box it's uh it's hiding
30:17 here somewhere and I'll I'll I'll put
30:21 all the stuff inside that little box so
30:22 uh these are
30:24 bav99 uh these are just uh they're two
30:28 diodes in one so23 package uh you don't
30:30 need to use the bav99 you can use a 1n
30:34 4152 or a 1n 914 or if you think you're
30:36 going to be crazy and leave a capacitor
30:38 charge and stuff it into the circuit you
30:41 can use a one in 47s or whatever you
30:43 want to use remember this is just
30:45 working at a really low frequency is you
30:47 know you're you're coupling the 60 Cycle
30:50 uh signal in from your body really and
30:52 uh you know just you know inducing Helm
30:53 into the circuit so that you can see
30:55 which end is the shielded end so really
30:58 not too picky so I use the bav99 9 just
30:59 because they fit on the little circuit
31:02 board quite nicely so and I'll uh I'll
31:04 get into this here in a little bit I've
31:05 already got the little circuit board
31:08 already pre-drawn and and ready to go
31:09 and we'll get into that next I'll show
31:11 you how I've drawn that up so that's one
31:13 of the reasons that I use these they
31:14 just they fit on there really quite
31:18 nicely so now here I've got a CD 4013
31:21 which is a flip-flop it's a d style
31:23 flip-flop and what that what this really
31:25 does is when it receives a puls in pin
31:29 11 of this IC what it does is it just
31:30 basically this pin will go high this
31:32 will go low and then it'll receive
31:34 another pulse and it turns the other way
31:35 and it just keeps going back and forth
31:37 like this now you can see I've got two
31:40 really high brightness LEDs here and the
31:42 reason that they're high brightness is
31:45 because I I'm using a 22k to ground
31:47 resistor and you can use one or two it
31:50 really doesn't matter uh the reason I'm
31:52 using this is because they pull very
31:53 very low current and they're still
31:55 pretty bright at that point so I don't
31:58 want to use up my battery power like
31:59 LEDs you got to remember in the circuit
32:02 One LED will always be on it's just
32:05 going back and forth so when this side
32:08 here goes high this led will glow now
32:11 this led here should be positioned by
32:15 the negative part of the switch so pin 8
32:18 and pin 9 where pin uh pin 4 and pin 8
32:20 run out to your alligator clip that's
32:23 where this led should be located all
32:26 right so where this led should be
32:28 located should be close to pin 1 and pin
32:31 11 so what's going to happen is is when
32:33 this side goes High it closes this
32:35 switch and that what that's doing is
32:37 that's bringing this side of the
32:39 capacitor to ground and we we're
32:41 remember that we're looking for the
32:42 negative side of the capacitor or the
32:44 shielded side of the capacitor and you
32:47 want this led close to this side you
32:49 want the red LED close to this side so
32:51 when this side goes high this one here
32:53 is pulling this side of the capacitor to
32:56 ground again we're looking for the
32:58 shielded side of the capacitor if you
33:00 have the LEDs reversed you'll end up
33:02 marking the wrong side of your capacitor
33:03 and I'll show you how to test for that
33:05 in the end to make sure that you have
33:07 the LED on the Right End just in case
33:08 that's a little bit
33:11 confusing again the we have a a pulse
33:13 going into pin 11 here so again this is
33:15 just going like this and you can see the
33:16 action with the LEDs the LED you'll see
33:19 the LEDs move back and forth this is a
33:22 555 timer and what this little 555 timer
33:24 is doing is just creating the pulses in
33:26 order to tell this flip-flop to do its
33:28 flip flopping so it's just going to keep
33:31 it doing this now I've chose a 180k
33:33 resistor and a 1K resistor because I
33:35 find that to be a very nice balance you
33:37 don't want this to go too fast because
33:38 you're not going to be able to look at
33:39 the screen and then you know really
33:40 quickly look down to the box and then
33:42 see which LED's lit and mark the line on
33:44 it right you want enough time so that
33:46 you know when you see the the amplitude
33:48 goes small you can look at the Box see
33:50 which LED's lit and draw a line on and
33:51 then by that time it's already back over
33:54 to the other side again and I'll explain
33:56 all this in the end and you'll see how
33:58 this actually functions so so you can
34:00 speed this up if you want if you find
34:01 that this is a little bit too slow and
34:03 uh you know you want to be Superman as
34:04 you're you know uh grading all your
34:06 capacitors and you're you're just
34:07 hammering them through really quick you
34:10 can change this 180k resistor down to
34:13 150k and it's going to go quicker 120k
34:15 and you're really working all right uh
34:18 if you find that 180k is too fast up to
34:20 220 and you'll have plenty of time to to
34:22 sit there and and have a sleep between
34:24 the LEDs as they're switching back and
34:27 forth okay so this 180k resistor you can
34:29 put a VR in there again I'm keeping it
34:31 simple I'm I'm dealing with size
34:33 constraint because of that little box
34:35 that I've got so uh I just want this
34:37 thing basically you turn on a switch and
34:38 the thing just starts doing its action
34:40 and I can grade cap so it's just a happy
34:44 medium so 180k and 1K work very well I'm
34:47 using a 22 mic tanum capacitor down here
34:49 and the reason I'm using a 22 mic tanum
34:51 capacitor is because I have a lot of
34:54 them so that's really the only reason um
34:56 there's a 01 cap coming off of five just
34:59 to keep noise out of the 55 5 um you'll
35:01 see here that these are all the supply
35:04 lines for all the icc's we have pin 14
35:06 and pin 14 pin 7 and pin 7even for both
35:10 of these ic's and 48 and 1 for the 555
35:14 so uh 14 14 4 and 8 are all positive so
35:16 4 and8 and this is pin 14 and there's a
35:18 pin 14 on this that also has to be tied
35:20 to positive and we have pin seven pin
35:22 seven and pin one so there's a pin 7even
35:24 on this IC that has to go to ground
35:26 there is a pin 7even on this IC as we
35:28 can see here that goes to ground and
35:29 then we have pin one here going to
35:31 ground and that's really just the supply
35:32 again you can put the switch in the
35:34 positive or the negative side absolutely
35:36 fine whatever you think uh will work
35:39 just fine for you so I've got a 22 M cap
35:42 on the supply here just to uh to keep
35:43 noise out of the circuit when this thing is
35:44 is
35:46 switching uh what else can I tell you
35:49 here uh I think that's pretty much it uh
35:52 this will draw between 3 to 8 milliamps
35:54 somewhere in there depending on the ic's
35:57 and the manufacturer and everything um
35:58 that's really quite nice if you use
36:00 relays you're going to end up with uh
36:03 quite a bit more current consumption so
36:05 that was the whole idea of uh of using a
36:08 9volt battery and a bunch of ic's we can
36:10 you know we'll get a really long life
36:12 out of this um out of this little switch
36:14 so everything should work just fine
36:17 scope common goes to pin uh 10 and pin 9
36:19 so basically pin 9 and pin 10 of the
36:21 4066 will just tie to the chassis or to
36:25 the box and then the BNC Center that you
36:27 have coming uh right that goes right out
36:29 into your scope will tie rate to pin two
36:32 and pin three so uh and then of course
36:34 that's that's you know a continual and
36:36 then you you know this isn't moving this
36:38 is your scope hot your and your scope
36:39 calm and there's nothing moving there
36:41 that's that stays there and then of
36:42 course the switching is going to do its
36:44 switching at that point inside the IC
36:47 and flip that capacitor around as this
36:49 uh 555 timer is telling this flip-flop
36:52 to go back and forth and uh that's
36:54 pretty much it so uh what I'll do is
36:56 I'll take you over to the computer now
36:58 and I'll show you the little um a layout
36:59 that I've got designed up and it's a
37:01 surface mount layout again you don't
37:02 have to do it surface mount you can
37:03 build it through hole or however you
37:05 want to build this you can build it dead
37:08 bug style u whatever works for you so
37:10 let's head on over to the
37:12 computer this is the surface mount
37:14 version circuit board that I've come up
37:16 with for this little capacitor
37:18 tester so this is really quite blown up
37:20 this is a really small circuit board but
37:22 uh I've just enhanced it so that it's
37:25 easier to see on camera here so this is
37:27 uh the top layer the Green Layer is the
37:29 the top and the black is the back side
37:30 of the circuit board so this is a
37:32 double-sided circuit board this little
37:35 IC here is the 555 timer this is pin one
37:37 this is the timing cap that 22
37:40 microfarad tanum here these are 0402
37:42 Parts this is the 180k resistor this is
37:45 the 1K resistor and this is the 01
37:48 microfarad capacitor off pin five this
37:50 here is the other 22 microfarad tanum
37:52 that's across the supply this here is the
37:54 the
37:57 cd4013 which is the uh the flip-flop and
37:58 this is the
38:03 4066 over here the cd74 HC 4066 this is
38:05 what's going to be doing our switching
38:08 here these here are the screws where it
38:11 mounts to the chassis of uh that little
38:14 aluminum or a cast box that I've got
38:16 these are the resistors that's on the
38:18 back side this resistor is a 22k
38:20 resistor and this is the LED this led
38:23 correlates to this side this is the test
38:25 lead that runs out this side this is the
38:27 center conductor and I will solder The
38:28 Shield or the braid of that little piece
38:30 of coax to this piece of the circuit
38:32 board here and then of course we want
38:35 the LED close to that rubber grommet
38:37 where the uh where the test lead runs
38:38 out and it's the same for this side this
38:40 is where the center conductor of our
38:42 test lead runs up to the alligator clip
38:44 The Shield of the coax will solder to
38:47 here and this led correlates with this
38:50 side so these are the high brightness
38:53 LEDs here these are 126 Parts here these
38:56 are two 22k resistors uh this is where
39:00 the supply 9vt Supply runs in right here
39:02 and this is where the BNC signal runs
39:05 out this goes to the BNC Jack on the box
39:06 and it goes out to our oscilloscope from
39:09 this little Point here and that's really
39:11 how this works so this is really quite
39:13 small and I'll show you exactly how this
39:16 is going to go together here in the next
39:19 shot here is the completed little
39:22 capacitor testing box here we can see
39:23 that I've got my alligator clips
39:25 fastened to some shielded coax this is
39:27 some Teflon coax here this building runs
39:29 up to about this point here and about
39:31 this point here you don't need to use
39:33 teflon coax you can use any kind of coax
39:34 you want I just have a bunch of this
39:36 stuff around I've put some heat shrink
39:38 on the ends here just to stiffen things
39:40 up where the the center conductor Runs
39:42 Out to the alligator clip because you
39:43 know we're going to be moving this
39:44 around and moving it in and out of
39:46 circuit quite a bit and I want to get
39:47 some longevity out of this without
39:49 having the connections break now of
39:51 course nothing sticks to Teflon very
39:53 well so uh I've left a little bit of
39:55 braid exposed and this heat shrink here
39:57 has a little bit of glue inside of it so
40:00 it sticks to the braid quite nicely and
40:02 uh we see the corresponding LED for this
40:04 wire here and the corresponding LED for
40:07 this wire here when this led is lit this
40:09 one here is tied to ground and when this
40:11 led is lit this side here is tied to
40:13 ground so we know which end to Mark our
40:15 band on these are two little rubber
40:17 grommets here that I've put in this is
40:19 the BNC Jack here that will run out to
40:22 the oscilloscope and there's a bunch of
40:23 screws here that just hold the circuit
40:25 board in and this is the on andof switch
40:27 on the side
40:29 so on the bottom half you can see here
40:30 I've got a little 9vt battery stuck in
40:32 there and there's a little piece of be
40:34 tape that's just holding it in uh this
40:36 is the circuit board that I've built and
40:37 this is the little switch in the
40:40 negative lead I'll just zoom into this
40:42 here so we can take a little closer look
40:49 stuff so you can see the ic's here
40:52 that's the little 555 timer that's the
40:54 4066 down in there and that's the 4013
40:56 flip-flop and that's the uh the little
40:59 tanel capacitor the timing cap and so on
41:02 and so forth just like on the layout
41:04 those are all the little 0402 parts
41:07 right down there the 180k the 1K and the
41:10 the 01 mic
41:11 capacitor uh you can see how I've
41:14 soldered the braid of the coax right to
41:15 the circuit board here and then the
41:16 center conductor runs up to this little
41:20 spot this little sot23 package part here
41:22 is that bav99 diod that's just
41:24 protection so I don't zap the IC in
41:25 there it's the same on this end I
41:27 soldered them in sideways because if I
41:29 ever need to replace them they be pretty
41:31 easy to get out this way and put back in
41:35 again you can use a 1 and 47 or a 914 or
41:38 anything like that you know it's a again
41:39 we're you know we're dealing with a 60
41:41 Cycle frequency here so there's nothing
41:44 that needs to be too incredibly fast let
41:45 see what else can I tell you those are
41:47 the LEDs that are soldered in you'll see
41:48 that there's a space between the circuit
41:50 board here and the actual case and
41:51 that's because there's Parts on the back
41:53 side of the circuit board and there's
41:56 also uh soldering on there so when I put
41:59 the uh the bottom portion of the box
42:01 together here I had to cut this out on
42:03 the corner here and on this corner
42:05 because the circuit board goes you know
42:06 very close to the corner here and
42:09 they've got this kind of extruded lip
42:11 that runs all the way around the entire
42:14 box here so there's enough space between
42:15 the back side of the circuit board and
42:18 the case to leave this strip in here it
42:20 just goes between the circuit board and
42:22 the case you can see here here's the
42:23 circuit board that will go right in between
42:24 between
42:27 here and that's pretty much the Box so
42:29 when we turn the thing on this is about
42:32 the speed that it runs at with the um
42:34 with the 180k resistor
42:37 here you can see how fast that moves
42:38 back and
42:40 forth so that gives us enough time to
42:43 Mark our capacitor and um you know of
42:44 course look at the screen and and you
42:46 know load a new capacitor I think that's
42:48 about a nice comfortable speed for
42:51 grading these capacitors so next let's
42:52 hook this thing up to an oscilloscope
42:55 and see how it
42:57 works we're ready to check the clar ity
42:59 of some capacitors in our test
43:02 jig so I've got the oscilloscope set to
43:04 5 molts per division I've got the
43:06 alligator clip shorted here and I'll
43:07 plug this in and I'll show you that it's
43:09 a relatively quiet
43:11 circuit you can see how quiet that is
43:14 right now now you got to keep in mind
43:16 that through this IC when this side is
43:19 grounded it's about 17 ohms to ground
43:21 and then when this side is on it 17 ohms
43:24 to ground so we have 2 17 or around that
43:26 ohm paths one from positive and one to
43:29 ground and that's just the uh basically
43:33 the resistance imposed by the IC itself
43:35 so even though we still have this you
43:36 know we're going to still pick up noise
43:38 from the oscilloscope if we bring it
43:40 close to it and everything but you know
43:43 for this actual test this is absolutely
43:45 fine and for this little test jig it's
43:46 it's fine so when we open these
43:48 alligator clips we're going to see lots
43:50 of noise on the screen and that's
43:51 absolutely normal because these are
43:54 acting as antennas and this is actually
43:56 just picking up noise from the scope
43:57 itself even you can see the amount of
43:59 noise that comes in from the
44:02 CRT so when we put the capacitor in here
44:04 under test it actually acts as a filter
44:06 across the circuit itself so there is no
44:08 problem with the amount of noise that we
44:12 see so what we'll do now is we'll put a
44:13 capacitor in here let's take this orange
44:16 dip capacitor and test it out and mark
44:17 the band
44:22 end so here we have me being the 60
44:23 Cycle antenna
44:25 again and you can see the difference in
44:27 amplitude here
44:31 as it's switching so we see this led is
44:33 on and the amplitude is lower so this is
44:35 the band
44:38 end you see so now that we see this led
44:40 on we would mark this end as the band
44:41 remember we're always looking for the lowest
44:50 amplitude so I'll take my felt marker
44:53 and I'll put a little line on this end
44:55 and I'll know that that now would be the
44:57 lower impedance portion of the the
44:59 circuit this would go to the chassis or
45:01 this side would go to the plate side if
45:03 we have this in an
45:05 amplifier again we can see that this
45:06 side has a band on it but we can see
45:08 that it doesn't really mean anything you
45:11 know according to the outside shielding
45:12 or anything this might be some sort of
45:14 coating that they've put on or I don't
45:15 know what they're doing and why they've
45:18 put this on this one end but um this
45:21 side here you know clearly denotes the
45:23 outside foil or the outside Metalized
45:28 polypropylene or Metalized PVC layer
45:30 okay so there's one so we've marked this
45:32 one and you can see the speed is
45:34 comfortable so that you know it's you
45:35 know you're not losing control of what
45:38 you're doing so I'll put this one
45:47 here all right so we know that this end
45:55 also okay so I'll mark this as the band
45:57 end now if you don't want to leave your
45:59 felt marker on there you know you can
46:02 use an ink that will easily come off uh
46:03 I find that you know a little bit of
46:05 alcohol will just remove these lines
46:08 even if it is one of these Sharpies so
46:09 uh uh you know a lot of people don't
46:11 want that line on the capacitor when
46:13 it's in circuit um i' I've kind of
46:15 leared to live with it I I kind of like
46:17 to have the uh the capacitors clean
46:19 myself but um that's fine for underneath
46:21 the chassis I I'm now just beginning to
46:22 leave the lines on like you will end up
46:25 seeing in most of my videos so this one
46:27 here this side here the this opposite
46:29 side here this one on this side is the
46:31 band end where I've drawn that little
46:48 one so we can see that the opposite end
46:51 on this capacitor is the band end so
46:53 this end is the band end on this
46:54 capacitor so you can see there really is
46:57 no Rhyme or Reason for these capacitors
46:59 you know they're just kind of going down
47:01 the line any old way they're the same
47:03 capacitor and they're just printing the
47:06 uh the uh the labeling on any side there
47:09 so it really is important to mark that
47:12 off let's test out this one here and
47:18 end okay is that in the shot there it is
47:28 here okay so this end is the band end
47:31 right here so now we would mark this end
47:34 as the band end and that's just how
47:36 simple it is to grade and check your
47:37 capacitors so you know that you're
47:40 putting them in circuit the correct way
47:44 and that's how this little fixture works
47:45 so what we're going to end up doing next
47:47 is I'll show you how to measure which
47:51 end is actually supposed to be the uh
47:52 the negative end so that you have your
47:54 LEDs corresponding to the correct lead
47:56 just in case you did find that a little
47:57 bit confused
48:00 confusing all right this is how we tell
48:03 how we've got the right LED on the right
48:05 lead so this is the lead here that we're
48:07 going to test and we want to know if
48:10 this led is corresponding to this
48:12 connecting to ground so we've got our
48:15 our meter on ohms and we have our lead
48:17 going into the alligator clip here and
48:20 you can see that it's 17 ohms when this
48:24 led comes on see that so we know that
48:25 this end is connecting to ground and we
48:27 have our polarity right
48:30 right so what I'll do now is I'll move
48:32 this over to this side and you'll see
48:34 roughly the same measurement on this
48:47 lamp all right it's me trying to get a
48:55 go so that's how you tell so if you wire
48:57 your LEDs up and you have them backwards
48:59 if you leave some lead length you can
49:00 just swap them around if you don't build
49:03 a circuit board or something like that
49:04 and that's how you tell that you've got
49:12 side well we've come to the end of
49:15 another video I hope you find this
49:16 little circuit useful and I hope you
49:18 enjoyed the video if you did give it a
49:20 big thumbs up and hang around I'll try
49:22 to make more videos just like this in
49:25 the very near future take care bye for