Quick Question that needs to be answered

[dirkfunk]

Hey i have a 150uf ceramic capacitor it says 150kv? What does the k mean? Is it 1 volt, or 1000volt?

[dirkfunk]

damn 25 views and nothing??? Im probably just a danm fool for not knowing this. i just wanna be sure.

[The Tone God]

That must be some size cap. 150kv = 150 kilovolts = 150,000 volts.

Andrew

[Duff]

Ohhhh, this a thing that really bugs me, it should be so easy but I allways come across a problem with caps.

HHmmmm,... ceramic,..  are you shure it´s 150uf, fissically how big is it, is that all it says? Normally "k" means something times 1000, and it should be 150k = 150.000pf or 0,15uf, but in caps you have a 3-digit number, like for eg. 473
4-1st digit
7-2nd digit
3-number of zeros
so 47.000pf or 0.047uf, but some caps would say 473k and still mean 47000pf, but yours says kv, I really couldn`t say for sure, but I could say that it surly takes more than 1v, I don`t know if 1000 but I´m guessing probably 50v?

              <= a happy ceramic cap!  :lol:
¡ ¡

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If the cap is going in a stompbox, don't sweat it, because all ceramics are at least 50v.
But, ceramics can be confusing.. because, sometimes there are letters that denote the type of ceramic material used, and wouldn't you know, one of these is 'K'.
If you consider how far 150,000V can jump in air, you will get the idea that a 150,000 V cap has the ends a LONG way apart :shock: I think it would be longer than the bench.

[petemoore]

I've yet to blow a capacitor on 9V...I've chucked some Electro's rated 10v tho.
 I figure the worst case scenario is: you blow a cap that's too small for usage anyway.

[RLBJR65]

General cap code and info.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/capcodeinfo.html
This one has polyester cap color codes too.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/pipexdsl/r/arar93/mds975/Content/components01.html
This site has some military cap codes.
http://xtronics.com/kits/ccode.htm
Tantalum color code
http://members.aol.com/shephed/caps.htm
Type of cap comparison, advantages disadvantages etc.
http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/30-2/chart.html

This site has a lot of good info (lot of broken links too)
http://users.telenet.be/educypedia/electronics/datacomponent.htm

To help me when I started found a wall chart, has codes 102 = 1000 pf or 1nf or .001uf (mF mfd) Still use it at times. I'll post it if I can find the file or a link to where I got it.

[Paul Marossy]

High voltage ceramic caps have less hysteresis than the low voltage ones. If I use any ceramics in my circuits which are in the audio path, I use the HV type. The reason why is because of what these pages show:

http://members.aol.com/sbench102/caps.html

[niftydog]

there's no such beast as a 150µF ceramic cap. "150" written on a ceramic cap is likely to mean 15pF.

the "k" might refer to the type of capacitor you have:

low k; are very accurate, low drift, low loss caps.

Medium k; are mid range

High k; are much less stabile and have higher losses.

But, every manufacturer uses a different marking standard, so it's hard to know for sure.

As others have said, ceramics have very high voltage ratings, usually 50 or 100 or even more.

[bigjonny]

Lamely, sometimes when you see a "k" on yer cap, it is a voltage rating, but at that point it's usually intelligently separated on a new line.  E.g.:

173
1KV

Drives me nuts when I am searching for amp-rated caps in a local surplus store, but you get used to it.

As far as the 150pF cap: never say never.  Suprisingly, I once found a mylar cap (at the aforementioned surplus store) that was rated @ 0.00932µF / 50V.  Said it, in plain English, right on the cap.  Odd.