All You Need To Know

I'm working through The ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW series. These are my notes.

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All You Need To Know About RESISTORS To Fix Stuff!

• 1R0 = 1.0 Ohm
• 1K0 = 1.0 K Ohm
• 1M0 = 1.0 M Ohm

Three digit code: value value multiplier
Four digit code: value value value multiplier

The reason for connecting a bunch of lower value resistors in series is to provide an aggregate resistance which can handle a higher current.

With SMD components:

• if they look black they are almost certainly resistors (but could be capacitors)
• if they look brown they are almost certainly capacitors (probably not resistors)
• if they look white they are usually capacitors
• if they look green they are usually resistors

All You Need To Know About CAPACITORS To Fix Stuff!

Be careful with capacitors! Use a resistor to discharge them before working on them.

Three ratings:

1. capacitance (Farads)
2. voltage (volts, this is a limit)
3. effective series resistance (ESR) (Ohms)

1,000 pF = 1 nF
1,000 nF = 1 μF

Three main uses for capacitors:

1. filtering (coupling)
2. smoothing (decoupling)
3. timing

• capacitors in parallel: double (100 + 100 = 200)
• capacitors in series: half (100 + 100 = 50)

Ripple current can cause a capacitor to fail, it can literally boil the electrolyte.

Three failure modes of caps:

1. short (burns, explodes), usually happens on surface mount capacitors, Multi Layer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC), the changing temperature can cause them to crack
2. leaky (passes DC current)
3. low capacitance, high ESR