Why electrolytic capacitors are actually kinda crappy 💩

Electrolytic capacitors are common, but knowledge of their limitations is uncommon. A demonstration is shown highlighting the difference in performance between electrolytic and ceramic capacitors in power supplies. Other topics discussed in the video: Electrolytic capacitor construction, ceramic capacitors, ESR, ESL, impedance curves, why "0.1uF", and more.
Webpage: www.afrotechmods.com
Twitter: / afrotechmods
Facebook: / afrotechmods
#electronics #engineering #capacitor

[@Afrotechmods]

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[@MoatenGat]

Your videos are flat out amazing. Will do.

[@johnnyvt9]

You need to come back! You make great videos!

[@djruido1]

Was you not making enough money on KZbin? Your videos are amazing

[@DNHI999]

Hello bro Please make an tutorial how to make an cheap noaa weather radio

[@sarchlalaith8836]

Are you ever going to make anything new or are you done?

[@fuzzyboi1721]

Please come back, your videos are amazing.

[@saimafaisal3677]

yesssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@shanicehagert]

@@saimafaisal3677 remember joining this channel in 2012 now I'm an junior EE in 202👩‍🔬

[@shanicehagert]

@@big_o1952I'm junior electrical engineer in 2020. Junior engineers work under senior engineers mainly simplifying circuits to save manufacturing cost. If you ever notice a Production Board missing labelled components. Most likely a junior EE was behind it. Under junior EE's are Senior Technicians who are responsible for reporting technical unbiased consumer feedbacks with technical progressive suggestion to the senior engineers.

[@nuncbruh6550]

@@shanicehagert wait he liked ur comment. yo he still alive

[@TECHnoman753]

So you fuzzy kuz of static? Lol

[@damonstr]

"keep calm and use 100 nF"

[@TECHnoman753]

Sooooo like. What about handling volt spikes(from a motor stopping suddenly), lots of noise, and that is close to a heat source.

[@charmindesai3730]

@@TECHnoman753 add a suitable MOV ( Metal Oxide Varistor ) for handling voltage spikes

[@1412dante]

ive been waiting like 5 years for afrotechmods to back on youtube

[@BenCos2018]

I would love to see him post again also I definitely miss his content

[@drbjgordonsstuff6105]

This channel is one of the best on KZbin, but sadly the owner is not posting anymore. Thank you for the excellent tutorials! (This channel is also proof that making money on KZbin is not about great content (like the stuff here), but rather opium to the masses, like the 5-Minute crafts and other crappy channels. ) Really sad... For what it is worth, Afrotechmods, you are sorely missed.

[@1412dante]

please come back with more fun tutorials, you're amazing person!

[@krzysiekzdrojewski6865]

Yesssss 😭

[@NOWUNITEDUPDATES]

I Hope you’re okay there. 😊

[@johnwick5901]

We need You Back!

[@Penfold8]

I miss you Afrotech!

[@eazy-eeterno5449]

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[@jonahswain]

Another reason designers just use 100nF caps is because having more components on a pick and place machine is more complicated.

[@laharl2k]

Thats why in china they just dont populate the board. Filtering caps? Who needs them! (44Vpk-pk output noise)

[@RJWaynerium]

Laharl Krichevskoy fucking hell aint this the truth. Remember those cats place in smaller capacitors inside big electrolytic bodies to rip people off 😂

[@RJWaynerium]

Jonah, another reason is because it's cheaper to buy these parts in bulk vs low quantities. This especially holds true for passive parts.

[@MrTweetyhack]

They are more like rats than cats.

[@RJWaynerium]

MrTweetyhack indeed

[@dunzerkug]

In power engineering this is a serious concern when designing capacitor banks since the capacitors tend be so large the inductance is far from negligible and if not accounted for your power factor correction will not be adequate. It is also important when calculating the proper size of your inductor for limiting in rush and out rush current.

[@Zeigren]

Part of the reason for 100nF caps is the price and package sizes you can get them in. Since the ESL and ESR changes based on the package size and thus the frequencies that can be filtered. So for higher frequencies you want to use the smallest package you can, and it's easier and cheaper to get a 100nF cap in a smaller package than a 10uF or something higher. Tl; Dr size and capacitor type is more important for filtering than the capacitance.

[@VoidHalo]

I love how you always explain how the ideal model taught in school is far from reality and point out the flaws in these models. Your videos are very down to Earth and realistic in their explanations while also keeping it simple enough that the average person such as myself can follow it, but without dumbing it down or omitting important technical information. Well done. This is a very difficult balance to reach.

[@cdrive5757]

No surprise here! Your video (as always) brought a smile to my face. I smile because you simply have absolutely no equal in your ability to convey a topic. How pleasant it is to watch tutorials that are devoid of mumbling or a drop in audio level when the tutor turns away from the mic. The students will appreciate not having to replay segments simply because of unintelligible dialog. You ARE the BEST! Chris - WA2ERQ

[@Afrotechmods]

Yay thank you

[@Hephaestus512]

I love this guy! He explains things so well. I've learned so much from him!

[@woolfy02]

I just found this channel only to find out the guy left youtube. lol. Really liked his tutorials.

[@rodgrondein8207]

Hi there ATM, love your posts over the years ... the greatest gifts you can give to mankind are the ones that can never be repaid ... thanks for sharing your gifts with us ... you are a great teacher.

[@deangreenhough3479]

Great work, by a great teacher. Thank you kind sir

[@the-mush]

Exactly; thank you man, for all your hard work. It's just a shame that this youtube model doesn't work as well for you as it does for us :( You make awesome lessons and I'm glad I can see at least one more video.

[@rtronicslab1253]

hello, sir ,its been 12 years now, you have inspired me and lots of others to start their journey in this field....i hope you are doing fine, grately appriceate your any upcomming video about whats going on your life lately.....lots of love

[@putpixel4804]

i think he is dead

[@frankalvarez7387]

Please come back papa we all miss you and love you so much

[@Reno_Slim]

I used to work at a place where one of the techs would refer to a cap leaking down its lead(s) as having a "poopie diaper".

[@Manticore1956]

One thing I really appreciate, is that your enunciation is flawless. Being hearing impaired, I rely on captions a lot. Many times I start a video with no captions and the speaker just mumbles as though their mouth is stuffed with cotton. At that point, I just shut it off and go elsewhere. Having both good captions and a excellent speaker is quite a pleasant viewing experience for me. Thanks, and hope you return to making videos someday.

[@billspradlin9619]

Glad to see, you're still active. Thanks for the video. Thumbs Up.

[@RanDom-999]

Here after 4 years, I'm still waiting for you to come back 😢

[@calyodelphi124]

I'm so glad this was re-released, because at the time it was originally released, I couldn't even afford to do the rental thing to watch it. :c You make some of my favorite EE content on KZbin for learning just enough beyond the basics that it leads to asking more educated and informed questions and searching for more enlightening answers. Keep up the good work.

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

Glad to see you back ! You reminded me of a lot of stuff I had forgotten from over 20 years ago !

[@Alacritous]

Electrolytic capacitors aren't kinda shitty. They're a particular tool for a particular job. If you use them for something that they're not good at, don't be surprised if they don't perform as well as things that ARE designed for the task.

[@MrBeanbones]

Alacritous yep, they just work great with lower frequencies and suitable for broad applications.

[@dustrider9306]

Sure. But since the majority doesn't know, it's worth pointing out. And compared to the other types, they seem to be kind of shitty imho...

[@ausintune9014]

Alacritous they have been replaced by solid capacitors recently.

[@anullhandle]

Alacritous , The art of Electronics 2nd edition had a nice summary of types of crappieness for each family of capacitors. Electrolytic have an impressive craptacular factor.

[@Jrod811]

Agreed, but they fail before any other component so why not use other capacitors in their place?

[@stevetobias4890]

Thank you, that was information I had never found elsewhere at a beginner lever. Much appreciated.

[@cognetic]

I miss all these amazing post! Please keep them up!

[@vin_2620]

This was really informative! They never taught this in our subject that covered switch-mode power supplies.

[@EkosFoxLeviathan]

I found this channel yesterday and i already watched more than 10 videos. Please come back, i love your content! :)

[@DannyWilliamH]

I know you haven't posted in a while but your videos are probably the best at helping a beginner understand these things. I hope you're well and, if so, please come back.

[@MarioSalasEspinoza]

Afrotechmods was my first online inspiration to start making hobby projects and schematics at home, that was like 10 years ago. Really learnt a lot from your webpage. Keep on going Afro.

[@Afrotechmods]

Thank you Mario!

[@EyebrowsMahoney]

Still revisiting this channel hoping for a new video. They're really good and I enjoy watching them.

[@adityarupalidarshan2604]

Please come back your videos really helped me.

[@stephencarrasquillo3964]

This cleared up so many questions. I always knew that decoupling Capacitors were important to eliminate noise, but this video was extremely helpful in understanding the why the values differ based on application.

[@SkaterK3]

I've always wondered about the 100nF choice for ceramic or tantalum caps. Thank for you finally explaining this!

[@RobertBranch-FL]

Thank you! This answered questions I've had concerning ESR and ESL.

[@ajshell2]

I'm working on upgrading an old CRT, (because it turns out that my cheap model had the same tube and circuit board as a more expensive one, it was just lacking some components*), and one of the things I noticed in the schematics was that the higher end models had both an electrolytic and a ceramic capacitor between a +6V8 line and the ground plane. I didn't understand why I needed both, but I put them on anyway. Thank you for helping me learn why! *This does not work with all brands and models. CRTs contain high voltages that can kill you if you aren't careful. And never attempt what I'm doing on a "hot chassis" CRT (which are usually only the ones with only RF input).

[@Corpsecrank]

I was just wondering about this whole thing the other day and this pretty much answers all my questions.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

Excellent video. I wasn't looking for anything at all like this, but I appreciate the quality of the presentation, on multiple levels.

[@vladuzz7]

Welcome back!!! I am very happy that i can watch your video again :)

[@KiR_3d]

"Boom!" Instead of hours of explanations! Thanx a lot! This will help me with my hobby projects for sure!

[@houseofelectronics5869]

Wow !! U cleared these doubts which I had from a year back.

[@yaj126]

This video is just amazing. More practical yet seldom taught electronic concepts for all the other intermediates please!

[@IlkkaSavilampi]

Im very happy this got realesed for everyone. This video was one of the first videos i have bought on youtube.

[@Shadow_of_STLKR]

I was waiting for this explanation for years. Thanks

[@neilbarnett3046]

The amazing thing about this video is that it goes through all the things that I learned from electronics magazines in the mid-1970s. I didn't know I still knew them.

[@crazystuffproduction]

come back pls for 2021...

[@felixsu375]

I'm happy you're back. I miss your videos.

[@InvertLogic]

where are you please come back. we need more of your videos.

[@bibbilyton329]

I don’t think he coming back😔

[@edgeeffect]

Great video thanks... I'm learning decoupling at the moment and was starting to think "why is it nearly always 100n" so this video came along at just the right time.

[@mathieul5990]

Thanks for the tips ! Great video as always

[@sonvu7896]

I wish you could release more videos. You teach me more than what i learned from school

[@joewoodchuck3824]

All electronic components have a suitable range of applications. Electrolytics shine in high capacitance values at lower frequencies, and are cheap. Their construction thus makes them the right choice for designs meeting the preceding criteria. Calling them crappy is like saying a low power transistor is worse than a higher power one. They each have their unique properties making them suitable for certain circuits. Make sense?

[@ubbgn]

Yep, quality is subjective to the use u need! Makes no sense to over-engineering if u dont add value!

[@jspinks2388]

I think Nichicon might of mastered ESR though man and time...a few of them anyways....Appears better than some Chemicons even.

[@alpachino468]

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[@zeusnitch]

+Alpa Chino How much clap would a capybara trap if a capybara could claptrap?

[@jspinks2388]

Maybe man...I don't know those Lelons sound really good. nice in large sizes, those were nice in decoupling and just loud bass.

[@adnanahmadknowledgevideo]

Please Come back sir your videos are really Amazing

[@evolutionsfake]

Who are you? Where are you? I hope everything is going well, you would (could) be the biggest name in electronics on youtube, your understanding is down to earth and I love that. You are the reason I got interested in electronics... thank you!

[@tontsa132]

Super useful. I used to think that just packing enough uF's will smooth everything in the DC world but it's more complicated than that. Thanks man.

[@phonicwheel933]

Very well illustrated and presented! One of the most important aspects in electronics is that schematics only show ideal components and conductors, but as far as the electrons are concerned the schematic is far more complex. Even wire or printed traces have resistance, inductance and parasitic capacitance. This means that the critical 0V line (earth, ground, chassis, etc) shown on schematics as a solid line is far from solid in practice. Supply lines also have the same problem.

[@housinit]

What have you been up to Afrotechmods? Hope you just had bigger and better things to do!

[@MrPraveenGeorge]

Welcome back !!! We missed you :)

[@TarakuT]

I was just talking about this today, You are amazing to make this video. All credit goes to you. Thanks for making people understand what is going on with a capacitor. Today we had a massive failure on the old Equipment. Someone had a great idea to replace all caps on the system. After 3 long hours of trying to tell them about how re-cap was not a easy task for a beginner to do. they did it anyhow. The system is dead after they re-cap the main CPU logic board and the ADC / DAC.

[@VintageAudioTech]

So essentially for cassette deck applications where they are rated 20 Hz ~ 22 kHz (Sony TC-KA7ES) it does not matter if you use electrolytic capacitors.

[@AndreasA.S.]

thanks for the re release.

[@sysprog999]

I studied electronic servicing 50 years ago and I'm seeing this for the first time now. So Thanks for the upload - very enlightening.

[@drimodramo6567]

From now on, my favorite youtube channel, ever

[@husseinsaleh9166]

thanks for teaching that, i was wondering for a long time why they would use both caps paralleled with each other.

[@talesmaschio]

Perfect! As you well said this is something schools don’t teach. I’m one who had to learn it by experience. Congrats on the excellent class.

[@EngineeringNS]

Amazing video for an upcoming EE like me. Need more in depth videos like this!

[@AhmedAli-sn3ty]

i have been searching a lot about this question for my test. you saved my day.

[@korishan]

THANKS!!!! This one helped out a lot! 🤠😎👍😁 I've been wondering about the difference and when/where to use them. Definitely helps a lot since I'm working on my own bms board.

[@akshitsharma2737]

Update :- afrotechmods is bacccc yay

[@shivangigaureichandra2136]

We need You back Sir!!

[@KissAnalog]

Nice illustrations!

[@scharkalvin]

I inherited several Arco-Mills cabinets full of surplus electronic parts from a design firm that went out of business. Among the junk were several thousand 100nf 50v monolithic capacitors. Needless to say, they are my goto bypass caps in the various projects I've built. (There were a less amount of 100pf, 10nf, 1nf, 47nf, and 4.7nf monolithic caps too. I use the 100pf and the 100nf units in RF circuits, and the 100nf units in audio and digital circuits.)

[@MarioMurat]

Good to see you again!!! :)

[@Kevin-jz9bg]

ONE OF THE BEST ELECTRONICS VIDEOS I'VE EVER WATCHED THANK YOU

[@pandarojodronero2919]

we are glad you are back :3

[@gabrielenriquemartinezllan9224]

Simply cool and usfeul info, Thanks a lot Afrotechmods.

[@MelroyvandenBerg]

This helped me a lot! thanks. I had a lot of confusing in the past

[@TheSupertecnology]

Where have you gone? 😭 Your videos were so enlightening and fun

[@KrotowX]

Excellent memo you did. Because many circuits nowadays have digital control elements, power filtering on high frequencies become essential. Ignoring electrolytic capacitor property to act as inductor more than capacitor seems an common error. Especially in DIY field where someone who doesn't know about topic convince many others without knowledge to use wrong solution. Thanks about explaining. Using 0.1 uF ceramic capacitor in parallel with larger electrolytic capacitor for ripple filtering is a nice solution if you know ripple frequency you need to filter out. For circuits with electric feedback noise coming back from motors for example tantalum capacitors seems the best option. And it is nice to have oscilloscope with you on this too.

[@georgetroulis]

Excellent quality video as always, keep it up :)

[@LeonardoDaVinci01]

Oh man, these vids are a godsend for AP physic E&M

[@Engineerboy100]

Great job, thanks for the refresher, I'm gonna have to watch about 3 more times before I've got it all back lol

[@willow3079]

In power engineering this is a serious concern when designing capacitor banks since the capacitors tend be so large the inductance is far from negligible and if not accounted for your power factor correction will not be adequate. It is also important when calculating the proper size of your inductor for limiting in rush and out rush current.

[@milanhlavacek6730]

Please come back you are awesome teacher!

[@anonymous.youtuber]

What an eye opener! Thanks for sharing 🙏🏻

[@pudmina]

0:35 Actually they do teach this in school. At least the ones I've gone to. Interesting and informative video for those that did not receive a thorough education in power supply design, but not for everyone.

[@blaschowtiz6119]

it's been 84 years....thanks that you upload again...

[@hydropage2855]

This didn’t age well

[@PeperMintification]

Thanks for your work and insight!

[@pradeepm6063]

You gave answer to my long time question thank u afro boy😁

[@JohnSmithZen]

I just came to tell you that I always loved your videos and I miss them. In one video you played the Predator sound when switching to infra-red camera view... I was on the floor.

[@MrBeanbones]

Whoa! I just had this in Electronics 1 class today (high frequency and low frequency filters), awesome video!

[@LaughingManRa]

This was a great explanation. I always wondered about this myself.

[@clam3822]

Even tho I knew about this for years, but never dream of hearing someone who can explain it so totally.

[@TheDefpom]

Very nice explanation.

[@meandbabajan76]

Very very informative and amazing skills

[@jimedgar6789]

I never really understood how these caps worked until this video. Though I use them all the time! THANKS! SUBBED !

[@harshsharma5768]

Plz make more videos like this ..I love your content as an EE student 😄

[@rebelba42]

Two Afrotechmods videos released in one day, feels like heaven after a @§&% week! Please never leave us alone for such a long time :D Thanks for your excellent explanations!

[@MCsCreations]

Really interesting. Curiously, people use to put low ESR electrolytic capacitors on quadcopters ESCs for remove noise from the video feed. And it works pretty well...