Retrobrad Presents! Electronics Tutorial 5 - Introduction to Capacitors.

This is the next video in my electronics tutorial series. This time we are taking our first look at capacitors.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• retrobrad
• capacitor
• resistor
• circuit
• electronics
• theory
• tutorial
• how
• to
• battery
• current
• voltage
• ohms
• law

[sixxdegree]

best explaination on capacitors on youtube i found... and ive seen most

[00retrobrad00]

@sixxdegree Thanks man, much appreciated!

[MrHorsetail]

Very good and helpful videos Brad, thanks. One question, Why is 5 time constants used to represent a fully charged cap, why not ten? Is 5 time constants used to represent a fully charged state in all caps?

[00retrobrad00]

@MrHorsetail To work out 1 time constant we just multiply the resistor by the capacitor. So if this worked out to be 1mS and we then connected it to a power supply - after 1mS it would be charged to approx 63% of that power supply voltage. if we waited 5mS we would find that the capacitor basically equals the power supply voltage (more than 99% anyway) So we use five time constants to say that it is charged because that is just how long it takes. This holds true for all capacitors..

[cymonsgames]

Am I correct that this can be used to make a simple circuit with a blinking LED? I'd like to see a practical application of the theory presented, even if it's just something tiny.

[00retrobrad00]

@cymonsgames I certainly will be making tutorials using capacitors in various circuits. although to make an LED actually blink, you are going to need more than just a capacitor. You can however charge the capacitor up, then connect it to an LED (through a resistor) and the LED will turn on and then fade to off. (as long as you had a reasonably large capacitor (hundreds or even thousands of microfarads)

[managarm1349]

awesome, thanks!!

[xRoNiN116]

thank you so much ,, you helped me a lot !

[jed30007]

you teach better than my professor.

[2Champions]

Brilliant tutorials, thank you so much Brad!

[adrsya]

Been enjoying your tutorials immensely (great for absolut beginners in electrics--like me!). Hope to see more in the future. :)

[Andre8869]

hey, nice video. Im building a power suply circuit with a capacitor in it which will feed a microcomputer. The battery which will power the computer is rated at 11.1 v. As I understand, more capacitance = greater charging/discharging time. so if I use a 1000 microfarad 16v capacitor in the circuit assuming low resistance(100ohms) 1 time constant should be 0.1 seconds. If I want a longer charging/discharging time therefore I would simply use a higher rated capacitor(3000 micro farads)?

[montauk06]

GREAT VIDEO!!!

[Joelpyro]

Very helpful video... THANKS!

[jobinjohn1992]

hey i dont understand the graph, where he says the current decreases. i thought the current would run through the circuit as its a complete circuit? also at 15.30 when u say the capacitor will get full 10 volts will the battery have 0 volts?

[spinlizard1]

Thanks for uploading this. Your vid taught me more in 10 mins about capacitors, and far more clearly, than the book that I've been struggling with for the last 3 days.