Old Capacitor Codes?

Apr 26, 2007 31 Replies

I have second hand word that a specific capacitor is a Z5U 1000M 1KV. This doesn't follow the standard 3 digit capacitor code. Is it possible back in the 70s that 100pf could be written as 1000M instead of 101M?



Grant



Z5U is the dielectric.

M is the tolerance code - 20% IIRC.

It looks like 1000 pF to me.

Graham

You have a 1000pF 1000Volt cap.

"In the 70s" 1000pF would have been 1000MMF.

M meaning micro (10^-6)

I bet some guys here called them Mickey Mikes.

Tom

"Picklefarts" was used a lot more than "Mickey Mikes".

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida

Been a long time since having heard the term - Mickey Mikes, but can't recall ever hearing "Picklefarts". I "may" have - just can't recall it at moment.

It might have been a regional thing. It was a common term around the shops I worked at as a kid.

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida

Actually, by the 70's it was pretty much over.

IN the early sixties, about 1963, some standards organization cleared out some of the rot, so there was a more consistent useage. It was the same thing that brought in the term "Hertz" rather than the previous "cycles per second".

And that's when pF came along, to replace the somewhat odd "mmf" or "uuF".

By the seventies, the only reason you'd see "mmF" is because parts still in use were marked that way, and the relative oldtimers hadn't switched over. It was no longer showing up in the magazines.

Michael

No, it wasn\'t. 1000pF was also noted as 0.001µF well into the 80\'s, with the noting "1nF" emerging even later than that.

But my point was that "uuF"/"mmF" was no longer used by the seventies.

Michael

Then your point was wrong. I was working at Racal-Milgo in Miami in the \'70\'s, and 1000µµF was still what we called "1000 Mickey Mikes".

Or 1000 uuF

But only in the USA.

Graham

Over here we call them puffs or puff.

Graham

Only true of the USA.

I was using nF well before that time.

Graham

But you Americans drag your feet over everything.

I was using nF in the late 60s. My Philips "Transistor Audio and Radio Circuits" handbook has nF and it was printed in 1969.

Graham

Around "here" - I heard them referred to that as well.

I believe you, but I've never met a puff in the USA.

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida

Circuits"

nF was in use in the early '60s, but it went away.

Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida

Over here, we used to call them "puffs". As in: "Anyone got a 100 puff cap in their kit?"

W "Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them." . | ,. w , \\|/ \\|/ Perna condita delenda est ---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

Ditto. "nF" was in common use in Oz at least as early as the mid 70s.

W "Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them." . | ,. w , \\|/ \\|/ Perna condita delenda est ---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

So were we. The point I was making, which you seemed to have missed, is that Michael Black\'s comment that: "Actually, by the 70\'s it was pretty much over." was untrue since the old notations lingered for a long time.

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