What kind of capacitators for Aristocrat ? - Newbie Inside -

[WAXOU]

Hi there,

I'm planning to build some of the projects from this great website, starting with the aristocrat.
But I'm a kind of a noob in electronic. I know how to solder and so, but regarding the choice of capacitator and resistor, I'm totally lost.

I'm guessing that C8, C10, C11 and C19 are electrolytics, but the other ones... Film ? Tantalum ? I have no ideas.
If anyone got the time to answer I'll appreciate a lot.

Thanks

[Haberdasher]

Hi there,

I'm planning to build some of the projects from this great website, starting with the aristocrat.
But I'm a kind of a noob in electronic. I know how to solder and so, but regarding the choice of capacitator and resistor, I'm totally lost.

I'm guessing that C8, C10, C11 and C19 are electrolytics, but the other ones... Film ? Tantalum ? I have no ideas.
If anyone got the time to answer I'll appreciate a lot.

Thanks

You're right, the circular ones on the diagram are electrolytics.  You will want radial, NOT axial.
c2, c13 are either ceramic disc, multilayer ceramic, or silver mica- you pick.
The rest I'd use film.  Make sure you get 5mm LS (lead spacing) where applicable for the film caps (especially the box type because they have very short leads).
Make sure your voltages on all your caps are high enough for 9v pedals, so 16v minimum.  I use 50v for ceramics, 63v or 100v for box films, and anywhere from 25v to 50v for electrolytics- depending on what I have around.  Try to look at the data sheet for the electrolytics to make sure they're not huge in size.  If you're not careful sometimes you can end up ordering something too big.
Conversions:  .1Uf (or mF) = 100n, and so on.

Use metal film resistors in the 1/4 watt size.
6K8 means 6.8K
Another note- I would bump R14 & R26 up to around 10K - 12K IF you are going to use super-bright LED's (especially blue ones).  Using the 4k7's there with one of those will just about blind you.  If you are just going to use diffused LED's you won't have to worry about it.

hope that helps, and good luck

[WAXOU]

It helps a lot !!!

Thanks for this very clear answer, all I have to do now is to solder

Have a nice day and thank you again.

[Haberdasher]

You're welcome.

One other thing I thought of.  You should definitely get some 8 pin sockets for your ICs.  That way you solder the socket and just plug the IC in last.  Those chips can't take much heat from the soldering iron and can become damaged easily.

[WAXOU]

Ok, thanks for the advice, I will get a socket.

[Sam87]

 Would 10uf 400v work ?

[Haberdasher]

I don't think the aristocrat calls for a 10uF cap.

As far as the voltage goes, if you can fit it in there I say use it.  A 400V electrolytic cap might be pretty large in size though...

[oldhousescott]

10u/400v will be huge. For electrolytics, 35v rating is as large as you should ever need, and in reality, 16v rating is fine if you'll never power the pedal from more than that. A 25v rating would catch about 99% of the cases.