How Capacitors Work – A Tutorial For Hobbyists

A capacitor is a basic electronic component that works like a tiny rechargeable battery with very low capacity. Capacitors are used to create oscillators, time delays, add a power boost, and much more.

Like most components, the easiest way to understand how a capacitor works is to see with your own eyes what it does in a circuit.

Electrolytic capacitor

When I started learning electronics as a teenager, this was the first component I learned about. The way my father explained it to me made it easy to understand even though I had no understanding of the basics of electronics.

In this guide, I’ll show you how a capacitor works so that you’ll be able to understand what it does in circuits, and how you can use it in your own projects.

Covered in this guide:

Capacitors in Series

Capacitors in series are capacitors that are connected one after the other. The result always becomes a capacitance that is lower than the lowest value. In this guide, you’ll learn why this is the case and how to calculate their combined values. And I’ll also throw in a simple rule of thumb that you can

Capacitors in Parallel

When you connect capacitors in parallel, you connect them alongside each other. And the result becomes a capacitance with a higher value. In this guide, you’ll learn why it works like that, how to calculate the resulting capacitance, and some examples of this in practice. As you’ll soon see, this is actually very simple. How

Capacitor Values – Prefixes, Standards and Calculations

There are some standard capacitor values that have developed over time. To find the value you need for your circuit you need to know how to deal with prefixes. And you need to know how to calculate capacitor values.

Electrolytic capacitor

If you have looked for capacitors, you have probably seen many different letters and weird values. Like 0.47 µF or 22 pF. It is a bit confusing, but it’s easy to learn what it means.

In this article you will learn the most standard capacitor values, the prefixes used and how to calculate a capacitor value for your circuit.

How to Choose the Right Capacitor Types

“What capacitor types should I choose?”

This is a question asked by many beginners. I will give you a simple answer to this question without going into all the details. After reading this, my goal is that you should be able to go and find the capacitor you need right away.