[TheForge] Re: Generators

[Charle B Vincent]

As I said, just a stupid mistake on my part,  mf should be millifarad 
and uf micro farad, but it seems MFD mfd UFD ufd and anything other than 
pico and plain farad is interpreted as micro farad.   I knew this, so 
can't use it as an excuse.   I remember in highschool physiscs a one 
farad capacitor was postulated to be about the size of a truck, 
basically unheard of.  I was shocked when I first saw capacitors in the 
farad range showing up at Radio Shack..    Even the powerfactor 
correction capacitors used by the power company are microfarads.   Your 
postulation on the effect of running too much voltage through a 
capacitor are correct as far as my experience goes.  Same thing happens 
if you hook up a polarized capacitor backwards, say a filter capacitor 
in a really big power supply,  ask me how I know.     When you ripped 
open the Decwriter, did you pull the old memory core boards?  

Charles

Mike Spencer wrote:

>>30,000 mfd is a 30 Farad capacitor.  
>>    
>>
>
>Er, um, 1 farad = 1,000,000 microfarads according to my book.  So
>30,000 microfarads  is 0.03 farads.  Perhaps I should have written
>"30,000 ufd" instead of "30,000 mfd" where 'u' indicates a lower case
>mu for "micro"?
>
>  
>
>>Not a difficult one to find in 12-30 volt range since they are used
>>by high end audio systems, but pricey.  Even used they run a couple
>>hundred bucks.
>>    
>>
>
>Gee, I'll swap my half dozen big fat capacitors I got out of an old
>DecWriter II [1] for US$1000 worth of something more useful to me.  I
>reckoned they were worth about $10 each.
>
>
>- Mike
>
>[1] 1970s vintage hard-copy computer terminal. The "High Speed"
> button switched  it up from 150 to 300 baud.
>
>  
>