[guest1632]

Hi,

I was about to buy some capacitors, when I noticed on the book I was reading that the cap values were expressed in good ol' Microfarads, or Mf for short. With the EU values of Uf, I have forgotten the decimal point difference. Could someone please refresh me on this subject? Most thanks.

Ray Bronk

[whubbard]

uF (its no a u, but actually mu, the Greek letter) is actually the symbol for micro-farads. A small m would be for milli-farads. For going from milli to micro you need to shift the decimal over 3 places to the left. If they really have the big M, which is mega-farads I can promise you won't need those for anything audio related, heck I'm not even sure they make them. A Mega-Farad can hold a whole lot of charge.

I should also point out that where ever you are buying from could have made the mistake and put down the m for micro (even though it is meant to be mu) A milli-farard is even a lot when dealing with audio.

-West

[sts9fan]

Mu is micro in most of the world and M is micro in the U.S. 

If you see a cap with M it is micro 

Working in the science industry Mf is super annoying.  We don't dumb down $ to D. 

[whubbard]

here is Mu for those who don't fully understand:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Mu_uc_lc.svg/800px-Mu_uc_lc.svg.png

-West

[guest1632]

Mu is micro in most of the world and M is micro in the U.S. 

If you see a cap with M it is micro 

Working in the science industry Mf is super annoying.  We don't dumb down $ to D. 

Hi,

Well, Just FYI, I remember seeing old electronics textbooks using the MF and MMF for Micro and Picofarads. Not sure how you write that Greek U like in michael Percy's catalog. Anyway, looking at building the Transcendentsound Grounded Grid (so called) preamp from scratch. It might cost me more in the long run, but I can actually buy the whole kit from Analog Metric much cheaper than Bruce's preamp would cost me. I figured I'd get the PCB, and various parts, taking my time to buy as I have cash to do so. Then the fun (not!) part begins. Anyway, Bruce's book shows the cap values in MF. So just wanted to make sure the UF and MF were the same. How do you type that Greek U?

Ray

[sts9fan]

can't here.

In word you "insert symbol"

[guest1632]

can't here.

In word you "insert symbol"

Ok, thanks. Thanks to all who cleared this up for me. I was thinking somewhere that because of the u symbol, that there is a decimal place difference versus the old MF designation for cap values.

Ray Bronk

[mfsoa]

Hold Alt and type 230 and you get µ

° = Alt248

 

-Mike

[guest1632]

Hold Alt and type 230 and you get µ

° = Alt248

 

-Mike

Thanks mike for the info.

Ray

[Russell Dawkins]

on a Mac alt (or option) m = µ and alt 0 gives º

[JoshK]

on pc ALT + 167 = º

I don't know mu off the top of my head.  ahh... ALT + 230 = µ

[guest1632]

on pc ALT + 167 = º

I don't know mu off the top of my head.  ahh... ALT + 230 = µ

Thanks josh.

Ray

[Speedskater]

This is interesting! On my PC I had always used the ANSI Character Set, when I wanted to do electronic or math symbols. But I have to enter [alt] and four digits. Like [alt]0176 = °  or [alt]0181 = µ.
Does anyone know where to get a list of the 3 digit or the  4 digit [alt] symbols?

[mfsoa]

How bout this?

http://www.usefulshortcuts.com/downloads/ALT-Codes.pdf

-Mike

[Speedskater]

That's great!
Thanks Mike