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etack said:
None of what you pictured was a Ta cap.

Ta caps will be on boards have to do sound or high reliability. Ta caps are expensive so they will be in products that are expensive too.

When you look for through hole Ta caps they will be shape like the ghost off pacman round on top with straight side for the most part. They will also look like bullets or diode with a chamfer on one end.

Keep looking send me pics of boards and I will circle them for you too.

Eric
Click to expand...

Thanks Eric, not exactly what I was hoping for but better to find out now than after I have pounds of them saved up. It looks like the scrap I have the most of has NO tantalum at all in them other than the tiny SMD caps. I'm guessing ALL the SMD parts marked as "C" do have tantalum. Even if this is right, it would take many thousands of them to make a pound. I'll have to get either a bigger heat gun or some other quicker way to depopulate the boards before thinking about saving them.

Oh well, I'll still get some other scrap from these boards. There should be a tiny bit of silver in some switches and I think there is a relay in the devices. Not much gold but there are some plated wires in a phone jack and the card contacts. Mostly I'll get steel, aluminum, and copper. Better than nothing.

I have seen some of the ones you mentioned (pacman shape) but not in these parts.

bmgold
 
With more examining and searching this forum, I don't think I have any tantalum on these boards at all. What I thought might be tantalum SMD capacitors I now think are monolithic ceramic capacitors.

Here's a couple pictures of what I have. First one is a little over 20 mG of the SMD caps. These were on a CD drive circuit board but the other boards I have look the same just dustier boards.

smd caps off board.jpg

Next is the caps still on the board (the ones marked with "C" not the resistors)

smd caps on board.jpg

I'll keep looking for tantalum but it looks like I won't have enough to sell.

bmgold2
 
Reading the whole thread would enlighten anyone with pictures, and links to help identify the correct type of capacitors.

Jim
 
If your interested,I have some of these in picture.some are smaller than the one in the picture.
pm me with a lb price.
thanks john
 

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That looks like an Al electrolytic not a Ta cap.

Look at my blog

http://recycletantalumcapacitors.blogspot.com/

Eric
 
This is one of the things I find daunting about collecting tantalum capacitors. There is such a wide variety of packages that I'm sure I threw many out over the years not knowing they were tantalum. I've also seen pictures of caps on various websites that they said were tantalum but I'd swear had to be ordinary electrolytics? The two can look much alike since the axial lead type both often have the tapered bead where the leads attach to the case, but it's usually on both ends of electrolytics and only one end of tantalums. I'd wait for Eric's answer of course since he's the one who is looking to buy, and he knows best. From what you submitted though Necromancer: Photo #6 is not a capacitor it's some sort of diode or power rectifier. Of the other photos the only ones I'd be comfortable saying are definitely tantalum are in pictures #5 and #6.

(Edited only to correct a misspelling.)
 
Just cut it open, if it contains a silvery foil (aluminum) and paper or plastic foil wrapped together then it is an electrolytic or foil capacitor. If it is a massive black hard mass then it's a tantalum capacitor.
You should also be able to discern the two types by weigh, tantalum is very heavy while aluminum is light.

Oh, and if it is a dark to light brown almost glassy looking ceramic with fine lines it probably is a MLCC and could contain palladium and silver.

My guess is that most, probably none, of your pictures are of tantalum capacitors. I'm not 100% sure for 4, 7 and 9 so I suggest you test them.
... and number six is definitely a diode.

macfixer01 said:
From what you submitted though Necromancer: Photo #6 is not a capacitor it's some sort of diode or power rectifier. Of the other photos the only ones I'd be comfortable saying are definitely tantalum are in pictures #5 and #6.
Click to expand...
That sounds to me like a contradiction, first you tell us that 6 is a diode, then it definitely is tantalum. Sure you don't mean "definitely not tantalum"?

Göran
 
1,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 are not Ta.

2 is and 4 I can't tell without seeing the ends.

some helpful part numbers to look for are T110, T150, M39003, M39006, CS just to name a few for the can style.

The ends with two glass beads are most likely paper oil caps I get them sometimes. Ta caps are not large and most likely no miger round then a crayon. They will be heavy for there sive too.

Eric
 
g_axelsson said:
Just cut it open, if it contains a silvery foil (aluminum) and paper or plastic foil wrapped together then it is an electrolytic or foil capacitor. If it is a massive black hard mass then it's a tantalum capacitor.
You should also be able to discern the two types by weigh, tantalum is very heavy while aluminum is light.

Oh, and if it is a dark to light brown almost glassy looking ceramic with fine lines it probably is a MLCC and could contain palladium and silver.

My guess is that most, probably none, of your pictures are of tantalum capacitors. I'm not 100% sure for 4, 7 and 9 so I suggest you test them.
... and number six is definitely a diode.

macfixer01 said:
From what you submitted though Necromancer: Photo #6 is not a capacitor it's some sort of diode or power rectifier. Of the other photos the only ones I'd be comfortable saying are definitely tantalum are in pictures #5 and #6.
Click to expand...
That sounds to me like a contradiction, first you tell us that 6 is a diode, then it definitely is tantalum. Sure you don't mean "definitely not tantalum"?

Göran
Click to expand...


Göran, yes I screwed up! I meant to say I felt that pictures 4 and 5 were tantalum (not 5 and 6). I proofread it a couple times, went back and edited the one typo I had missed, and still got it wrong. I do apologize!

I felt pretty confident in #4 but now I'm a bit confused by Eric's reply about picture #4 that he'd have to see what the ends look like? What would he be looking for? I see capacitors looking nearly identical to those black ones on Google identified as tantalums, the only thing I'm not seeing there is the vertical angled corner that these have? I do see other brands with the top edge of the positive side angled though (angled horizontally and running parallel to the white printed bar).

Eric, what about #2 says to you that they are tantalum? I saw nothing to differentiate them from electrolytics. Actually now that I looked closer at the photo I saw the DIN41257 number and just Googled this data sheet that says that the DIN41257 series caps are electrolytic: http://vbay.ru/iteminfo/100180580122120.htm

macfixer01
 
Hehe, that only shows that every bit of information on the forum is scrutinized.

As for number 4, I've seen electrolytic capacitors with that form but I think it was a round can laying horizontal and encased in black plastic so you could see the top of the can sticking out on one end. It was probably for making it easier for the pick'n place machine to lift it with a flat top. My doubt is because they are so big, at least they look big in the picture.

Ok, after writing the above response I tried to google the cts 27 code on top, and I found this.
http://www.vpelec.com/fichiers/pdf/composants-electroniques/composants-passifs/cc-0003-condensateurs-tantale-cts27.pdf
It seems they are tantalum capacitors. It's a hole-mounted and not a surface mounted capacitor.

... every day you learn something new. 8)

Göran
 
macfixer01 said:
Eric, what about #2 says to you that they are tantalum? I saw nothing to differentiate them from electrolytics. Actually now that I looked closer at the photo I saw the DIN41257 number and just Googled this data sheet that says that the DIN41257 series caps are electrolytic: http://vbay.ru/iteminfo/100180580122120.htm
Click to expand...

Yeah it seems nobody got out of here without egg on them. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I meant I would need to see the ends on pic#2 ast if they are sealed with glass then they have a good possibility of being Ta.

They don't have a crimp on them so it is harder to tell.

I did not google the part# but that is a great thing to do if possible.

g_axelsson said:
Ok, after writing the above response I tried to google the cts 27 code on top, and I found this.
Click to expand...

there are a few prefixes that are common in Ta cap part numbers CT, CS, and T

Eric
 
Eric,
Well a bit of egg on each of us from time to time is a good thing, it keeps us humble! :oops:

You mention tantalum caps being heavy for their size. I always expected this also which is why I had trouble accepting the red-ended ones were tantalum because they seem quite lightweight? All this just supports what I was saying about how it's sometimes hard to tell from appearance alone what is or isn't a tantalum cap? I didn't realize the black caps in photo #4 were a through-hole type, I assumed they were surface mount? Good info also about looking for glass seals on the axial type. For the record though, it does appear the Google'd data sheets prove that #4 are tantalum but #2 are not. I just don't want to get any "wrong" caps mixed into those I'm collecting, so I won't have to pick them out before I can sell them. I suppose I'll eventually need to sort them anyway though, since different varieties vary in value.

Thanks again Eric for helping educate us on these caps. Any new potential income stream is always welcome info.

macfixer01
 
ends of photo #2, sorry if there fuzzy. i took many photos & these are the best :oops:

(2)A.jpg

(2)B.jpg

maybe we should have a "definitive tantalum thread" ??
with close up single photos & part numbers ??
 
My Blog has some great closeup pics. Be sure to click on them as they enlarge.

http://recycletantalumcapacitors.blogspot.com/

as far as part numbers go the most common problems are in I.D.ing solid electrolyte or hermetically sealed caps They are the caps that start with (T110), (T150), (CS), (CL), (M39003), (M39006). The rest are easier to ID and harder to give all the part numbers for.

Eric

necromancer The caps in the pic is not a Ta cap.
 

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