# Are these tantalum and silver capacitors?



## pimpneightez (Jun 18, 2013)

I tried to pluck one off and the glass broke showing what looks like a silver contact point and a small square of tantalum. Am I correct?


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## g_axelsson (Jun 18, 2013)

If you suspect silver, a drop of nitric, wait for a few seconds and some salt or HCL will tell you if you are right if a cloud of silver chloride is formed.
There are more elaborate tests too, but this is a quick answer just to see if there are anything at all.

It isn't a capacitor, that's for sure. Personally I think that the name GTA3 with the look of it reminds me of a diode or a sparc gap over voltage protection.

Göran


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## macfixer01 (Jun 19, 2013)

pimpneightez said:


> I tried to pluck one off and the glass broke showing what looks like a silver contact point and a small square of tantalum. Am I correct?




Ok I think I figured out what they are, and they are not capacitors. I'm assuming the GTA(x) designations on the board might stand for for Gas Transient Arrestor? Anyway they're basically a spark gap to limit damage if lightening hits a line it's connected to. Something similar in design to these examples I found on Ebay in one of my Google searches:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/380360345919

macfixer01


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## pimpneightez (Jun 21, 2013)

It came off a board from an old AED machine so it seems legit. any known PM's in it? Kinda looks like a silver contactor.


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## g_axelsson (Jun 21, 2013)

Did you test it with a drop of nitric?
I don't think there are any silver in this component, but there are so many different makers and models there is always the exception.
Test it and report back your finds.

There could be some plating on the spark gap surfaces to keep them clean.

Göran


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## pimpneightez (Jun 22, 2013)

No not silver, But there is a small piece of silver soldered on the bottom. Smaller than any contact point I ever got. Don't even know if it would be worth it to save any of these. You can almost see the little square of silver in the picture.


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## AndyWilliams (Jun 23, 2013)

pimpneightez said:


> You can almost see the little square of silver in the picture.



Haha! What? Am I supposed to go look at the pic to see what I can "almost" see? You almost got me :lol:


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