# Component ID Help Needed



## shadybear (Dec 2, 2009)

I found these on an old 79 board the are large about 1 1/2 inches long by 3/8 across
the markings are:

SPRAGUE
300+
250-16 BC
7823H
USA +

There were 2 like that and then 2

SPRAGUE
300+
250--16DC
7730H
USA +


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## gorfman6154 (Dec 2, 2009)

shadybear said:


> I found these on an old 79 board the are large about 1 1/2 inches long by 3/8 across
> the markings are:
> 
> SPRAGUE
> ...



Shadybear, they sound like some capacitors. 

It would help us ID them if you could post some photos.

Gorfman


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## shadybear (Dec 2, 2009)

gorfman6154 said:


> shadybear said:
> 
> 
> > I found these on an old 79 board the are large about 1 1/2 inches long by 3/8 across
> ...



I dont have a camera but i will try to describe them
They are silver but on one end they are red
seem to have a plastic sleeve over them.


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## gorfman6154 (Dec 2, 2009)

shadybear said:


> They are silver but on one end they are red
> seem to have a plastic sleeve over them.



Aflacglobal has posted a parts guide for scrappers, there is a photo, under capacitors, on page 9, that might be what you have. Check out the link:
:arrow: http://scribd.com/doc/20327561/Scrap-Parts_Comp_Identification

Gorfman


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## tlcarrig (Dec 2, 2009)

Sounds like a capacitor to me too. Not worth fooling with. Two layers of Al foil separated by an oil coated paper. Stinks like he!! when electrically shorted.


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## samuel-a (Dec 3, 2009)

sound like "silver cased subminiature Tantalum"
from the scrappper master list


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## butcher (Dec 4, 2009)

sound like the old silver capacitors to me also.


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## macfixer01 (Dec 6, 2009)

butcher said:


> sound like the old silver capacitors to me also.




If these are tantalum capacitors (which it sounds like that is the case) they should be worth keeping if you can find someone to buy them as scrap. Both the tantalum and silver in them have value. Back in late 2000 tantalum spiked to around $240/LB. It seems to be around $40/LB now for the raw ore which is all I could readily locate a price for. It's expected to rise soon also. When searching for a price tonight I noticed several documents basically all saying that due to the economic downturn and decreased demand some tantalum mines had been closed reducing world supply. However now demand is increasing again so tantalum is expected to rise. There is fear that illegal mining in the Congo will sprout up to fill the void. Anyway here is a link to a page I came across for tantalum buyers and sellers to make contact, although it's somewhat dated. If someone does end up selling tantalum caps as scrap I'd love to hear the details, I have around 5 or 6 pounds in a bag that I keep adding to.

http://metalsplace.com/board/?s=62&req=n

macfixer01


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## resabed01 (Dec 6, 2009)

I pulled some caps out of my parts bin for comparison. The top two are tantalum and the bottom is a aluminum electroylic. The top cap is 220uF/10v and by my experience is about as large as a tantalum gets normally. It is about 1" long and just over 1/4" in diameter. Most tantalum caps are smaller than this because they can get expensive the bigger they get and at those values an aluminum cap can perform the same with a smaller footprint and much less cost.
The center cap is a 100uF/6v tantalum. It's quite old technology and it's bulky size refects this.
The bottom cap is a 1000uF/16v alumunum electroylic. it's almost 2" long and 1/2" in diameter. Looks the same as the other two but you can tell by it's feel that it's not the same. The tantalum caps feel a lot heavier than it's aluminum counterparts.


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## shadybear (Dec 6, 2009)

There are no uF numbers on it only 250-16 BC and the other 2 have 250--16 DC
marked on them
It looks similar to the center cap because it has a plastic type sleeve on them
and one end is red.


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## AKDan (Dec 6, 2009)

Are you sure they are not chokes, or tuning coils? The H behind the numbers could stand for 'henry' which if I remember right is a coil inductance designator. Been away from electronics for quite a few years, and so may be thinking wrong about it. Usually coils are designated in uH, so these may be 7.73 uH coils, or maybe 77.3 uH? 68uH is one of the standard sizes that I seem to remember


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## butcher (Dec 6, 2009)

the pictures are of capacitors, 
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=silver%20capacitors%20tantalum&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi


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## AKDan (Dec 6, 2009)

Sorry, didn't realize that pictures had been provided. Thought that someone else had provided a possible comparison, but nothing specific to the actual part in question.


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