Problem with crossover film capacitor

Discussion in 'General Electronics Chat' started by kevinkhan, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. kevinkhan

    Thread Starter New Member

    Dec 3, 2010
    How do you find out if the following component is working or not

    156J250 AVA CL20 film capacitor

    i have this multimeter

    im new too electronics so i would be greatful if someone could give me a step by step description of how to do this.

    The part is off a crossover for a speaker to i need to have power to the speaker to see if the current is going through the component correctly??
  2. Audioguru


    Dec 20, 2007
    156 is 15uf. J is 5% tolerance. 250 is a max voltage of 250VDC.

    Any half-decent multimeter has a capacitance measuring function.
    You could connect the capacitor in series with an 8 ohm speaker and an amplifier to hear if it passes high frequencies.
  3. praondevou

    AAC Fanatic!

    Jul 9, 2011
    What you are saying that his DMM is less than half-decent, because it doesn't have a capacitance measuring function...;)

    If you want to verify the value of the capacitance you can also use a resistor in series with it, between 100 and 200 Ohm.
    Apply some low AC-voltage (e.g. 5 to 10V) to the two components in series (from the output of a transformer connected to mains for example) or the headphone output of your laptop.
    Measure the voltage drop on the resistor and on the capacitor and calculate the impedance of the capacitor which should be 177Ohms at 60Hz (if it's 15uF). X= 1/(2.pi.f.C). Use 50 to 60Hz because DMM AC-measurements may be erroneous at higher frequencies.