[Captain]

How do you know which is the negative and positive of a capacitor. I have a Elna Starget and a Jensen paper in oil silver cap. The starget has the white line that runs up one side so I presume the wire coming from this side is the positive. The Jensen has a short straight line running round one end, so again I presume this is the positive side. Do not worry with such naive question that I am about to take to a soldering iron. I have been sent these caps as replacements for some in my amp (which is being done by a confident DIYer), just they are in front of me I have got curious and want to know.

 

[FallenAngel]

The longer lead is the positive.

 

[Captain]

thanks

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain The starget has the white line that runs up one side so I presume the wire coming from this side is the positive.

The wire coming from this side is actually negative.

The PIO is a film cap and technically non-polar, so there no negative or positive terminals and it wouldn't matter which direction you solder it in. However, the terminal connected to the outer foil (referring to the way the capacitor is constructed internally) is marked with this line you're referring to. IIRC this wire would be used as the negative terminal if you really wanted to.