Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.

"Chris F." wrote in message
...
Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric fence
power supply. It tests dead-shorted.


It's a 60,000 uF electrolytic, but it's so old that I can't decipher all of the
numbers to get the voltage rating. It's likely to be a special unit, so the
numbers are only meaningful to the OEM.

Unless someone else has an old Sprague catalog to determine the voltage rating,
you'll have to use a little common sense. Remove the bad capacitor and
temporarily wire in a high voltage capacitor of a few hundred uF and measure the
voltage developed across it. Add a safety factor of about 20-30% of that
voltage.

You probably won't find that exact capacitance in a new capacitor, so use
something close... like 62,000 uF, which is more likely to be a standard value.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Experience: What you get when you don't get what you want

Chris F. wrote in message
...
Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.



The Siemens coding system was

With a long series of digits and letters where there was a sequence of 4
digits, the middle 2 represent the 2 leading digits of the
capacitance value and the fourth the indicial multiplier in pF ('8' - 10^8
pF)
so perhaps 32 x 10^8 pF or 3200 uF
A1 would be a type number

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Chris F. wrote in message
...
Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.



The Siemens coding system was

With a long series of digits and letters where there was a sequence of 4
digits, the middle 2 represent the 2 leading digits of the
capacitance value and the fourth the indicial multiplier in pF ('8' - 10^8
pF)
so perhaps 32 x 10^8 pF or 3200 uF
A1 would be a type number

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/




The 53D series belonged to Sprague originally, currently, through acquisition,
belongs to Vishay. You indicate that the cap might be a Siemens unit.

It would surely help if the OP come back and indicate the manufacturer of the
capacitor.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Experience: What you get when you don't get what you want

"DaveM" wrote in message
. ..
"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Chris F. wrote in message
...
Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.



The Siemens coding system was

With a long series of digits and letters where there was a sequence of 4
digits, the middle 2 represent the 2 leading digits of the
capacitance value and the fourth the indicial multiplier in pF ('8' -
10^8
pF)
so perhaps 32 x 10^8 pF or 3200 uF
A1 would be a type number

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/




The 53D series belonged to Sprague originally, currently, through
acquisition, belongs to Vishay. You indicate that the cap might be a
Siemens unit.

It would surely help if the OP come back and indicate the manufacturer of
the capacitor.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters
in the address)

Experience: What you get when you don't get what you want

There's no mfr. name printed on it; the cap is blue with three "+" symbols
marking the positive side.

On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:08:55 -0700, "Chris F."
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.

Following on from what DaveM has said, here is the datasheet for the
Vishay Sprague 53D series:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/42037/53d.pdf

"Vishay Sprague 53D series is a general purpose capacitor with a
rugged construction and the largest CV ratings in axial leaded
capacitors. These axial leaded aluminum capacitors feature a rated
capacitance range of 15 µF to 220,000 µF, and an operating temperature
range from - 40 °C to 85 °C."

Rated voltage range, UR 6.3 WVDC to 450 WVDC

Unfortunately the datasheet doesn't show a 60,000uF cap. The largest
is 11,000uF. Furthermore, the capacitor markings only appear to make
sense for the first line.

Judging by your dimensions, if by "wide" you mean "long", and by
"thick" you mean "in diameter", then a 60,000uF cap in the 53D series
would be much longer than 2", I would think.

For example, a 3800uF 50V cap is 2.14" long and 1.01" in diameter.
What voltage could you expect of a 60,000uF cap of the same size?

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote:

On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:08:55 -0700, "Chris F."
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.

Following on from what DaveM has said, here is the datasheet for the
Vishay Sprague 53D series:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/42037/53d.pdf

"Vishay Sprague 53D series is a general purpose capacitor with a
rugged construction and the largest CV ratings in axial leaded
capacitors. These axial leaded aluminum capacitors feature a rated
capacitance range of 15 µF to 220,000 µF, and an operating temperature
range from - 40 °C to 85 °C."

Rated voltage range, UR 6.3 WVDC to 450 WVDC

Unfortunately the datasheet doesn't show a 60,000uF cap. The largest
is 11,000uF. Furthermore, the capacitor markings only appear to make
sense for the first line.

Judging by your dimensions, if by "wide" you mean "long", and by
"thick" you mean "in diameter", then a 60,000uF cap in the 53D series
would be much longer than 2", I would think.

For example, a 3800uF 50V cap is 2.14" long and 1.01" in diameter.
What voltage could you expect of a 60,000uF cap of the same size?


Franc, Sprague didn't use the three digit code to identify yhre
capacitance. It identified the part numer in the series. Someone on the
antiquie radio nesgroups or forums may have an old catalog. I can't
find mine right now. I can barely see at all, and am not epxpected to
recover, for several months.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:08:55 -0700, "Chris F."
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.

Following on from what DaveM has said, here is the datasheet for the
Vishay Sprague 53D series:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/42037/53d.pdf

"Vishay Sprague 53D series is a general purpose capacitor with a
rugged construction and the largest CV ratings in axial leaded
capacitors. These axial leaded aluminum capacitors feature a rated
capacitance range of 15 µF to 220,000 µF, and an operating temperature
range from - 40 °C to 85 °C."

Rated voltage range, UR 6.3 WVDC to 450 WVDC

Unfortunately the datasheet doesn't show a 60,000uF cap. The largest
is 11,000uF. Furthermore, the capacitor markings only appear to make
sense for the first line.

Judging by your dimensions, if by "wide" you mean "long", and by
"thick" you mean "in diameter", then a 60,000uF cap in the 53D series
would be much longer than 2", I would think.

For example, a 3800uF 50V cap is 2.14" long and 1.01" in diameter.
What voltage could you expect of a 60,000uF cap of the same size?

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Totally valid arguments and I agree with you after being reminded that the OP
had given the dimensions of the cap as 2x1 inches. I overlooked that aspect
after my first read of his post.

The lack of any numbers after the first line (53D603) threw me at first, but I
remembered that Sprague used to make the 53D line. I just figured that the OP
had an old unit and used a capacitor value that had been obsoleted.

Cheers!!

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Experience: What you get when you don't get what you want

"Chris F." wrote in
:

There's no mfr. name printed on it; the cap is blue with three "+"
symbols marking the positive side.


A picture might help.

If it is Sprague, their 'trademark' is a '2' with a circle around it.
Called the 'circle duce', it stands for 'second to none'.

I used to design and build monolithic capacitors and resistors for Sprague
in the late 60's and early 70's.

As far as I know, we never made anything over a few dozen uF at our plant
in Wichita Falls, tx.




--
bz 73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap

I forgot to mention that the customer had brought in two of these units,
one being a bit newer than the other. The other unit happened to be in
working order, so I opened it up and found a similar design with another
strangely-marked cap. But since it was working, all I had to do was measure
the operating voltage and capacitance. The voltage across it was about
320VDC, and the capacitance was just 1.18uF. This cap, unlike the one in the
other unit, appeared to be a non-polarized metal-film type. So I installed a
2.2uF, 400V metal-film cap (the closest thing I could find) in the other
unit and it appears to work. Both units create a good thick spark of about
1/8". So I guess the problem is solved. BTW these units are not terribly
old, both have mfr'd dates in the early 90's.
Thanks anyway for your help.
"Chris F." wrote in message
...
Any idea as to the value of this cap? The markings on it a
53D603
A1328-1/K14
0043H550
It's about 2" wide and 1" thick, and comes from a Co-Op brand electric
fence power supply. It tests dead-shorted.

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:12:40 -0700, "Chris F."
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I forgot to mention that the customer had brought in two of these units,
one being a bit newer than the other. The other unit happened to be in
working order, so I opened it up and found a similar design with another
strangely-marked cap. But since it was working, all I had to do was measure
the operating voltage and capacitance. The voltage across it was about
320VDC, and the capacitance was just 1.18uF. This cap, unlike the one in the
other unit, appeared to be a non-polarized metal-film type. So I installed a
2.2uF, 400V metal-film cap (the closest thing I could find) in the other
unit and it appears to work. Both units create a good thick spark of about
1/8". So I guess the problem is solved. BTW these units are not terribly
old, both have mfr'd dates in the early 90's.

If the capacitor forms part of a tuned circuit, then doubling its
value may change the resonant frequency and peak voltage in this
circuit. Unless you've already done so, I would confirm that the
voltage across the replacement cap does not exceed its rating.

However, if the design of your electric fence controller is anything
like my Silicon Chip kit, then it works by charging a dump capacitor
and then discharging its stored energy into the fence. The April 1999
kit uses a 7uF 250VAC capacitor which develops a DC voltage of 340V
across it. This amounts to a stored energy of ...

E = 0.5 x C x V^2 = 0.40 joules

If yours is a dump cap, then doubling its capacitance would double the
controller's energy output. I'd make sure you are not contravening any
local safety regulations by doing so. Having said that, it would still
appear that your controller puts out less than one third of the energy
that my kit does. shrug

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Chris F." wrote:

I forgot to mention that the customer had brought in two of these units,
one being a bit newer than the other. The other unit happened to be in
working order, so I opened it up and found a similar design with another
strangely-marked cap. But since it was working, all I had to do was measure
the operating voltage and capacitance. The voltage across it was about
320VDC, and the capacitance was just 1.18uF. This cap, unlike the one in the
other unit, appeared to be a non-polarized metal-film type. So I installed a
2.2uF, 400V metal-film cap (the closest thing I could find) in the other
unit and it appears to work.

Possibly best to use a pulse (typically polypropylene) type cap in such a unit.


Graham