> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Bonner [SMTP:mbonner@SUNADA.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 5:37 PM
> To:   PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Radio Shack, electrolytic caps, polarity, poor
> label,dumb tech
>
> I wrote:
> >
> > The white band indicates the positive side, ergo: short lead to Vcc and
> > longer lead to Gnd.
> >
> I see that I'm in the minority here.  The tantalums that we use have a
> stripe indicating the positive electrode - I guess that I shouldn't
> extrapolate that to aluminum electrolytics that we *don't* use.
>
>
for some reason, tantalums have a marking for which side is
positive, and electrolytics have a marking for which side is
negative. I've always found the tantalum markings confusing.
usually a "+" and a solid line; the line being closest to the
positive side. This line looks somewhat similar (at least in
my eyes) to the line used for the negative side on electrolytics.