E-Cap As Crystal Diode - Maker Factory ELECTRONICS EXPERIMENTS BOX Manual

2.33 E-cap as crystal diode

Circuit 83: Electrolytic capacitor lets direct current pass through
Setup information
Install the diode and the three electrolytic capacitors as shown in Fig. 2.83. The two jumper wires are next.
Check the placement on the board again and only then connect the battery.
Experiment
If everything is wired correctly, the LED is steady lit. In this case, the electrolytic capacitor is reverse-biased.
The minus terminal of the battery connects to the positive terminal of the electrolytic capacitor. DC current
flows steadily through the electrolytic capacitor. But actually, an electrolytic capacitor is not built for this,
and for sure you would ruin it after some time. However, a quick test run won't hurt. So, do not run this
experiment for more than 5 seconds! An electrolytic capacitor is intended to block direct current.
The circuit diagram for this experiment is shown in Chap. 3, Fig. 3.83.
108
Components required:
1 x red LED, 1 x 10 μF
electrolytic capaci-
tor, 1 x breadboard,
1 x battery, 9V battery
with clip connector
Fig. 2.83: Electrolytic capacitor
lets direct current pass through