# Capacitor Question for The Abyss



## soothsayer86 (May 5, 2020)

Hey everyone, love the community here! You guys have been helpful as I have started my journey into building my own pedals. So thanks!  Quick question: Tayda left out some 4.7nF caps from my order. I am building The Abyss, and I am wondering if I could replace the 4.7nF with a 2.2nF or some other cap that I have in stock. I guess my real question is, if I do that, would the pedal just not work? Would it destroy the rest of the components? I have really no idea where to start figuring this out on my own so if someone could help out that would be great! I will make sure to get some more 4.7nF's in my next order, that is for sure!  Anyways, any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Harris

::Edited to correct my numbers::


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## Nostradoomus (May 5, 2020)

Do you mean the 47uf caps?


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## soothsayer86 (May 5, 2020)

Nostradoomus said:


> Do you mean the 47uf caps?


Sorry, I meant the 4.7nF caps. My bad. I am confusing myself. I need to know if I can sub something for the 4.7nF cap. Like I said, just getting started building. I appreciate any help.


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## Cucurbitam0schata (May 5, 2020)

This might not be the right answer - but you could use some spare caps in series or parallel to achieve a close equivalent to that missing 4.7 nF capacitor? Here's a slick calculator.


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## soothsayer86 (May 5, 2020)

Cucurbitam0schata said:


> This might not be the right answer - but you could use some spare caps in series or parallel to achieve a close equivalent to that missing 4.7 nF capacitor? Here's a slick calculator.


Yeah I was kinda thinking I might be able to do something like this, problem is I have no experience improvising a solution that way.


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## soothsayer86 (May 5, 2020)

For example I have a few 2.2nF caps, but not sure how I would implement those to get close to the 4.7nF.


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## Nostradoomus (May 5, 2020)

If you solder the legs of one 2.2nf cap to another 2.2nf cap in parallel then you’ll have a 4.4nf cap which will be close enough. Here’s a shitty drawing


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## Cucurbitam0schata (May 5, 2020)

Is that some A+++ toilet paper art!? Frame it!


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## Nostradoomus (May 5, 2020)

Cucurbitam0schata said:


> Is that some A+++ toilet paper art!? Frame it!


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## soothsayer86 (May 5, 2020)

Nostradoomus said:


> If you solder the legs of one 2.2nf cap to another 2.2nf cap in parallel then you’ll have a 4.4nf cap which will be close enough. Here’s a shitty drawing View attachment 4260


This is amazing help, and AMAZING ART! It literally shows me exactly what I need to know! Thank you so, SO much! Genuinely!


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## Barry (May 5, 2020)

R27 is the CLR for the LED if you're using a 5mm led 2k2 should be fine, or any value in between will just make it brighter, R23 probably should be closer 4k7


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## Chuck D. Bones (May 5, 2020)

Just put in a 2.2nF cap until you get a 4.7nF.  It will be plenty close.  There is nothing magic about those cap values, they just need to be scattered.  Unless you're trying to build an exact duplicate of the Uni-Vibe, which this isn't, the absolute cap values aren't that important.


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## Chuck D. Bones (May 5, 2020)

Cucurbitam0schata said:


> Is that some A+++ toilet paper art!? Frame it!


I get it, it's a pun.  Shitty dwg so you use toilet paper... ?


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## BurntFingers (May 5, 2020)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Just put in a 2.2nF cap until you get a 4.7nF.  It will be plenty close.  There is nothing magic about those cap values, they just need to be scattered.  Unless you're trying to build an exact duplicate of the Uni-Vibe, which this isn't, the absolute cap values aren't that important.



I hereby dub thee Sherlock Ohms.


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## soothsayer86 (May 6, 2020)

Thanks everyone! Love this community


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## soothsayer86 (May 6, 2020)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Just put in a 2.2nF cap until you get a 4.7nF.  It will be plenty close.  There is nothing magic about those cap values, they just need to be scattered.  Unless you're trying to build an exact duplicate of the Uni-Vibe, which this isn't, the absolute cap values aren't that important.


Just for my own edification, what does this cap (the 4.7nF) actually do in this circuit? I am trying to learn as much as I can, and part of that is understanding which parts are integral to the design and which parts are less "important".


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