Tantalum "stay-alives"

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A question for those wqho use caps these as stay-alives.

When fitting more than 1 to a decoder, does each have to be insulated from it's neighbour ?

I'm in the process of fitting 2 and saw a picture of a couple of them wired side by side with what looked like fairly hefty rigid wire.

I'm using decoder type wires and wondered if the ceramic block the solder tabs are mounted on is electrically dead.  i.e. Can I strap them together (spoon like) with the solder tabs on the rear one up against the ceramic block of the first or does each have to be separately wrapped with Kaptan tape before strapping them into a block ?

'Petermac
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[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:
A question for those wqho use caps these as stay-alives.

When fitting more than 1 to a decoder, does each have to be insulated from it's neighbour ?

I'm in the process of fitting 2 and saw a picture of a couple of them wired side by side with what looked like fairly hefty rigid wire.

I'm using decoder type wires and wondered if the ceramic block the solder tabs are mounted on is electrically dead.  i.e. Can I strap them together (spoon like) with the solder tabs on the rear one up against the ceramic block of the first or does each have to be separately wrapped with Kaptan tape before strapping them into a block ?
You dont need to individually isolate them. They can be wired together in a block before wrapping.

Best wishes

John
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Lenz DCC,RR&Co Gold V10 A4 Windows 10
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Thanks John.

Presumably, all I need to do then when "blocking" them is to make sure they can't short pos to neg so either side by side for wide and flat or back to back for a more chunky look. :roll:

'Petermac
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[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:
Thanks John.

Presumably, all I need to do then when "blocking" them is to make sure they can't short pos to neg so either side by side for wide and flat or back to back for a more chunky look. :roll:
Yes it is important that they are connected correcetly…….how do I know this? Other than that you can configure the blocks however you like…….I created two blocks of two once to maximise space usage

John
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Peter,

 some of my recent workbench photos have tantalum cap stay alive arrays, can't check for link now but will attach something later

Colin
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Hi Peter,


here is a link: Tantalum Cap Stay alive array  and following post

In this close up you can see how I've used short resistor wire off-cuts to form the connections between the same poles of the Tantalum capacitors being assembled into an array. This was the original version now improved to remove the spaghetti of excessive wiring and the original DCC chip sheath. All in post #2.


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Thanks Colin.

I did go back to your thread after you pointed it out to me and remember reading it at the time.  I put my lack of memory down to the onset of old-age……………or simply stupidity !!

I now understand more about these tanty things which, at first, I thought were just to stop the "staff" stealing my best whiskys…….

All I need to do next is find out how to reassemble the rodding on my old Bachmann lit chassis V1 loco…………………and I thought hard wiring decoders was problematic.  :hmm

'Petermac
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