I bought 1KG of random parts from China. Was it worth it?

Uh oh, I've been shopping from China again! This time I got two lucky bags: 500 grams of random capacitors and 500 grams of random electronic parts from a seller on AliExpress. What did I get? Was it worth it? The answer won't surprise you.

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#electronics #capacitors #aliexpress

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[linkhidalgogato]

the idea of these is so funny like just random crap in a bag it trully condenses the ali express experience

[GoingtoHecq]

So like if you wanted to make a toy gun powered by vaporized capacitors then I would say this is an effective thing to buy for it.

[Lenny-ktth]

I wonder if you're applying the judgement on the ESR right because I see some caps of a brand in your "bad" pile that I have come to trust to compete on quality with the best known brands. ESR is highly dependent, not only on series, but also on capacity and voltage ratings. Applying a blanket 1 Ohm limit is therefore just wrong.

[Roonasaur]

Not to mention the joy of sorting through all those caps, really streamlines everything

[HughesEnterprises]

Chinese businessmen really know what they’re doing if they can sell 1Kg of E-waste floor sweepings for $15

[jozefbubez]

We had a lot of this in UK back in the 1950s/60s and I used to buy these. It can be fun sorting through the bits but the reality is that it's only a good buy when you can use all the parts. It is much better to buy just what you need for a particular project and leave these "bargains" well alone! Best wishes!

[giovannicesaramorimadigan]

the solar cells and motors seem kind of worth the first bag for some projects, but not much else

[cashewmilkfan]

these are probably good for like art projects or crafts

[PeetHobby]

Perhaps you could test a couple of those failed capacitors with a scope and conduct a >100kHz square wave ESR test to see if they indeed exhibit a high ESR drop in their waveform when switching the square wave.

[liquidsnake]

the biggest downside to Ali is really the shipping, it takes way too long, it's better now but it's still not great

[protechstudios]

Thanks for letting me know this Types of offers a available And thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙏

[saultube]

Well, if you're a technician or hobbyist you'll eventually use them. I'd use other methods to test the capacitors other than the AliExpress device

[patim]

You can not measure caps with that gadget and compare them to the datasheet because the datasheets give capacitance for 100/120Hz and tan d, that is the dissipation factor for the same frequency. Many datasheets give the impedance |Z| for 100 kHz. They do not state the ESR. You probably used one of the random lists.

[PrtoPoTaT]

The answer to this is no. If its not sorted specifically, no. My time is worth so much.

[thTek]

electolityc capacitors are normally +- 20% ... ???

[metatechnologist]

If you know what you're doing it might be a great deal. Mica, polystyrene, ceramic capacitors are be pretty stable. If you find a handful of those capacitors then yes you got a good deal. Relays are $5 each. For the experimenter it's probably a small gold mine!

[BalticLab]

I will keep this in mind next time I have eWaste, or sweep the floor in my lab. I'd even sell it for $ USD 10 per kilo.. :-)

[Ressy]

were thy "new" *cough* or parts ripped out of things and cleaned up?

[sioux]

These capacitors aren't useful for anything that's supposed to work for any serious time period. Only for prototypes, testing and experiments. In my experience they often fail after 2-5 years of use. For repairs or making devices quality japanese capacitors should be used. The parts seem cool tho.

[iceberg]

buying old electrolytics is such a bad idea.