A very, very basic question about capacitors

1

Hi,

This is my first post here, so I’m feeling a little, ah, intimidated.

Some background: The last time I dabbled in this field was as a pimply-faced teenager. That was many years (OK, decades) ago - back then prices were in £sd.

As such my questions will seem infantile, but…

With regard to the “TPIC6B595 High Power Shift Register” datasheet at https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/tpic6b595.pdf - in particular the circuit in “9.2 Typical Application”.

What is the purpose of the 0.1uF capacitor?

2

Hi @Kevin48023,

Welcome to the wonderful world of electronics! 0.1uF capacitors are commonly used to decouple high frequency signals. They are often referred to as a “decoupling capacitor”.

Without them, voltage spikes could disrupt sensitive digital devices (leading to resets / unusual behavior).

Keep us posted with your projects :slight_smile:

3

Thank you for your reply, the words “decoupling capacitor” were all I required. (Gotta love forums like this and Google!)

My next objective is to understand what datasheets are (trying) to tell me, so expect more dumb questions.

1 Like
4

Glad to hear you got it going @Kevin48023!

Keep us posted with your project endeavours :slight_smile: