Nakamichi 682zx — main shared

The ripple policy column lets you select capacitors for their ripple-current handling.

Ripple current is a rating, not a defect — it tells you how much AC current a capacitor can carry continuously without overheating. Higher is generally better, so "low ripple" and "high ripple current" are the same request said from opposite ends. For otherwise comparable parts, higher ripple-current capability usually goes with lower ESR; lower ESR reduces the ESR component of ripple voltage and, just as importantly, reduces self-heating.

Set it per row, on purpose. Ripple current matters mainly for reservoir and smoothing capacitors after a rectifier, and for capacitors carrying substantial switching ripple in SMPS and deflection circuits. It is usually not a useful selection criterion for small coupling, bypass, or signal-decoupling capacitors. Asking for a high ripple-current rating there can simply steer the BOM toward larger, more expensive parts without a practical benefit. Add the ripple policy column in the table editor and set it only on rows where the capacitor carries meaningful ripple current.

The two ripple choices answer different questions. Mains rectifier targets the low-frequency ripple associated with rectified mains — typically 100/120 Hz after full-wave rectification, depending on 50/60 Hz mains. Switching or scan targets the kHz-range ripple found in switch-mode supplies and circuits such as monitor deflection stages. The same capacitor can have different ripple-current ratings at different frequencies because ESR changes with frequency, so a part that is excellent at one frequency may not be the best choice at another.

This is a preference, not a hard filter. It only ranks parts that already meet the other electrical and mechanical requirements, so a row cannot fail selection because of ripple policy. Expect to pay roughly proportionally for extra headroom — measured at about 1.8× the price for 1.8× the rating across a small sample — but treat any such multiplier as a heuristic rather than a guarantee.

Also keep capacitance separate from ripple current. The bulk voltage sag between charging pulses is primarily determined by capacitance and load current; a like-for-like recap therefore preserves that basic behavior. What a higher-ripple/lower-ESR part improves is the ESR-related ripple, current spikes, transient behavior, and the heat generated inside the capacitor.