/ News & Press / Video / Avi Oziel in - What are Tantalum Capacitors How to recover Tantalum from Computers
Avi Oziel in - What are Tantalum Capacitors How to recover Tantalum from Computers
WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en
00:00:00.709 okay boys and girls I vol here again in 00:00:04.13000:00:04.140 your gold recovery journey but in fact 00:00:08.75000:00:08.760 today we're going to talk about 00:00:09.79900:00:09.809 something else 00:00:10.85000:00:10.860 it's another precious metal which is not 00:00:13.16000:00:13.170 gold it's actually called tantalum it 00:00:17.72000:00:17.730 happens to be more rare than gold itself 00:00:20.02900:00:20.039 and goes for about eighty dollars a 00:00:23.15000:00:23.160 pound so if you want to collect these 00:00:24.95000:00:24.960 off your circuit boards you probably 00:00:27.08000:00:27.090 will get more money than the gold itself 00:00:29.57000:00:29.580 so tantalum is pretty much a very rare 00:00:32.92000:00:32.930 precious metal that's pretty much in a 00:00:37.10000:00:37.110 shortage right now in Canada but before 00:00:39.31900:00:39.329 we get to the tunnel and capacitors I'm 00:00:40.97000:00:40.980 going to just go over a few of the 00:00:42.79900:00:42.809 regular capacitors as you can see here 00:00:45.97900:00:45.989 basically these things are all over any 00:00:48.61900:00:48.629 kind of circuit board and they have the 00:00:51.56000:00:51.570 capacity to hold electricity so they're 00:00:54.20000:00:54.210 like kind of batteries per se and they 00:00:57.08000:00:57.090 hold different charges some are in 00:00:59.45000:00:59.460 different sizes they come in all 00:01:00.86000:01:00.870 different colors they have different 00:01:03.34900:01:03.359 readings on them I don't know if you can 00:01:04.78900:01:04.799 get that but the purpose of this video 00:01:07.94000:01:07.950 is to show you what a tantalum capacitor 00:01:11.00000:01:11.010 is and why it's so important and very 00:01:14.48000:01:14.490 valuable so I have some in here actually 00:01:19.60900:01:19.619 if you can see most of the tantalum 00:01:22.21900:01:22.229 capacitors are going to be mustered in 00:01:24.67900:01:24.689 color so pretty much yellow and they're 00:01:27.32000:01:27.330 kind of small the reason why they're so 00:01:29.33000:01:29.340 expensive is because this little 00:01:32.27000:01:32.280 capacitor here probably has the same 00:01:34.67000:01:34.680 amount of capacity to hold an equal 00:01:38.48000:01:38.490 amount of charge to a ceramic capacitor 00:01:42.17000:01:42.180 as you see right here so it also has a 00:01:45.64900:01:45.659 much higher temperature so it can go at 00:01:48.26000:01:48.270 a lot higher usage without leaking these 00:01:52.63900:01:52.649 things here tend to leak and don't have 00:01:55.91000:01:55.920 much of a long range use now so let's 00:02:02.35900:02:02.369 take a look at these circuit boards here 00:02:03.95000:02:03.960 where you can identify where the tandem 00:02:06.20000:02:06.210 capacitors are they do come in different 00:02:08.02000:02:08.030 shapes most of them happen to be small 00:02:11.80900:02:11.819 square or 00:02:13.14000:02:13.150 shape but this one happens to be a oval 00:02:16.80000:02:16.810 kind of shape you'll notice them by the 00:02:19.35000:02:19.360 color so if you see any yellow or 00:02:21.60000:02:21.610 mustard looking capacitors they're 00:02:23.33900:02:23.349 probably 10 on and I'm going to just go 00:02:26.46000:02:26.470 through a couple of circuit boards here 00:02:28.41000:02:28.420 that I have stripped this is a 00:02:29.88000:02:29.890 motherboard as you can see I've kind of 00:02:32.33000:02:32.340 pried it open but if you look closely 00:02:36.05900:02:36.069 here there's one and they use these in 00:02:40.58900:02:40.599 high grade electronics and computers 00:02:42.21000:02:42.220 because of the size requirements so you 00:02:46.68000:02:46.690 can fit a couple of these small tantalum 00:02:49.31900:02:49.329 capacitors inside a cell phone where you 00:02:51.44900:02:51.459 wouldn't normally have the space to put 00:02:54.02000:02:54.030 them in with the regular size ceramic 00:02:57.69000:02:57.700 capacitors so imagine if you had the 00:02:59.84900:02:59.859 equivalent of these two capacitors here 00:03:02.12900:03:02.139 which are made of title and put them 00:03:03.44900:03:03.459 into ceramic your cell phone will 00:03:05.78900:03:05.799 probably be five times the size and 00:03:08.30900:03:08.319 that's the way they were back in the day 00:03:10.05000:03:10.060 if you remember those old motorola cell 00:03:12.08900:03:12.099 phones that were the size of the 00:03:13.37900:03:13.389 cordless telephones that we have today 00:03:16.02000:03:16.030 so pretty much that's what happened in 00:03:18.65900:03:18.669 the advancement of technology these 00:03:21.08900:03:21.099 tantalum capacitors have taken the place 00:03:23.75900:03:23.769 of the old-fashioned capacitors so let's 00:03:27.68900:03:27.699 put this board aside I'll show you some 00:03:29.97000:03:29.980 other boards that we got here let's see 00:03:36.14000:03:36.150 this one happens to have a lot of title 00:03:40.17000:03:40.180 Amani so this was from an Apple computer 00:03:42.30000:03:42.310 that I got and this is an older board 00:03:45.30000:03:45.310 you can see all these chips so they're 00:03:47.75900:03:47.769 pretty easy to identify if you just see 00:03:50.43000:03:50.440 these yellow looking this one's got a 00:03:53.39900:03:53.409 load of them and these are very very 00:03:55.58900:03:55.599 rare and very very precious in fact 00:03:59.72900:03:59.739 they're worth more than gold itself so 00:04:02.30900:04:02.319 if you do see these on your circuit 00:04:04.94900:04:04.959 boards do collect them if you want to 00:04:08.58000:04:08.590 sell them they're worth $80 a pound you 00:04:13.14000:04:13.150 can see there's more on the back here 00:04:16.31000:04:16.320 they're all over the place they have a 00:04:20.00900:04:20.019 capacity to hold a large charge let's 00:04:23.87900:04:23.889 see what 00:04:25.59000:04:25.600 so see as you can see that's a little 00:04:28.54000:04:28.550 bit of gold so that tells me that inside 00:04:30.43000:04:30.440 that ship there's going to be more gold 00:04:32.82000:04:32.830 but let's look for those little 00:04:35.14000:04:35.150 capacitors now we can find where what's 00:04:38.44000:04:38.450 that well that's something else so let's 00:04:43.00000:04:43.010 take a look on the other side know that 00:04:49.21000:04:49.220 one you're gonna this one has right 00:04:51.25000:04:51.260 there I can see that right now so if you 00:04:54.07000:04:54.080 can take a look those little yellow 00:04:58.51000:04:58.520 buggers are worth a lot of money believe 00:05:01.96000:05:01.970 it or not and a lot of people don't know 00:05:03.19000:05:03.200 about this so they just pass it by and 00:05:04.93000:05:04.940 they only go for the main stuff on the 00:05:06.43000:05:06.440 boards like the CPUs and the RAM and all 00:05:09.67000:05:09.680 the other visible gold or silver looking 00:05:13.27000:05:13.280 things but if you actually do some 00:05:17.41000:05:17.420 research and find out what are these 00:05:19.87000:05:19.880 little tiny things that are on the board 00:05:21.85000:05:21.860 such as the monolithic capacitors that 00:05:24.01000:05:24.020 have palladium and platinum in there if 00:05:26.29000:05:26.300 you can take a look all these little 00:05:28.69000:05:28.700 tiny boxes have platinum and palladium 00:05:32.80000:05:32.810 and silver inside them and there's gold 00:05:37.05000:05:37.060 that's used as a way to connect it to 00:05:41.47000:05:41.480 the circuit board so it is time 00:05:44.47000:05:44.480 consuming to take these out properly and 00:05:46.30000:05:46.310 if you don't take them out well enough 00:05:48.58000:05:48.590 they're going to actually crumple so you 00:05:51.52000:05:51.530 got to be careful now look at this one 00:05:52.93000:05:52.940 this is actually a kind of capacitor 00:05:54.82000:05:54.830 that's different size it's not a normal 00:05:59.02000:05:59.030 box but as you can tell that is silver 00:06:02.08000:06:02.090 right there it has to be silver so if 00:06:04.81000:06:04.820 you see a tantalum capacitor you will 00:06:07.09000:06:07.100 know that there's silver connecting it 00:06:09.34000:06:09.350 to the circuit board all the others 00:06:12.37000:06:12.380 don't have to be usually the ten solder 00:06:15.73000:06:15.740 has a very low percentage of silver and 00:06:18.01000:06:18.020 the other elements but for the title and 00:06:21.40000:06:21.410 capacitors because they're very high 00:06:23.02000:06:23.030 voltage and they do carry higher heat 00:06:25.84000:06:25.850 and the conductivity has to be of a 00:06:28.72000:06:28.730 higher grade which is of course the best 00:06:30.73000:06:30.740 conductor known is silver so this is an 00:06:34.63000:06:34.640 old graphics card ATI card I'm just 00:06:37.18000:06:37.190 looking for some title I'm here don't 00:06:39.82000:06:39.830 seem to find any actually I found one 00:06:41.83000:06:41.840 right there see there's why see anything 00:06:46.33000:06:46.340 in the back and we got another one I can 00:06:52.03000:06:52.040 see right there so basically you're 00:06:54.64000:06:54.650 looking for anything that's yellow 00:06:57.30000:06:57.310 mustard looking don't eat them I know 00:07:01.69000:07:01.700 the mustard sandwich may be tempting but 00:07:05.38000:07:05.390 do not open these up because if you do 00:07:07.35000:07:07.360 they won't be worth as much you can open 00:07:10.12000:07:10.130 one up to see what it looks like inside 00:07:11.95000:07:11.960 I can bust a few open here maybe you can 00:07:16.15000:07:16.160 see what they look like 00:07:17.28000:07:17.290 close up basically the metal if you take 00:07:24.43000:07:24.440 a look here so I'm gonna bring this open 00:07:30.49000:07:30.500 to the camera I can find that there it 00:07:36.16000:07:36.170 is okay so that's what tantalum is it's 00:07:40.24000:07:40.250 kind of a blackish kind of looks like 00:07:45.43000:07:45.440 rhodium so rhodium is also very rare 00:07:48.94000:07:48.950 precious metal which also has a very 00:07:52.00000:07:52.010 very significant value to it as well so 00:07:55.27000:07:55.280 there's a lot of valuable items in these 00:07:59.29000:07:59.300 boards I'll buy it they're in smaller 00:08:03.07000:08:03.080 quantities however if you do the proper 00:08:05.20000:08:05.210 research and if you have some spare time 00:08:10.68000:08:10.690 instead of just watching TV or going on 00:08:13.57000:08:13.580 the internet and Facebook and all that 00:08:15.19000:08:15.200 stuff you can actually take a look at 00:08:17.68000:08:17.690 your old computer parts that you're not 00:08:19.84000:08:19.850 using and see what you can find 00:08:22.62000:08:22.630 just for fun doesn't have to be a way of 00:08:25.09000:08:25.100 making money this is just kind of an 00:08:28.27000:08:28.280 educational cool way of realizing how 00:08:32.68000:08:32.690 these electronics actually work all day 00:08:36.21900:08:36.229 long people are in their iPhones and 00:08:38.05000:08:38.060 blackberries and androids and tablets 00:08:40.65900:08:40.669 and laptops and computers and TVs and do 00:08:42.73000:08:42.740 we really know what's inside them and 00:08:44.89000:08:44.900 what makes them work so it's kind of 00:08:47.16000:08:47.170 very interesting 00:08:49.30000:08:49.310 learn about these capacitors and as you 00:08:53.35000:08:53.360 can see these different elements on the 00:08:55.75000:08:55.760 board and how it all comes together is 00:08:58.66000:08:58.670 pretty fascinating with the copper 00:09:00.97000:09:00.980 wiring and the silver plating and the 00:09:02.98000:09:02.990 platinum and palladium that's inside 00:09:05.14000:09:05.150 these monolithic and CPUs and all the 00:09:07.99000:09:08.000 other different parts of the computer 00:09:10.03000:09:10.040 I'm still learning a lot and trying to 00:09:13.24000:09:13.250 identify the different parts as you can 00:09:15.07000:09:15.080 see here there's different types of 00:09:17.44000:09:17.450 capacitors and wires all over the place 00:09:19.48000:09:19.490 but at the end of the day it's an 00:09:23.05000:09:23.060 educational experience for everybody 00:09:24.64000:09:24.650 including myself and it does have a 00:09:27.91000:09:27.920 little bit of incentive as far as making 00:09:32.20000:09:32.210 a little extra you know coin as well so 00:09:35.59000:09:35.600 if you do happen to have a stockpile of 00:09:37.96000:09:37.970 old computer parts do look for these 00:09:40.60000:09:40.610 small yellow mustard looking boxes the 00:09:47.38000:09:47.390 older the circuit board the more you'll 00:09:50.74000:09:50.750 find this happens to be an older board 00:09:54.31000:09:54.320 so they required I guess more power to 00:09:56.62000:09:56.630 power all these chips so all these chips 00:09:59.14000:09:59.150 right here are being powered by all 00:10:01.96000:10:01.970 those little tiny capacitors so it's 00:10:04.63000:10:04.640 kind of basically the power supply for 00:10:09.01000:10:09.020 the card so you have all these chips and 00:10:11.29000:10:11.300 the power that's running all those chips 00:10:14.11000:10:14.120 the data that's going to be going 00:10:15.43000:10:15.440 through them is being stored in here and 00:10:19.75000:10:19.760 formerly my board in the back you have a 00:10:27.31000:10:27.320 few more so just look out for the yellow 00:10:30.91000:10:30.920 ones they are worth some money and they 00:10:35.82900:10:35.839 are very very rare if you do a google 00:10:38.19900:10:38.209 and find out all about tantalum you'll 00:10:40.99000:10:41.000 see some very interesting videos there's 00:10:43.57000:10:43.580 a shortage of tantalum in Canada right 00:10:45.37000:10:45.380 now and Germany is making a way of 00:10:48.79000:10:48.800 refining tantalum and China is doing all 00:10:51.31000:10:51.320 kinds of tantalum exporting and refining 00:10:55.42000:10:55.430 so do some googling because this was new 00:10:58.84000:10:58.850 to me as well as in really know 00:11:00.31900:11:00.329 about 10 of them and it's kind of 00:11:01.78900:11:01.799 interesting so that's all for now so if 00:11:04.00900:11:04.019 you do see these yellow boxes on your 00:11:05.74900:11:05.759 circuit boards put them aside put them 00:11:09.13900:11:09.149 in a little container if you have one or 00:11:10.72900:11:10.739 a little ziploc bag and here's what they 00:11:14.74900:11:14.759 look like again close up kind of 00:11:18.65000:11:18.660 cool-looking things don't eat them don't 00:11:22.24900:11:22.259 feed them to your pets please do keep 00:11:24.67900:11:24.689 them away from children because this 00:11:27.28900:11:27.299 stuff is not a joke they can choke on 00:11:29.26900:11:29.279 them and who knows what's inside them so 00:11:31.99900:11:32.009 please if you do happen to take apart 00:11:34.75900:11:34.769 your computers and other electronic 00:11:36.85900:11:36.869 circuit boards do it in a safe area make 00:11:39.16900:11:39.179 sure your stuff is properly stored away 00:11:42.19900:11:42.209 from pets children and of course keep 00:11:47.80900:11:47.819 your own safety in mind to try and wear 00:11:49.66900:11:49.679 gloves if you can if you got a couple of 00:11:53.11900:11:53.129 tools this tool right here is very 00:11:54.97900:11:54.989 useful for taking those got past it 00:11:58.63900:11:58.649 tours off of the circuit board or you 00:12:02.78000:12:02.790 can get a chisel right here that's a 00:12:04.63900:12:04.649 nice little chisel I picked up these 00:12:06.67900:12:06.689 things just scrape it away and you know 00:12:10.78900:12:10.799 a couple of other tools you have a 00:12:12.79900:12:12.809 little pair of tweezers here and 00:12:14.65000:12:14.660 anything else that may find useful for 00:12:17.98900:12:17.999 you so that's all for now I hope you 00:12:20.32900:12:20.339 enjoyed this video on tantalum 00:12:22.18900:12:22.199 capacitors and put these little buggers 00:12:26.29900:12:26.309 aside because they're worth money so 00:12:30.15900:12:30.169 just keep that in mind take care
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