Help Me Identify Polarity

[steviet]

Fellow wigglers. I have a tantalum cap that looks... Melty.

The picture is attached. I'm leaning toward the longer lead being the positive side, and I'm about 99% positive on that What do you all think?

Besides the longer leg, it looks like the 90 degree outline would want to be in the top right corner... Testing it with some power isn't something I'm going to do, I only have one and I just want some opinions on how it physically looks.

[MikeDB]

I'm afraid I'd vote for the knobbly lead on the left being +ve. I have tried to find some old tants to verify but can't find them

[steviet]

Thanks for taking a look, now I'm extra glad I posted it. Just seems strange the legs would be clipped in that manner.. But it does point very clearly at that lead.

I'm torn.

[synthetek]

It looks like the printing is off and should have to the right more putting the + over the longer leg

[guest]

id agree with synthetek. it looks like an AVX brand cap (from the big A), and they put the longer lead positive, with the upside down L going across the top and down the left hand side. so its just a misprint. also, the bump on the side is due to how they are manufactured, with the negative leg kinked. see at the end of this datasheet:

https://content.kemet.com/datasheets/KEM_T2043_T35X.pdf

if you have more than one, you can always test it out of the circuit (and covered with something) to see if it explodes!

[steviet]

Thanks a bunch for the extra eyes guest and synthetek.

I'm leaning toward the same conclusion. That datasheet makes me more certain. I also found this shot on google images:



Sadly I only have one! But this project isn't time sensitive, so maybe it's time to see if it explodes

[latigid on]

If it explodes, well then it was the wrong way around. But using old tants is probably not the best idea anyway. As far as I know, modern parts are much more reliable.

[steviet]

Good news everyone, it didn't explode! Long leg positive, short leg negative.

MODS, CLOSE ME UP.

Just kidding, you don't have to close me up. But this polarity is good and decided

[ndkent]

Just to chime in after the fact, a clearly longer lead = positive.

Have we ever encountered exceptions/brands when one lead is very clearly longer and is not +?

[jorg]

The photo is tiny, but it looks like the "++" symbol is next to the shorter lead.

[steviet]

Just to chime in after the fact, a clearly longer lead = positive.

Have we ever encountered exceptions/brands when one lead is very clearly longer and is not +?

That was what had me at 99% sure-ness, the longer lead. But the packaging pointed very clearly to the shorter lead, which is what caused the confusion. I thought it was worth asking to be sure.