A gimmick capacitor is a makeshift, low-value capacitor created by twisting two lengths of insulated solid-core wire. The capacitance is determined by the length of the twist and the thickness of the insulation. Technicians tune the capacitance by snipping off the twisted end bit by bit until the circuit reaches resonance.
The oscillator was drifting, so I added a little gimmick capacitor across the coil and clipped it until the frequency locked in.
These are common in vintage radio repair but are highly susceptible to temperature changes and mechanical vibration.
Also heard as
- gimmick
Related terms
Capacitor
A passive two-terminal component that stores electrical energy in an electric field.
Parasitic
An unintended electrical property like capacitance or inductance that exists physically in a circuit.
Resonance
The state in an LC circuit where capacitive and inductive reactances cancel each other out.