1,000,000 uF Supercapacitor $1 !!

[James789]

what triggers a capacitor to discharge??

whenever the potential between the two leads drops below the potential stored in the cap, it'll equalize itself. So, if you short the wires together (tie them together with no resistors or components between) then it will fully discharge nearly instantaneously and depending on the potential stored it could make for a cool show. If you do this with a resistor between the leads, the resistor limits the current and the cap will discharge, only slower and without the potential light show (depending on the value of the resistor and it's wattage rating).

Originally posted by: SoundBoy
Umm, won't they discharge and charge slower, thus rendering them less than useful? At least if you want them to provide instantaneous current for audio peaks.


I'm just saying you can't put 2.5V caps in series and expect their ratings values to just add.
The application I had required a 100V cap, but I could only find caps (that met all the other requirements) rated to 50V, so I asked the exact same question (about placing them in series). But I also had a relatively stable system that didn't have large transient loads.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: James789

what triggers a capacitor to discharge??

whenever the potential between the two leads drops below the potential stored in the cap, it'll equalize itself. So, if you short the wires together (tie them together with no resistors or components between) then it will fully discharge nearly instantaneously and depending on the potential stored it could make for a cool show. If you do this with a resistor between the leads, the resistor limits the current and the cap will discharge, only slower and without the potential light show (depending on the value of the resistor and it's wattage rating).

Originally posted by: SoundBoy
Umm, won't they discharge and charge slower, thus rendering them less than useful? At least if you want them to provide instantaneous current for audio peaks.


I'm just saying you can't put 2.5V caps in series and expect their ratings values to just add.
The application I had required a 100V cap, but I could only find caps (that met all the other requirements) rated to 50V, so I asked the exact same question (about placing them in series). But I also had a relatively stable system that didn't have large transient loads.

why not?

 

[James789]

why not?[/quote]

DjBaMBaM already went over this pretty well.

Capacitors don't charge up to rated value and then start passing their charge on to the next capacitor in series. What will happen is the first cap will start to charge and continue to charge over it's rated value, which isn't good. (think boom + lot's of magic smoke). The circuit I proposed earlier seeks to correct that by only allowing the caps to have the rated voltage or below across them.

 

[Silex]

Ahh yes I did . And the beat goes on...all in all, this deal isn't DEAD (to say the least), but it's only good for the highly technical saavy! I had the inkling that alot of you just wanted this for car audio. Alas...if only these did support a higher threshold of power.

 

[Fongboy]

Originally posted by: LaLaLand
Hey can one of you geeks tell the rest of us what the heck these are for?

Basically you just charge them up and you can shock the hell out of something... like big bugs... small animals... your little brother... get creative! ;-)

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Fongboy

Originally posted by: LaLaLand
Hey can one of you geeks tell the rest of us what the heck these are for?

Basically you just charge them up and you can shock the hell out of something... like big bugs... small animals... your little brother... get creative! ;-)

still fun, and a hot deal to boot.

 

[blizzardo]

now i just need a deal on a delorean

 

[Mallow]

wish I knew what I could do with one of these, lol.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Mallow
wish I knew what I could do with one of these, lol.

build a high energy pulsed laser!