Hi Instructables Community!
LET'S TALK ABOUT SUPER CAPACITORS!
Thanks for looking at my instructable! This instructable will be a little bit shorter than some of my others, and it will be written from the perspective of a technician, not an engineer. This instructable will be followed with similar super capacitor related instructables. I'm not going to blast super capacitor noobies with a ton of flashy math. However, I will be providing links to sites where math can be found for those of you who are interested. I want to keep this document as practical as possible. There are some fun videos in STEP#8 and some links to my hobby electronics stores in STEP#9. For those of you who don't know much about super capacitors, here is a little bit of fun theory:
THEORY:
Super capacitors act like any other kind of capacitor, only they can store tremendous amounts of energy. Many capacitors that you'd have seen in audio circuits have capacitances such as 470uf or 680uf (micro farads). Capacitors used in high frequency RF applications can be as small as 1pf (pico farad). The farad is a measure of capacitance (or storage capacity). They are often used in filtering applications, coupling or decoupling applications, or AC-DC smooting applications (there are some large caps in your standard AC-DC power supply that acts to smooth out the ripple on the line).
Super capacitors can be used in solar power applications, battery back-up applications, battery applications, flash-light applications, etc. Aside from the fact that the super capacitor can be charged very quickly due to their low internal resistance, which is known as ESR, but they can just as quickly be discharged. Batteries contain harmful chemicals, and die over time. If you handle your super capacitors carefully, you will die before they do...Seriously! Howver, there are rules...
Super capacitors do not give off gas like lead acid batteries, but they cannot store as much power either. You can place capacitors in series or in parallel to either up the maximum charge voltage, or total capacitorance. We will talk about this later.
Really, there is a lot to be said about capacitors, and you're not going to want to spend your entire day listing to me, so let's get down to the basics. You can go fourth and choose which tabs you;re interested in. Here is a video just for fun of me starting my car with super capacitors!
LET'S TALK ABOUT SUPER CAPACITORS!
Thanks for looking at my instructable! This instructable will be a little bit shorter than some of my others, and it will be written from the perspective of a technician, not an engineer. This instructable will be followed with similar super capacitor related instructables. I'm not going to blast super capacitor noobies with a ton of flashy math. However, I will be providing links to sites where math can be found for those of you who are interested. I want to keep this document as practical as possible. There are some fun videos in STEP#8 and some links to my hobby electronics stores in STEP#9. For those of you who don't know much about super capacitors, here is a little bit of fun theory:
THEORY:
Super capacitors act like any other kind of capacitor, only they can store tremendous amounts of energy. Many capacitors that you'd have seen in audio circuits have capacitances such as 470uf or 680uf (micro farads). Capacitors used in high frequency RF applications can be as small as 1pf (pico farad). The farad is a measure of capacitance (or storage capacity). They are often used in filtering applications, coupling or decoupling applications, or AC-DC smooting applications (there are some large caps in your standard AC-DC power supply that acts to smooth out the ripple on the line).
Super capacitors can be used in solar power applications, battery back-up applications, battery applications, flash-light applications, etc. Aside from the fact that the super capacitor can be charged very quickly due to their low internal resistance, which is known as ESR, but they can just as quickly be discharged. Batteries contain harmful chemicals, and die over time. If you handle your super capacitors carefully, you will die before they do...Seriously! Howver, there are rules...
Super capacitors do not give off gas like lead acid batteries, but they cannot store as much power either. You can place capacitors in series or in parallel to either up the maximum charge voltage, or total capacitorance. We will talk about this later.
Really, there is a lot to be said about capacitors, and you're not going to want to spend your entire day listing to me, so let's get down to the basics. You can go fourth and choose which tabs you;re interested in. Here is a video just for fun of me starting my car with super capacitors!
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Signing UpStep 1: Understanding Capacitance
Capacitances: Capacitors Vs. Super capacitors!
Have you ever heard someone talk about nano this or micro that? These terms can be used for voltage, power, current, resistance, inductance, etc. When we talk about the capacitance of a capacitor, we will do the same. The below explanation will also help you to understand just how much capacity a super capacitor has in relation to a standard capacitor.
Understanding Capacitance Terminology:
1pf (pico farad) = 0.000000000001 farads
1nf (nano farad) = 0.000000001 farads
1uf (micro farad) = 0.000001 farads
1mf (milli farad) = 0.001 farads
The table in the image is much more detailed. This page is an attempt to demonstrate just how much capacity a super capacitor has. A one farad super capacitor can store one million time more energy at a common voltage, than a 1uf capacitor, one billion times more than a 1nf capacitor, and one trillion times more than a 1pf capacitor. Cool, huh?
However, super capacitors have very small voltage ratings, such as 2.5v, 2.7v and 5.5v (Some common values). This makes things difficult, as in order to make our capacitors capable of charging up to a higher voltage, we need to place them in series, which brings a bunch of other variables into play. There are sections coming up on Series/Parallel configurations, as well as charging methods, and balancing methods.
You can also employ DC-DC voltage boosters. Typical DC-DC boosters take a voltage of around 3.4-5VDC and are capable of boosting the output voltage. We sell all sorts of boosters, super capacitors, and solar panels here:
Visit our ebay store here: http://www.electroniclessons.com/
Please check out our hobby electronic store here: http://engineeringshock.com/
Have you ever heard someone talk about nano this or micro that? These terms can be used for voltage, power, current, resistance, inductance, etc. When we talk about the capacitance of a capacitor, we will do the same. The below explanation will also help you to understand just how much capacity a super capacitor has in relation to a standard capacitor.
Understanding Capacitance Terminology:
1pf (pico farad) = 0.000000000001 farads
1nf (nano farad) = 0.000000001 farads
1uf (micro farad) = 0.000001 farads
1mf (milli farad) = 0.001 farads
The table in the image is much more detailed. This page is an attempt to demonstrate just how much capacity a super capacitor has. A one farad super capacitor can store one million time more energy at a common voltage, than a 1uf capacitor, one billion times more than a 1nf capacitor, and one trillion times more than a 1pf capacitor. Cool, huh?
However, super capacitors have very small voltage ratings, such as 2.5v, 2.7v and 5.5v (Some common values). This makes things difficult, as in order to make our capacitors capable of charging up to a higher voltage, we need to place them in series, which brings a bunch of other variables into play. There are sections coming up on Series/Parallel configurations, as well as charging methods, and balancing methods.
You can also employ DC-DC voltage boosters. Typical DC-DC boosters take a voltage of around 3.4-5VDC and are capable of boosting the output voltage. We sell all sorts of boosters, super capacitors, and solar panels here:
Visit our ebay store here: http://www.electroniclessons.com/
Please check out our hobby electronic store here: http://engineeringshock.com/
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Some questions I have are:
1.) Would a 20 Farad capacitor like this be suitable for this application or would I need a larger size?
2.) Am I understanding correctly that a 250 watt solar panel like this with a Maximum Power Point Voltage Vmpp of 30.7 V would put out a voltage that is too high for the capacitor but that two 100 watt panels like this in parallel with a Voltage at Maximum Power Point Vmpp of 17.7 would work correctly?
3.) Do you have any idea what would happen if the washing machine attempts to draw more watts for too long a period than are available? On the pedal power web site it shows that the washing machine draws up to 820 watts at certain times during spin cycles but at other times the draw is much lower. If not enough watts would be available would the machine simply run more slowly? It seems that the wash cycle would be ok but that the spin cycle might quickly run the capacitor down.
Thanks for any advice you might have about this idea.
Ben
this is rahul nema. I am doing my thesis work in which i am making a MATLAB model for Super Capacitor Energy Storage system actually by using this Super Capacitor I am maintaining frequency constant of a 100 KW biomass gasification plant. guys I am very confuse about the rating of the Super Capacitor I mean yet I have not decided what should be the capacity of my Super Capacitor energy storage device. 90 KW load is connected to the 125KVA (100 KW) generator. so please guide me how I proceed in my work..
Thanks..
If you want any other inquiry so plz tell me..
No, it is not. At low voltages, if you're charging at high amperage, your only worry would be to burn yourself on the charging conductor. However, when charging at say 5-7v at 1A, it won't get that hot =) You're never going to have to worry about a shock. Remember, your body resistance is in the megaohms, so even if you touch the charging conductor and the ground, you're only going to have 5-7v at uA flowing through you, which is not dangerous at all.
Easy to understand and the best guide about super capacitors I know!
La liberté des uns s'arrête à celle des autres et proposer n'est pas imposer.
A link is an alternative, it leaves you free, you can use it or not. Since this is not a popup window that opens automatically, it does not cause gene. After all when you search online you choosing what to click.
Freedom of some stops at the other and offer not to impose.
def: A Farad is one Coulomb of charge per Volt.
The capacitance is 4700microCoulomb/Volt, so the total charge on the 25V capable capacitor is the same as the 16V capacitors at 16 V, but with higher voltage, the 25V capable capacitor can squeeze in more Coulombs.
Me encantó leer este instructable porque además de enterarme bién a fondo sobre los supercondensadores, además está explicado muy didácticamente sin dejar de lado la parte técnica que es tanto o más importante.
A la espera de tus próximos instructables y un consejo: No gastes energías en contestarle a los detractores... (finfun o como se llamen...), solo en seguir brindandonos a los lectores más información util y entretenida.
Gracias y Felicitaciones !!
(Perdón por escribir en mi idioma pero mi inglés es muy malo)
Muchas gracias por el comentario tipo. Más por venir pronto. Estoy muy contento de este instructable le ayudó. Por desgracia, no importa cuán bueno es un instructable, siempre hay gente por ahí que quieren romper las pelotas. Yo voy a tener un video instructable pronto sobre cómo hacer una linterna condensador de alto rendimiento. Hay muchas maneras diferentes, pero no tengo un método de diversión. Lo siento si esto se traduce mal. Traductores en línea puede ser muy difícil.
Gracias de nuevo por su respuesta. Siempre es agradable recibir comentarios alentadores como este.
Atentamente,
Patricio
Thanks. Yes, someone mentioned that. My mistake!
Hope you enjoyed the read =)
No problem at all =) i'm glad you liked it. I had a lot of fun making it.
I have a question: why do I have to use capacitors with different voltages when they're placed in parallel?
thx
Thanks for the great question =)
You do NOT have to place different voltage capacitors in parallel. I just wanted to drill into people's heads that if you use different voltage caps in series, never charge to a voltage higher than the minimum voltage rating.
If you're going to place 2 or more capacitors of the same voltage in parallel, like 5x 2.7v 100f capacitors, your parallel bank will be rated for 2.7v at 500f =)
Does that help? Sorry about that. Should have mentioned it.
Thank you very much!
Glad you liked it =) if you have any questions down the road, let me know =)
May I suggest not using car lights? Way too much power! You can use tons of other things that will take up much less power. Truly awesome idea though! Being Samus for Halloween would be freaking epic! One of the videos in this instructable shows me with my robot arm gun. My arm gund was inspired by Megaman.
thanks for the nice comment =) I very much apprecaite it!
Remove the ebay store ad step or remove the whole instructable.
If the instructables staff deems that the links to my ebay store are spam, then I will immediately take them down. You're talking about a tiny set of links right at the end that are hardly noticeable, and the only people who would be interested at all would be the people looking to work and experiment with super capacitors.
The links show you where to find the super capacitors shown in the videos. These links take up less than 0.2% of my instructable.
I'm glad you posted the links above because I like your websites.
I'm glad I looked at your ebay store and I'm glad I checked out your website.
If people like me want to see these links, then they are not spam. It may be a form advertisement, but it is most definitely NOT spam.
Look at all the work EngineeringShock put into this outstanding instructable! I had several misconseptions about series capacitance and I am very glad he put forth the time and effort to educate me. If he wants to put a link in his glowing instructable that promotes his website, good for him!
Besides, no one reading a "Lets Learn About Super Capacitors" instructable isn't going to want to check out a website that sells supercapacitors!
Keep up the good work, E.S.!
regards,
-Ryan
Thanks sio much for that awesome comment. The first comment I received was....well, as you've seen, it was not flattering. It really got me down. It was really nice to have had someone take the time to write such a thoughtful comment.
I really apprecaite it! I'm glad you like my stores, and I'm glad this isntructable was helpful to you.
Thanks again! I really apprecaite it =)
Pat
I simply find all forms of advertisement on instructables (and other user generated sites) objectionable.
There are two kinds of linking to sources.
One is linking to the place where the author prefers to get their supplies. This is akin to a friend recommending a restaurant or, if the I'bler is someone particularly well versed in the area, an experienced/expert opinion.
The other kind is linking to the author's own store/webstore/etc. (as in this case) This is a form of advertisement. Using a post on a website as advertising space is spam, no matter how small.
I am not singling you out. Whenever I see anyone doing this I flag it.
I will definitely agree that this is a good resource for knowledge on super capacitors. I read it completely through before ever commenting. But finishing with an ad left a sour taste in my mouth. That's why I commented as I did.
To sum up: you did spam, that is the only thing wrong with the instructable. It is very well written and photographed, but ads don't belong in I'bles.
Let me ask you this. Do you go around saying to co-workers, "Hey Bob, I reported you the other day for printing your son/daughters essay off on the work printers, which is against company policy."? Of course not, and there is no reason to do it online.