Supercapacitor / Ultracapacitor application for driving LED

[Albany Tom]

Very cool. Get about 6000 of these things, and you can make lightning inside your house!

1. I think this is one of the most interesting threads on the board.

2. I would like to nominate this thread as the one most likely to result in an explosion.

 

[Floating Spots]

The price wasn't as bad as I remember.
They are $240.

I thought about buying one, or one of the smaller ones, but Ness thought they could get the working voltage up to 3.0 volts. - Yet another large increase in stored energy.

 

[MrAl]

Hello again,

Yes very interesting devices.
I would think there would be some dangers
to think about also, with something that
can store all that energy. Shorting
it out by accident could be very bad.
I would think you could even weld with it

Take care,
Al

 

[Hemingray]

The Sat-Cure circuit looks very similar one I used to play with back in the '60s (yuh, I'm an antique). Took a 4 & 8 ohm to 2-5 K ohm audio transformer, a 2N307 Germanium tranny, a resistor and a capacitor, and a 6V battery. The high impedance secondary would deliver a fairly high voltage at low current, good for experimenting, zapping, etc. The collector went to the 8 ohm tap, the base, thru the resistor and cap in parallel, to the "common" and the 6VDC fed to the 4 ohm tap. You could get from 120 to 200 VAC at
a KHz or so at a few milliamps, off the secondary. A beefier version was to use a second
2N307, connect its collector to the opposite end from the first one, and its base to the other end of the primary.
A crude push-pull arrangement, somewhat lopsided as the 4 ohm tap wasn't a real center tap. But then we were young, crazy and didn't care.

/ed in NH

 

[Hemingray]

Oh, yeah, this is supercaps... I remember seeing a "self powered" LED light that was charged up by shaking it, a magnet would bounce back and forth inside a coil of wire, the crude AC was rectified and charged up a 1 FD cap, which then fed a single white LED (SWLED?). I don't reall the manufacturer, or the price. Might have been on E-bay...
My own modified Russian "squeeze" dynamo flashlight uses a similar approach, the raw AC produced is rectified and charges up a 1000 uF cap, then to a 3 LED "bulb". I am planning on upgrading that to a .1 or 1 Fd supercap, but it will have to be mounted outside as room inside is at a premium. Also see the "stupid and ugly" flashlight topic for more details...

/ed in NH

 

[camisdad]

Inretech, Floating Spots - these capacitors are something...

This is really interesting. It could have some interesting applications... No batteries at all - just charge your cap. Very large number of cycles...

You'd still need a step up converter. Still, it's pretty cool. Now I am really interested - I am going to check out these suppliers.

Btw - capacity would go up with the square of voltage I think: E = 1/2 C U^2

Many thanks for all this fascinating info!
Best, Michel

 

[Floating Spots]

Ya, your right.
^2 is an exponent, right?

Jon

 

[camisdad]

correct!

 

[star882]

Get one of those 3000F caps, charge it with a battery, and discharge it through a coil of wire with a screwdriver in it.
BINGO! Instant screwdriver magnetizer.

 

[INRETECH]

There are applications for SuperCaps, such as battery replacements for places that depend on battery operation and not easily replaced

Such as spacecraft, buoys, etc

I remember reading something about a company that wanted to embed these caps with a solar-cell and a LED into the roadway; they would charge up all day and then glow at nite

This is something very simular to my "tree" project that I am helping on; but I am using normal batteries:

http://www.tri-met.org/max/yellowline/stationart/rosequarterart.htm

And a webcam to show the progress:

http://www.odot.state.or.us/travel/cams/RQinterstate.jpg

 

[Albany Tom]

Or miniature rail gun...(ok, lets say "interesting solenoid")

Plus, lets not forget the wire fuses to the cap, the cap discharges, the 600 amp (guessing) surge flows through the cap, the field collapses, and the reverse EMF blows up the cap. This would be neat to see, for sure.

 

[kingwellenergy]

A supercapacitor is a tool offering very high electrical capacitance in a small package. Unlike conventional capacitors, supercapacitors do not have a dielectric, an electrical insulator that can be polarized with the application of an electric field.

I just have a 3000F supercapacity. http://www.kingwellbattery.com/products/3000f-super-farad-capacitor.htm

 

[SemiMan]

This thread is 12 years old!

Posting crap to get your post count up is bad form!