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TaylorFade

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Posts posted by TaylorFade

  2. XS Power SuperCell Ultracap Q & A

    in XS Power Batteries / Chargers! (and other stuff too)

    Posted

    For the less experienced user or those who feel they're not "team" material... my suggestion is to wait for the Module.

    I don't know exactly what it will be, but I am sure it's going to be a "box" of bussed up caps with two terminals like a battery that's ready to roll. No fuss, no muss, more mounting options, safer installs, etc.

    I can tell you from experience that modules are much easier to deal with and make for a cleaner and safer install. All the convenience of a battery- all the benefits of caps. Worth the premium to me.

  3. XS Power SuperCell Ultracap Q & A

    in XS Power Batteries / Chargers! (and other stuff too)

    Posted · Edited by TaylorFade

    This write up was done for the Maxwell's, but everything still applies as I assume Scottie's are just as awesome.

    There's been a lot of talk about supercaps on here lately. There is a ton of confusion and a lot of questions about them. I thought I'd share what I know and let other discuss them here.

    First, and let me just get this out of the way... caps store electricity on plates. Batteries produce electricity through a chemical reaction. Caps use different plates, one with a positive charge (loses electrons) and one with a negative (gains electrons). The greater the difference in the charge (usually through the size of the plates), the greater potential for energy discharge. A great example of the way caps work and the potential energy (and the biggest one) is lightning. Where the earth is one plate and the clouds are the other.

    What are they? The ones everyone is using are either Maxwell 2.5v (black) or 2.7v (blue) single cell capacitors. You have to series them to achieve our operating voltages. When you series, you gain operating voltage. A bank of (6) 2.5v series to 15v. A bank of (7) of the black ones is 17.5v. A bank of (6) of the 2.7v blue ones is 16.2v.

    Now, when you series, you gain voltage, but you lose capacity. These supercaps have a retarded amount of capacity. Even the largest "car audio" capacitors are 20 farads and I've seen maybe 50F. Each one of the supercaps is either 2,600 farads (black ones) or 3,000F. Yes... three thousand farads. That's a lot of juice. But like I said, putting them into series'd banks, you lose capacity. Double the voltage, halve the capacity. So a bank of (6) 2.5v/2,600F caps is 15v/433F. That's still a ton. (6) 2.7v/3,000F is 16.2v/500F. A bank of (7) of the 2.5v ones gets you 17.5v but you lose capacity down to 370F.

    Recap...
    (6) 2.5v/2,600F = 15v/433F
    (7) 2.5v/2,600F = 17.5v/371F
    (6) 2.7v/3,000F = 16.2v/500F
    (7) 2.7v/3,000F = 18.9v/428F

    What makes these different than "regular" caps? Well, besides the insane amount of capacity, the ESR is a big deal here. ESR is basically internal resistance. The best and lowest ESR of a traditional cap I've seen is 0.017ohms. What's that mean? Well, if you apply 100A to something with a 0.017ohm resistance, you will get a 1.7v drop. That's not good. Triple that amperage and you get triple the resistance. 0.017 X 300A = 5.1v drop. Yikes.

    The max ESR of a Maxwell super cap (also known as an UltraCap or BoostCap) is .29 milliohms. That's 0.00029. Yeah... that's awesome. It's also why they charge and discharge so damn fast.

    A "Joule" is a watt-second. 1 Joule can produce 1 watt for 1 second.
    The formula for determining the total joules stored in a capacitor is very simple. We take one half the cap value in farads and multiply it times the squared charge voltage.

    So, let's say we have a bank of (6) black ones. That's 15v/433F.
    433/2 = 216.5
    15x15 = 225
    216.5x225 = 48,712.5 joules.

    That's 48,000 watts for 1 second. Wow. or 24,000w for 2 seconds. And so on. Now, that doesn't take into account our operating voltage of >10v or so. If you take that into account, it's more like 6,000-8,000 joules. But that's still a lot. And that's just a single bank.

    Caps for burps. Freaking awesome. Highly recommed. And in my testing, each bank is good for ~ 2.5-3kw to stay above 13v or so on a 3 sec burp. More banks, more capacity, lower voltage drop.

    Caps plus batts for burps. Testing shows very little to no gain on burps with caps+batts. On 12v. I have seen someone gain by using caps+batts on a 16v system, but that may be an isolated case.

    Caps + batts for daily. Awesome. Highly recommend if your electrical is up to snuff or close already. Great addition to batts.

    A word on safety... These things will mess you up. They charge and discharge at a rate you will not be accustomed to. If they are charged, they will stay charged. And as we've talked about, that's a lot of f'n juice chillin. And it will bite you in the ass.

    You also DO NOT want to hook these up to a batt when they are not near the battery's resting voltage. They will try to draw sooooo much out of the batt at an alarming rate that it's basically like dead shorting your battery and you will weld that terminal to whatever it's touching.

    Also... DO NOT OVERCHARGE THESE THINGS!! I can not stress that enough. Bad things can and will happen.



    Blue ones. 2.7v, 3,000 farads.



    Black ones. 2.5v, 2,600 farads.



    My banks. And feel free to share pics of yours.
    23F4FD14-C83C-437B-9574-9212F9210C24-224

    3dc4e88f.jpg

    These are (7) cap, 17.5v banks

    6ac19da7.jpg

    • Like (+1 Rep) 2

  7. why do other forums hate on the dd-1 so much?

    in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics

    Posted

    the DD-1, like it or hate it, has brought setting gains PROPERLY to everyone's attention. It's funny how all the O-scope experts came out of the bushes once the DD-1 was released though.......when before you never saw anyone except trained installers for high end shops using them. 1 in 100 shops if i had to guess. Which brings me to my next comment. To NOT believe in the DD-1 is to NOT believe in an O-scope. But the DD-1 is better because it is easy to use, more portable, easy to understand, and faster. Also the price vs. accuracy. Sure you can get a hand held scope for about the price of a DD-1.....but have you seen the resolution on those screens? Only expensive units have resolution that can get close to the DD-1. In other words what looks like a nice clean wave on that crappy screen really might not be. The DD-1 knows what is clean and what isn't.....and is on par with O-scopes worth 10's of thousands of dollars not just the $99 special online. Even my $400 TPI 440 scope cant touch the DD-1. The resolution is just not there. Also, half the people that have a scope aren't even using it right. For example someone a lot of you guys love even posted up a video on how to set gains with a O-scope and did it completely wrong. Everyone was like "wow, nice job" when it was a bunch of crap. My point is just because they claim to like a scope better and are against the DD-1 for whatever reason, that don't mean they are even using it right. At least learn the tool before you make your judgment. And most that use the O-scope correctly have no reason other than my name NOT to like the product.

    Now don't get me started on the DD-1 PLUS. O-scopes can't read your overlaps before you start a tune up.......the same ones you record in your notes when sending a customer home, so you can see if the gains have changed since it was set up.

    also, i might add, i have seen people gain DB from turning the gains DOWN to their correct position....so extra hard clipping doesn't always make extra DB.

    regardless....scope or DD-1 lover, a REAL shop should use one or the other because if done properly it really saves a lot of equipment and SOUNDS BETTER.

    I'm not a hater. I appreciate the fact that it brought proper gain setting into the "mainstream" and promotes a better understanding of one's system. I just happen to use a scope. I may not even be using it right. I dunno. I hook it up and see waves and shit.

    I didn't mean to insinuate that clipped is *always* louder. When I'm doing SPL testing... I don't even use my scope. I just turn it up until I stop gaining. Similar to the way I don't "tune" my SPL boxes. But I'm obviously in the minority there and I don't advocate that practice.

    • Like (+1 Rep) 2

  8. why do other forums hate on the dd-1 so much?

    in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics

    Posted · Edited by TaylorFade

    Clipping creates harmonics. Meaning, when a waveform is clipped... other shit gets included along with the fundamental. I'm not intimately familiar with how the DD-1 works, but I assume it "looks" for these harmonics. i.e.- play the 40hz or 1khz tone... if anything other than 40hz or 1lhz is detected... you get a red light.

    Distortion, clipped or not, has harmonics present in the signal. Ever hear the term "harmonic distortion"?

    Edit: that wasn't directed at you, Steve.

  10. why do other forums hate on the dd-1 so much?

    in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics

    Posted

    do us a favor taylor.. since you like to test things why not test a dd-1? tune your system with the DD-1 and use tl to see the numbers then tune with the oscope and put it on the meter again. see if there are any loses

    im not against your post by the way

    Come on you know the kind of testing he does, I'm sure he's done it more than once.

    Edit- Well guess he hasnt.

    Tested them head to head on the TL... no. But I've had the DD-1 and the scope side by side plenty of times.

    I can almost guarantee you that the scope is going to be louder though. The DD-1 is on the safe side of things compared to what I would call clean on the scope. Or... clean enough. Lol.

  11. why do other forums hate on the dd-1 so much?

    in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics

    Posted

    do us a favor taylor.. since you like to test things why not test a dd-1? tune your system with the DD-1 and use tl to see the numbers then tune with the oscope and put it on the meter again. see if there are any loses

    im not against your post by the way

    I can definitely do that.

    In the world of competition, sometimes you have to be dead on balls clean. Other times you need a specific amount of clip. A scope lets you dial in either of those. And more importantly to me... see it under load.

    Not everyone needs or even wants that kind of accuracy or control though.

    I've set enough amps with both to know that they're close enough for 99.99999999999% of people on the planet.

    • Like (+1 Rep) 1

  12. why do other forums hate on the dd-1 so much?

    in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics

    Posted

    I know this is the SMD forum and this won't be a popular opinion, but...

    A scope is a better tool. And can be had cheaper.

    BUT... you're paying for the convenience. It's a couple wires and a light (to operate). I personally don't think a scope is any more difficult to use than a DD-1, but I suppose I'm in the minority.

    You hit the nail on the head though when you said, "It measures distortion... not all distortion is clipping." Think about your own statement for a sec.

    • Like (+1 Rep) 1

  16. Random Picture Post V2

    in Off Topic - Random, Misc posts - the forum "Junk Drawer"

    Posted · Edited by TaylorFade

    Scrapin the coast has some pretty awesome awards. Granite base and metal loving cups. I left mine at my brother's house and he made a friggin planter out of it. I jokingly posted this pic on FB.

    36E4852D-FAA9-440D-BB0B-23258E8E7A1F-453

    Apparently the director was offended and this is what we got that year. Keep in mind that this is a $60 entry fee 4x point regional event.

    114D8D71-903B-4494-A1C9-6E8518B87A3F-453

    3E982336-7F6C-47EE-ACE4-C12760D4F857-453

    Edit: here it is next to a SECOND PLACE trophy from another regional director's event (not my trophy)

    BA3DF2C0-85D1-4C15-90F0-F7280E41998F-453

    • Like (+1 Rep) 1

  24. Amp Test Tuesday - MTX 1501D (Plus AMP GUTS) (GUESS the Wattage! WIN STUFF!) RESULTS PAGE 7! *video

    in Amp Test Tuesday - Results from the SMD AD-1 Amp Dyno

    Posted

    Can someone put the results in text format? I can't get to YT from this computer.

    Certified=1674

    un-certified=1986

    Dynamic=2200

    Nice!

    mtx is good shit it always was, just to mainstream for people to like. have a few of them and the old school 942 amps. i have a few of the 1000.4"s too great amps!

    It's not that they're too mainstream- it's because the price tag is. That amp was like $600 new.

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