Bump4life's SuperCapacitor Overview and Testing

[AMI CUSTOMS]

By bussing them the way pictured you are treating each bar as one gaint cap, all those caps are in parallel so they add together total capacitance but each cap has a slightly different resistance so they all sit at different voltages, it is seen more so once cylced under load, like the system playing. The differencies in voltage limit the overall capacitance, for example

a blue cap is rated at 3000 farads at 2.7 volts, at 2.5 volts it is something like 2700 farads, at 2.8 closer to 3100 farads, now connected 6 blues in series stacks like pictured and running say 15.0 volts max, your aren't using the full amount of capacitance that is available.

kinda like buying a 5k amp and wiring at 1.5 ohms and getting like 3500 watts out of it. just buy a 3500 watt amp, wasted money so to speak, OR added security, two ways to look at it, cuz by charging so lower you don't have to worry about voltage overcharge so much cuz you would have to have a difference of greater then 20% ESR between the caps and if all caps are same age you won't likely see that.

[evermaxx]

So I ordered a bank of the blues.. if I was to switch to caps, good for 6k id need 3 banks correct?

[AMI CUSTOMS]

So I ordered a bank of the blues.. if I was to switch to caps, good for 6k id need 3 banks correct?

Depends on alt size and burp or daily?

[evermaxx]

daily, 270a singer

[SnowDrifter]

I'm really not understanding what the issue with a few giant buss bars is? The way it's configured, all the capacitors in a given row would all self balance to one another. They would all be at the same voltage, and as such have the same voltage potential. Also: The capacitance in farads doesn't change based on the bank's voltage. It changes based on the number of capacitors wired in series.

[AMI CUSTOMS]

I'm really not understanding what the issue with a few giant buss bars is?

Not really an issue, just not the optimum way to connect them IMO, not the way I would do it or recommend connecting them, yes it still works but leaves capacitance that is unused.

[Ahmed Johnson]

I don't think I have a need for one of these, but this is some good shit in this thread.

[AA98hoe]

Just got 12 more 3000s today now were to put them

[Bump4life]

I am still mildly interested in cap banks. The part that scares me is the balancing aspect. I don't know shit about them and really don't want one blowing up right behind the seat where my 3 yr. old daughter rides.....

active, passive, what's right for me? Where do I hook them into the scheme of things in MY ride. I wanna keep batteries as well, with multiple cap banks do I just hook positives per cap bank like I would batteries? What do you have to connect the caps together per bank? Will the balancing thing ever wear out? How do I know if it is wore out? What should I look out for in the long run? Blue caps or black caps? How important is controlling their temperature? How do I do the charging thing initially after getting them? etc.etc. so many questions. Maybe lots were answered already but I don't remember, lol. I don't compete so I'm not real concerned on voltage drop ATM but any and all voltage drop sucks, lol

neither me or bump balance our caps and have had no issues. We use the blue maxwell caps. We had toolmaker bus bars and straps made .75 and .625 thick.

to charge initially we took 6 50 ohm resistors and hooked the charger to that until about 6 volts then disconnected that until i was at 12. The process was done for 3 banks and took about 30-60 mins if i recall.

Also by connected them like that you are limiting the effectiveness of the caps. They should be individually linked then bused together at the ends, You are allowing for way more voltage differences among each cap the way you have them connected.

that is incorrect. by limiting the series connections that means you will have less inbalance. in our banks there are only 6 series connections. and each of the parallel banks are evened out by the odds (tolerances in the caps). the more series connections you have, the more chance of an inbalance. thus requiring balancing circuits. the way they are configured, they self balance.

[iwannabeloud]

What makes this configuration self balance ?

vs this configuration?

I'm just wondering why this one doesn't self balance too