Ultracaps, Is this it?

[iwannabeloud]

There has always been a couple things that prevent me from jumping on the UC bandwagon. In my builds, i'm always stuffing 100lbs in a 5lb bag and caps would be a lifesaver in terms of weight.. Little bit of batts for reserve but you get the picture.

Anyways, can someone explain to me why i shouldn't worry about the following-
I'm always about safety first and have heard of a bank of these shooting through a steel wall when charged at over 1000v. Now, i know that won't happen in a vehicle but the point of safety remains..

Scenario 1-
If I were to run lets say 10 banks, 20 banks, whatever.. on a 12v setup, how am i guaranteed that i need not worry about an explosion? or a meltdown? or whatever would happen if a couple caps decide to quit working in series and the rest of them are still sharing the charge voltage from the alt? That would be overvolting the entire bank..

Scenario 2-
How do i know that all the caps are "NEAR" like charge capacity without using balancers? Dont want scenario 1 to happen.

Scenario 3-
When running caps in parallel with batts.. Because caps drain a LOT quicker than batts do, would it be wise to put SOLENOIDS in between every battery and cap bank? But then if i did.. would it only add enough resistance to make caps not even worth it?

[Bump4life]

There has always been a couple things that prevent me from jumping on the UC bandwagon. In my builds, i'm always stuffing 100lbs in a 5lb bag and caps would be a lifesaver in terms of weight.. Little bit of batts for reserve but you get the picture.

Anyways, can someone explain to me why i shouldn't worry about the following-

I'm always about safety first and have heard of a bank of these shooting through a steel wall when charged at over 1000v. Now, i know that won't happen in a vehicle but the point of safety remains..

Scenario 1-

If I were to run lets say 10 banks, 20 banks, whatever.. on a 12v setup, how am i guaranteed that i need not worry about an explosion? or a meltdown? or whatever would happen if a couple caps decide to quit working in series and the rest of them are still sharing the charge voltage from the alt? That would be overvolting the entire bank..

Scenario 2-

How do i know that all the caps are "NEAR" like charge capacity without using balancers? Dont want scenario 1 to happen.

Scenario 3-

When running caps in parallel with batts.. Because caps drain a LOT quicker than batts do, would it be wise to put SOLENOIDS in between every battery and cap bank? But then if i did.. would it only add enough resistance to make caps not even worth it?

i will answer all these questions later. im not feeling likie typing now.

[SnowDrifter]

1. Proper bank balancing and staying with limits will minimize any chance of that happening. Main failure point for capacitors is over voltage.

2. Let me first say that I don't suggest running an un balanced bank. However... You can check the voltage of each individual capacitor with a multi meter. No need to unhook or un-wire anything. Just multi meter to the contacts on the unit you wish to measure

3. Maybe I'm tired... But I'm missing what the point of a solenoid would be. It's just another source of resistance and another piece to fail. And I don't see how it would provide any benefit

[Bump4life]

1. Proper bank balancing and staying with limits will minimize any chance of that happening. Main failure point for capacitors is over voltage.

2. Let me first say that I don't suggest running an un balanced bank. However... You can check the voltage of each individual capacitor with a multi meter. No need to unhook or un-wire anything. Just multi meter to the contacts on the unit you wish to measure

3. Maybe I'm tired... But I'm missing what the point of a solenoid would be. It's just another source of resistance and another piece to fail. And I don't see how it would provide any benefit

this looks good ^^^

only way caps are failing where they will blow is over charge or over heat. both do the same thing. break down the insulator in the cap causing it to short. and all that energy shorted cant be contained. the neat thing on these caps is there is a release on the negative end of the cap. so if it does fail. the pressure is released out the valve and the cap wont explode like a grenade with shrapnal going everywhere. these arent run at a high voltage. so that video you are talking about would not happen. that is a ton of energy to do that.

balancing is highly reccommended. for anyone that does not have a voltage regulator that is adjustable or people who want to install and forget, design a balancing circuit. im doing some testing with alternative wiring to see if i may be able to get around this. but at the end of the day active balancing is good but passive for our applications is probably better.

you would always want in parallel with batteries (after you charge them up). the batts will hold the caps at resting voltage or slightly lower