Charging a 5 Farad Capacitor

[MaliciousClout 10+ year member]

Bought this off of ebay a while back and am now ready to hook it up. When it was shipped to me, the bulb that came with it, which is supposed to be used in the loop to charge the unit.... was shattered.

What can I use as a subsitute and where can I acquire?

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[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Hook it up, shower of sparks will ensue, and then you'll be set.

Or if you're not that brave, get a resistor from radioshack and charge it through that, it's still gonna spark when you hook it up, tho, caps always do.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Better yet, find someone who has a circuitbreaker style fuse, hook everything up with the circuit cut off just before the cap, and then reset the circuit.

That's probably the safest way to charge it IN the car, without a diode.

 

[blue93corsica 10+ year member]

use a headlight bulb, charges much faster then a resistor and its much easier to tell whan it is fully charged as the bulb will just go out over a resistor, then go back and check with a dmm to make sure that cap has the same amount of voltage as the power supply and you'll be good

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

That sounds a hell of a lot safer //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I'm not used to charging anything bigger than 1 farad, and even those go ape@#)$ when you just hook them up uncharged.....

 

[xpl0it 10+ year member]

Hook it up, shower of sparks will ensue, and then you'll be set.
Or if you're not that brave, get a resistor from radioshack and charge it through that, it's still gonna spark when you hook it up, tho, caps always do.

sparks?? You only see sparks when your neg terminal on main batt isn't disconnected. I would hope you wouldn't be messing around with power and ground when your neg terminal isn't disconnected, lol.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[lostlurker]

Careful CAPS can kill!!!! I have charges many with resistors...be careful THEY GET HOT. never straight charge...sparks are not bad....exploding cap is!!

xpl0it is right...unhook the neg terminal to batt and hook up cap then RE-ATTACH neg term....you will be far enough away from cap then.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

no, i meant sparks at the battery terminal, i woudl hope nobody would be foolish enough to actually hook up a cap AT the cap with the battery hooked up!

Oh man, i would've felt so bad if someone blew themselves up.

Probably laughed afterwards, tho, honestly.

 

[project f-150 10+ year member]

I just have to reapeat one thing. If you use a resistor dont hold it with your fingers!! they get more than a little warm.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

That sounds a hell of a lot safer //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
I'm not used to charging anything bigger than 1 farad, and even those go ape@#)$ when you just hook them up uncharged.....

Excepting the ones that are self-charging such as the one I have in my closet //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

that might be what mine are, come to think of it, cause they didn't come with instructions or a diode.....

they're not stinger by any chance, are they?

cause that would explain my lack of death thus far

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Mine is....a Stinger SC201MNC 1 farad with the monitor top (blue LEDs rather than red) and a silly-*** blue neoon ring around the base of the monitor top and blue LEDs to either side of the voltage display that cycle one way or the other dependant one which way current is flowing in or out of the cap.

I won it in a $1 raffle. As far as capacitors go (take this for what it is worth) it is actually a pretty nice one.