how to safely use a cap

[Franklinnn 10+ year member]

Are there any good tutorials on how to hook up a capacitor, safely charge and discharge? i got one for free, and want to try it out.

In before throw it away, and big 3, HO alt, deep cycle. I get my tax return Feb 5 and want to try it out.

Wiring diagrams for charging/discharging would be great.

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[ahole-ic]

Are there any good tutorials on how to hook up a capacitor, safely charge and discharge? i got one for free, and want to try it out.
In before throw it away, and big 3, HO alt, deep cycle. I get my tax return Feb 5 and want to try it out.

Wiring diagrams for charging/discharging would be great.

First of all EVERYONE on this forums says "Throw the cap away and get a battery". It's been covered but undoubtedly some douchebag that thinks they know it all will say it anyways.

Now, On to your question. If you MUST hook the cap up, do it this way.

You connect it in parallel just like you would your amplifier. This means postitive to positive and negative to negative. You want it's terminals connected as close to the amplifier's power and ground inputs as possible. Once it's all connected and you have the cap's positive connected to the power wire and the + from the amp put another ring terminal on your ground wire. Then take your 1000 ohm resistor and wrap one leg through the ring terminal. Take the other end and touch it to the - on the cap and tighten the connection there. The cap is now trickle charging. Take your dmm and measure the voltage from your power wire to your ground wire. write this voltage down. Now measure the + to - on your cap. Once the voltage gets within a few tenths of a volt from the number you've written down, you can go ahead and directly connect your cap and amp's grounds to the vehicle ground and throw the resistor out.

 

[k3n12ock 10+ year member]

Yes. Don't use one.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Only use a cap if you have the alt and battery power you need as a caps purpose is to be a voltage filter not an actual power source.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

The proper way to use a cap is this:

1. Pick up capacitor

2. Open trash can

3. Place capacitor in trash can

4. Close trash can

5. ???

6. Profit!