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#ultracapacitors#capacitors#electronics

Fun with ultracapacitors!!

Afrotechmods

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YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2013 to 2020.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

2.2M views15 years ago3 recommendations

HardwareElectronics

An explanation of the physics and key equations of ultracapacitors, demonstrated by shorting high-capacity cells.

Don't do anything I did in this video. These capacitors are not designed to be shorted and doing so is dangerous. And no, you cannot make a welder out of these. I got hold of some 2600F capacitors that can dump hundreds of amps. Normally these are used in electric cars to handle sudden stops and starts. Instead, I use them to vaporize bits of metal, and show you the 3 most important capacitor equations along the way. Ultracapacitors on Amazon: amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00MEKR11U/afromods-20 Check out my website afrotechmods.com for more great videos about electronics! Twitter: twitter.com/Afrotechmods Facebook: facebook.com/Afrotechmods/

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended for its clear explanation of capacitor math, internal resistance, and energy storage physics.

Aardwolfon Hacker News • Recommends

On “There is no better battery (2008)”

Here is my favorite movie about ultracapacitors: link to this video Very good explanation on the general math and physics of capacitors, current, heat and energy storage, plus awesome demonstrations at the same time :)
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jonawesomegreenon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Supercapacitors Batteries charges in seconds without degrading”

Shorting batteries is also never a great idea, but supercaps are more dangerous because of their low internal resistance. This video is a good demonstration: link to this video I was working on a controls project where we had large banks of supercaps that would charge up to ~900v. Have to treat those with some respect. However as long as they are kept cool the caps had no trouble being charged and discharged with a couple minute cycle with each bank providing 2kWh of energy. In the particular application I was working on we actually had 17 2kWh banks providing ~34kWh of energy every couple minutes. Would not fit in a cellphone though :)
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fw_double_eon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Battery supply problems faced by electric air taxis”

Capacitors are great for high load requirements but not great as an energy storage device. i.e. if you wanted to draw several hundred amps for a second or two with relatively low heat waste, an ultra-capacitor arrangement would be the way to go, but for energy storage, a battery wins hands down. There's huge research going into expanding the capacity of capacitors. Check out this video about capacitors: link to this video
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