Sorry if this is has been suggested before, but I would love to see if that bank would start a car with no battery. I would more than love to see that, actually. I know, I can work it out mathematically but seeing it work seems better right now. : ) Guessing by the spot weld you did, it should work for sure. (I've welded with a bank of golfcart batteries, and even done a practical spot weld with two car batteries.)
You forgot one other important aspect with the big SCR, it also needs a clamp to provide about 500 kilos of pressure on the terminals, this due to the way these are made internally.
IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) come in this size and would work well for a spot weld with the possible exception of a higher voltage drop than an SCR.
@Dracanse No, even in the current 15V configuration it wouldn't. In my experience with car audio I've seen capacitors up to 18V used. Up to like 4 Farad. I've also overvolted some car audio amps to about 21V before due to adding massive amounts of capacitors to a homemade power supply and not even checking the peak charge voltage. (hehe i was like 12) These would be absolutely wonderful in a car audio install.
I've worked on a few CD welders in my time and the best ones I've seen use a bank of high voltage electrolytic capacitors, it's been a good few years so I can't remember the exact value but they were physically as big if not bigger than the low voltage ones in your video. They used a thyristor as the CD switch and the amount of energy in the discharge was varied with a voltage regulator that charged the bank of capacitors which was shown on a volt meter. The voltage went from 0 to 200+ volts.
I want a cap bank like this ! for control consider the GTO ( Gate Turn Off thyristor ) I have used gto's rated 1000-3000 Amp. I think combining small battery with big Cap would be useful in vehicle starting. Cap will provide high current for cranking, Batt provide the Amphours. this should give longer batt life, and less overall weight ( useful in light aircraft )
@peshozmiata They have a very high power density, meaning that you can pull lots of amps for their mass, but the energy density is actually very low compared to almost any battery technology. Electric vehicles can make use of both capacitors and batteries so that high amperage is available for acceleration, and high energy capacity is available for vehicle range. The capacitors can be charged from regenerative braking or batteries.
@bkraz333 Thanks for clearing things up! I knew they keep increasing the energy density for them each year, but it appears they haven't quite reached a level comparable to batteries. A railgun would be the perfect application for ultracaps, but it's a little cliche and many have done it before.
@bkraz333 smelling a project right here :) what would be more interesting than seeing a bike with all those recharging addons that can be recharged by ac in say 30 minutes and will help the rider by starting electric motor when the power is needed to get to the top of a hill top or when the rider starts to gain speed... green, ecologic, helpful.
If you want the SCR to turn off you could maybe try forced commutation? Feed the output to an inductor, and then the load with a cap in parallel with it. When SCR's turned on current should quickly built up through through the inductor, then due to the resonance of the load, current will attempt to flow back through the SCR turning it off.
Seems like you should have enough current to distort light metals like soda cans etc. using a very large coil of large diameter wire for powerful instantaneous emf. I really like your welder idea myself though. How about a large coil connected to a large rubber or other flexible membrane to make a super power vortex canon or air canon?
If you're connecting caps in series you should look in to load balancing them. Essentially, small differences in their capacity (the specs have a tolerance and they can age differently) can lead to capacitors becoming fully charged at different points and expose one capacitor to too high a voltage leading to damage. There are a lot of ways to load balance them, ranging from simple but energy wasting resistors to active voltage monitoring and switching systems.
@SuperDisco91 Yup. The problem is the coil's inductance will not allow much current to flow with such a low voltage. A relatively high voltage is needed to overcome the coil's inductance and force lots of current through the coil. Check out my videos regarding transcranial magnetic stimulation to see a high voltage discharge setup with 15uH coil.
How about an ultra cheap EDM machine? Probably couldn't use it to make intricate shapes in metal, but it might come in handy for burning out smaller bolts, studs, taps, drill bits etc. Also, you probably already know this, but I will mention it anyways. When you are using "hockey puck" style SCR's, you must have a certain amount of pressure across the Anode and Cathode in order for them to work. So sandwich it between two big finned heat sinks, making sure it is torqued evenly.
How about a flux capacitor? They may have a wide range of usage in science and even for some private fun. You need to keep the production price under 300$, but I think it may sell.
In fact, once you have working prototype, I think it should be easy to find some sponsors for the project!!
@morto360 Flux capacitors already exist and are used in many electronics. However, they do not permit time travel, nor are they actually called "flux capacitors". They are called inductors.
@4lifeNerdfighter You are right; adding capacitors in series does decrease the total amount of capacitance, but it allows higher voltages to be stored in the group of capacitors. Higher voltages compensate for the loss of capacitance. In fact, the total amount of energy stored is the same for a parallel or series arrangement of the same group of caps. So why series? It allows me to store a higher voltage, and higher voltages will cause higher currents to flow for a given load resistance.
My vote is for the coilgun. I feel like it would be a pretty lengthy project with a good mix of mechanical and electrical parts. Additionally it would be a great use for your new lathe's gunsmithing capabilities.
I also have a few of these capacitors, and struggle with deciding what to do with them. However, I definitely believe that someone needs to get some low voltage high current solenoids and create the launching boots from the Super Mario Bro's movie :D
Use 15-20 IRF3703's to switch instead of the SCR, and use a Atmel or Pic to control the driver, especially when you want to make a Dual Pulse CD-welder.
Dual pulse is recommended for de-oxidizing the spot before the final weld.
Also you can use one IRF3703 to load the capacitor-bank.
Project is of interest to me since I have a 14V 4,0 Farad cap bank lying around here and a busload of IRF3703s in my drawers ;)
Carefull with these hockeypuck style thyristors, they need to be clamped with quite a bit of force to meet their specs, try and find the datasheet for yours.
Go for a spot-welder or discharge cutter! They're lots of fun to build. I toyed with one a couple of years ago using a 1Farad audio cap (there's a video on my profile), discharge was triggered using four parallel IRFP2907 FETs (not quite enough for your application), but it gave me control of both pulse width and voltage
If you were to go for the FET route, I'd suggest a stack of IRFP3077 FETs in parallel... they're far cheaper, and each handles a pulsed drain current of ~850A from memory
Sorry if this is has been suggested before, but I would love to see if that bank would start a car with no battery. I would more than love to see that, actually. I know, I can work it out mathematically but seeing it work seems better right now. : ) Guessing by the spot weld you did, it should work for sure. (I've welded with a bank of golfcart batteries, and even done a practical spot weld with two car batteries.)
thedudeman9000 6 days ago
You forgot one other important aspect with the big SCR, it also needs a clamp to provide about 500 kilos of pressure on the terminals, this due to the way these are made internally.
TheElectricnoob 1 week ago
Why can use it as nitro (N2O) in electric bikes .. Instant accelaration
paoki001 1 week ago
put a car claxon on your bicycle
bombersander 1 week ago
IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) come in this size and would work well for a spot weld with the possible exception of a higher voltage drop than an SCR.
SirDeanosity 2 weeks ago
i have been looking at these and i want to use them for car audio.. but would it fry my system?
Dracanse 2 weeks ago
@Dracanse No, even in the current 15V configuration it wouldn't. In my experience with car audio I've seen capacitors up to 18V used. Up to like 4 Farad. I've also overvolted some car audio amps to about 21V before due to adding massive amounts of capacitors to a homemade power supply and not even checking the peak charge voltage. (hehe i was like 12) These would be absolutely wonderful in a car audio install.
thedudeman9000 6 days ago
Portable railgun. :D
yo6ial 2 weeks ago
Quarter Shrinker!!!
Checkout Tesla Mania
Aerospacesmith 2 weeks ago
EMP (electromagnetic pulse) gun
TheLophius 3 weeks ago
After these caps got popular, a set of 6 now go on eBay for $200+ ... sigh!
zaprodk 3 weeks ago
I've worked on a few CD welders in my time and the best ones I've seen use a bank of high voltage electrolytic capacitors, it's been a good few years so I can't remember the exact value but they were physically as big if not bigger than the low voltage ones in your video. They used a thyristor as the CD switch and the amount of energy in the discharge was varied with a voltage regulator that charged the bank of capacitors which was shown on a volt meter. The voltage went from 0 to 200+ volts.
Zed1967 3 weeks ago
can you boost your car off them
ricktbdgc 3 weeks ago
I would make a huge camera flash with it.
Dishmopo 1 month ago
I want a cap bank like this ! for control consider the GTO ( Gate Turn Off thyristor ) I have used gto's rated 1000-3000 Amp. I think combining small battery with big Cap would be useful in vehicle starting. Cap will provide high current for cranking, Batt provide the Amphours. this should give longer batt life, and less overall weight ( useful in light aircraft )
seneca65r 1 month ago
nice
sweetgyy 1 month ago
i sugest you should build an extremely powerful electromagnet and do some experiments about diamagnetism.
subscribed
coilgunman 1 month ago
15v at 600A that's 9000w not to bad.
0OoJoshuaoO0 1 month ago
Can you propel an electric bike with these? They seem to have crazy-high energy density for capacitors.
peshozmiata 1 month ago
@peshozmiata They have a very high power density, meaning that you can pull lots of amps for their mass, but the energy density is actually very low compared to almost any battery technology. Electric vehicles can make use of both capacitors and batteries so that high amperage is available for acceleration, and high energy capacity is available for vehicle range. The capacitors can be charged from regenerative braking or batteries.
bkraz333 1 month ago
@bkraz333 Thanks for clearing things up! I knew they keep increasing the energy density for them each year, but it appears they haven't quite reached a level comparable to batteries. A railgun would be the perfect application for ultracaps, but it's a little cliche and many have done it before.
peshozmiata 1 month ago
@bkraz333 smelling a project right here :) what would be more interesting than seeing a bike with all those recharging addons that can be recharged by ac in say 30 minutes and will help the rider by starting electric motor when the power is needed to get to the top of a hill top or when the rider starts to gain speed... green, ecologic, helpful.
Hobypyrocom 1 month ago
Comment removed
freemanx2x 1 month ago
Can it kill you?
honam1021 2 months ago
like it
zxzxzzzzzz 2 months ago
Rail gun... Solves the melting could issue and would probably work reasonably well at these lower voltages.
xmodalloy 2 months ago
a guass rifle
lowend123 2 months ago
Infrared Laser Pulse Cannon
DracoRenaissance 2 months ago
gauss cannon!!
FarJumpJuanky 2 months ago
OMG they were cheap!!
First2ner 3 months ago
If you want the SCR to turn off you could maybe try forced commutation? Feed the output to an inductor, and then the load with a cap in parallel with it. When SCR's turned on current should quickly built up through through the inductor, then due to the resonance of the load, current will attempt to flow back through the SCR turning it off.
steveBB30 3 months ago
why not use a regular battery ? I don't get this at all ?
sweetgyy 3 months ago
Seems like you should have enough current to distort light metals like soda cans etc. using a very large coil of large diameter wire for powerful instantaneous emf. I really like your welder idea myself though. How about a large coil connected to a large rubber or other flexible membrane to make a super power vortex canon or air canon?
AristotleScience 3 months ago
If you're connecting caps in series you should look in to load balancing them. Essentially, small differences in their capacity (the specs have a tolerance and they can age differently) can lead to capacitors becoming fully charged at different points and expose one capacitor to too high a voltage leading to damage. There are a lot of ways to load balance them, ranging from simple but energy wasting resistors to active voltage monitoring and switching systems.
MaxwellsDaemon 3 months ago
just real cool is all i have to say! keep up the good work!
killa6130 4 months ago
That's some pretty low voltage for a coil gun. I think if you powered a coil gun with those, it would just melt your coil.
SuperDisco91 5 months ago
@SuperDisco91 Yup. The problem is the coil's inductance will not allow much current to flow with such a low voltage. A relatively high voltage is needed to overcome the coil's inductance and force lots of current through the coil. Check out my videos regarding transcranial magnetic stimulation to see a high voltage discharge setup with 15uH coil.
bkraz333 5 months ago
@bkraz333 How about building a railgun instead?
Erveli 2 months ago
How about an ultra cheap EDM machine? Probably couldn't use it to make intricate shapes in metal, but it might come in handy for burning out smaller bolts, studs, taps, drill bits etc. Also, you probably already know this, but I will mention it anyways. When you are using "hockey puck" style SCR's, you must have a certain amount of pressure across the Anode and Cathode in order for them to work. So sandwich it between two big finned heat sinks, making sure it is torqued evenly.
capriracer351 5 months ago
You could make the worlds strongest taser - hahaha
Haunted360 5 months ago
you can hook it up to an inverter and power stuff during blackouts
mathscirocks 6 months ago
hey tell buddy how power is given
teesmarkhan83 6 months ago
you can melt nails
mathscirocks 6 months ago
A DIY defibrillator, haha. Please don't try that guys.
fingerboy18 6 months ago
A bazzoka flashlight with a beam so bright things burst into flames.
youcrackmeupdude 7 months ago
Coil GUN!
diyengineer 7 months ago
Could be interesting to do a high-field magnetiser. Raise a Neodymium magnet above curie, then remagnetise it with a coil. Cool find!
Dibblah1900 8 months ago
H2O water splitting, electrolysis, should be of interest but watch out for a big explosion
Films4You 8 months ago
coolness(rail gun) >> coolness(coil gun)
Flick14113 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
RailGun/CoilGun!
Or on second thought: Directional EMP generator. :D
iplop 8 months ago
Comment removed
iplop 8 months ago
Comment removed
iplop 8 months ago
How about a flux capacitor? They may have a wide range of usage in science and even for some private fun. You need to keep the production price under 300$, but I think it may sell.
In fact, once you have working prototype, I think it should be easy to find some sponsors for the project!!
Who doesn't like time travel, eh?! ;)
morto360 8 months ago
@morto360 Flux capacitors already exist and are used in many electronics. However, they do not permit time travel, nor are they actually called "flux capacitors". They are called inductors.
Terrormink 8 months ago 8
@Terrormink can we call them flux capacitors, that sounds much cooler, even if they are just some wire wrapped around iron
fairyheli2 3 months ago
The spot welder sounds awesome!!!, I think a lot of us would be really interested in knowing more about high current PWM.
bejius 8 months ago
doesn't it decrease the overall capacitance to put them in series? shouldn't they be parallel?
4lifeNerdfighter 8 months ago
@4lifeNerdfighter You are right; adding capacitors in series does decrease the total amount of capacitance, but it allows higher voltages to be stored in the group of capacitors. Higher voltages compensate for the loss of capacitance. In fact, the total amount of energy stored is the same for a parallel or series arrangement of the same group of caps. So why series? It allows me to store a higher voltage, and higher voltages will cause higher currents to flow for a given load resistance.
bkraz333 8 months ago 5
@bkraz333 hi
xVPaddyVx 3 months ago
COIL GUN with instructions =D
micb117 8 months ago
@micb117 Indeed!
ElectricManSwe 8 months ago
RF induction heater? Maybe the cap values are too high that.
AntiProtonBoy 8 months ago
My vote is for the coilgun. I feel like it would be a pretty lengthy project with a good mix of mechanical and electrical parts. Additionally it would be a great use for your new lathe's gunsmithing capabilities.
VenisPagina 8 months ago
Doomsday laser and then carve your name onto the moon.
Alectr0n 8 months ago
@Alectr0n hahaha
1337Munkey 8 months ago
I also have a few of these capacitors, and struggle with deciding what to do with them. However, I definitely believe that someone needs to get some low voltage high current solenoids and create the launching boots from the Super Mario Bro's movie :D
Terrormink 8 months ago
A bug zapper!
fettfettmerafett 8 months ago
Wow, with that much power you could build a TARDIS...
matteolima 8 months ago
spot welder
polishshark 8 months ago
@bkraz333
Use 15-20 IRF3703's to switch instead of the SCR, and use a Atmel or Pic to control the driver, especially when you want to make a Dual Pulse CD-welder.
Dual pulse is recommended for de-oxidizing the spot before the final weld.
Also you can use one IRF3703 to load the capacitor-bank.
Project is of interest to me since I have a 14V 4,0 Farad cap bank lying around here and a busload of IRF3703s in my drawers ;)
gilgameshismist 8 months ago
Nice stuff to built a Cappacitor Discharge welder :D
gilgameshismist 8 months ago
Carefull with these hockeypuck style thyristors, they need to be clamped with quite a bit of force to meet their specs, try and find the datasheet for yours.
Sine1040 8 months ago
Go for a spot-welder or discharge cutter! They're lots of fun to build. I toyed with one a couple of years ago using a 1Farad audio cap (there's a video on my profile), discharge was triggered using four parallel IRFP2907 FETs (not quite enough for your application), but it gave me control of both pulse width and voltage
If you were to go for the FET route, I'd suggest a stack of IRFP3077 FETs in parallel... they're far cheaper, and each handles a pulsed drain current of ~850A from memory
PodeCoet 8 months ago
ipod dock
noouch 8 months ago
Railgun, can crasher, hybrid car or electrocar...
TheMadScientist01 8 months ago
Voltage too low for multistage railgun? :) But that's the thing no one made it to work properly ant not to break. Navy maybe.
mechadrake 8 months ago
The spot welder idea seems very interesting. How many welds can you do with full charge?
BTheHeretic 8 months ago
:D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Afrotechmods 8 months ago