EEVblog #42 - Exploding Capacitors in High Speed

[peti6c]

"lets blow some shit up" yay

[gryzman]

capacitive diods blow up nicely too :)

[theemusic92]

I read that in the 1930s some magazine actually calculated how large a 1 farad paper-foil capacitor would have to be & the results came out to be a stack about the size of the empire state building !

[PhpXp]

I have two huge ass 5 cm capacitors at home...

[MrSuperluminal]

What's the failure mode of these solid polymer capacitors, which at least the computer industry has gotten a hard-on for lately?

[jth213]

I see the problem...you let the smoke out.

[TheDutchTango]

YEAH!!! Take that you Taliban!! We have got exploding capacitors, that will blow you out of your caves!!!

[REA00002]

Your enthusiastic tone compliments your accent lol

[grawey77]

Enjoyed the video buddy. I have one question though; how much coffee do you drink in a day?

[EEVblog]

@grawey77 None. It's called enthusiasm.

[rgstever]

1 farad caps actually explode.

[TheNakedasshole]

MAN you look brainwashed......

[themysterypie]

MAN I'm one lucky son of a bitch if they explode that violently.

Because... when I was 3 or 4 years old my dad had a box of electronics like ics, caps, and etc. and there was this one cap that was about 1 in. in diameter and about 2 in. tall and it was also had a full metal body and rated at like 12v I think I can't remember it that well but anyway...

I thought... "Man I wonder what'll happen if I stick it in the wall socket!"

Thankfully the circuit breaker blew!

I think I still have it too!

[theemusic92]

@themysterypie FUCK O_O. That is some scary shit man. 

[ModernGeek]

Do this with a fully enclosed metal one without the blowoff cap. I've had one instantaneously go off, and it was scary! 36V to a 12V cap due to a miscalculation.

[EEVblog]

@ModernGeek That's a pretty big miscalculation! #shithappens

[XInkisidoreGamerX]

Less talking and more power, booring.

[ubergoobergaming]

This is awesome to the maximum voltage and BEYOND!

[wakawaka74]

Dang, we play with capacitors all the time in circuits lab and old teach never warned us of this. What a dick. Good vidya btw

[dwarrren9]

Great video. It's great that we have people who know how to engage instead of preaching about electronics. I'm going to a vo-tech school for electronics, and the teacher is not the best at engaging students. I don't think the electronics program in my school is going to last much longer because of that. We only have four people this year.

[Hellhound604]

just watching these caps explode brings back the smell.... Nothing like the smell of an exploding cap

[thomasey2]

Hum some sacrifice rituals for the electron deities :)

kind of coll how is the name of such rituals in Down-under schools?

[spudw2k]

1:40 1st

2:12 2nd

3:05 3rd

[333xan45]

Showstopping*

[333xan45]

Oh I have an idea!!! Try exploding a japaneese solid sealed capacitor. They don't have that damn showstpooing sponges in the bottom. Try it ,it's fun

[HobieTyourtube]

Dave!--------great "new "camera-I guess the North Koreans use this method of "reverse bias "to instigate---Pops and Bangs to upset the Western Powers?

Steve.

[gglovato]

naw man you don't exaggerate, i've had a cap from a computer PSU almost take my damn eye out!!, the thing blew inside the unit whilst i was crouched behind it plugging the cables in the floor(cramped space)!, i saw a flash, loud bang and something hit the wood panel of the desk besides my head hard!. The entire casing blew off(small cap, must've been 10uFx25v can't remember) and crunched axially against the wood panel!, crazy!, the metal int he cap was quite sturdy due to the size so imagine!

[EEVblog]

@gglovato For sure, caps can be seriously dangerous.

[deemas82]

@gglovato DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! You know, another fun experiment: get a large, high voltage cap, charge it up (don't blow it) and throw it against a metal door/wall/sheet. They'll weld on with a loud pop.

If you mistakenly grab both contacts, it won't be pleasant (anyone who dissasembled a camera with a flash probably knows), but it's a lot of fun. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! 

[dell177]

Many years ago I was working on the bench next to someone testing a fais sized military power supply. He ran the variac up and then tried to dial it down fast. Not quite fast enough - one of the computer grade caps was in backwards and it launched out of it's case up into the overhead 8 foot flourescent fixture. There was smoke and glass everywhere. Those computer grades could be pretty spectacular when they let go.

[Mr27ace27]

dude, you sound like you're sooooo high during this video!

[DanFrederiksen]

lol "take your hands clean off".. ahhhh is that a fact... I think not : )

[EEVblog]

@DanFrederiksen I have been know to exaggerate a tad from time to time...

[DanFrederiksen]

@EEVblog that's good showmanship : )

[Fredasp]

Nice videos.... but you talk too much... speech less and do more... well, it´s what I

think.

[imRyRy]

I like you, you're very up-beat and interesting. Keep it up!

[coilgunman]

buy a casio exilim f1

[shodanxx]

what's the camera's model ?

thanks !

[Zed1967]

LMAO

I love your ''lets blow some shit up'' videos.

[ViRtUaLmOnKeY023]

Love it nice vid, neat idea.

[jks2]

the second on burned as hell!

[MagnuSSungaM]

Hahaha! What to do?

Oh I know! Lets blow some shit up!

LMAO had me on the floor laughing.

[DagGirl]

I wish you were one of my teachers. Seriously. I mean, it was cool when the acting head teacher burnt resistors last year, but this is even better!

HAHAHAHA!

[zker666]

Lol i like you ur a fun electronics freak lol arent we all?

[douglas787]

I guess there is a connection btw electronics guys and blowing up parts.When I was a kid I started out blowing up LEDs which would crack or the top would blow off when too much current passed through. Of course I blew up caps too, but the best explosions I got was from the old carbon batteries, like d cells they had back in the 70's. Alkiline didn't do much, but the carbon ones would explode when hooked up to 120 vac for 15 seconds or so. I built a battery holder with nails for terminals.

[dubschan]

Cool vid! Your voice reminds me of the bank manager in Yes Man! :)

[mapleguy1029384756]

Hey i did this and i made it throwable. You attach the capacitor onto the pins and then turn the switch on. After about 10 seconds, it blows up. Like a grenade :D But it sucks and can't do anything

[CypherVirus]

He's like a cross between bill nye, max headroom, and some meth addict.. this rocks lol

[billyjwolf]

This guys on crack

[demjp8RqDA]

One UPS manufacturer used a design with 200 amp SCRs in each direction pumping a ferroresonant transformer, and smaller SCRs to short the big ones at the top of each cycle.

Sometimes the timing board would get miswired, and when fired up it would trigger both large SCRS at once.

Initial test procedure required a 1" lexan blast box secured to a steel test bench with heavy straps. If the straps were forgotten, it could blow the 30 pound blast box up against a 10 meter high ceiling.

[TheWelly888]

I remember working in a PSU factory many years ago repairing customer returns. One day I could not figure out what was wrong with a particular one that I wasn't familiar with until I found wisps of paper just like shown on the clip. A tiny 10uF capacitor had exploded and completely disappeared leaving no trace! Anyway this reminds me of blowing up low PIV diodes using 240V mains when I was at school!

[bellinivernon]

Exelente canal ! ; gracias ,desde argentina.

[chandin69]

lol i used to do the same thing hooking them up on the reverse to lantern batteries

[Adji87]

Whoa! I am gonna be careful when wiring up electrolytics for sure!

[BarriosGroupie]

all your other blogs average 1000 a month, and this has average 40,000 because of the key word "exploding", probably popular amongst spotty kids with too much time on their hands or terrorists looking into the use of capacitors rather than hair bleach lol

[orgil95]

Cool man!

[stawmy]

Try a 10,000uF cap with 300volts AC,

or reverse feed an old speaker transformer (4 ohm at 240vac)-you should get a nice green glow before it blows (don't try this at home)

[Nejra]

Ok that was awsome

[jthread]

shut up and blow something up!

[kchida1980]

whoa! how did you get 27k views so fast?!

[EEVblog]

This blog made it on to BoingBoing, so 27K views in a matter of hours!

[1Nyro]

When I try to shoot 300fps my new camera turns off and leaves me with a slow, flashing blue light. All the functions stop working so I have to take out the battery and turn it back on again. Why is this?

[GratefulJWB]

For a lot of laughs, take a handfull of those 10uf tantalum caps and insert them into a switch-controlled outlet. BE SURE THE SWITCH IS OFF!!! When the next unsuspecting person walks into the room and flips on the switch for the lights, all hell breaks loose!

[carmi990]

where the fuck do I get those?

[lastwinj]

destructive nerd is destructive. woohoo!!!!

[rek636]

I had one explode on me in the right polarity. A small 22uf 15v one. The casing ruptured instead of popping off like that last one. Smoke(steam?) with a hiss and then a loud bang. I never did find all of the pieces.

[AKofFAiTH]

That was really something.

[Moreoff]

"I love the smell of tantalum in the morning"

[MasterGravitron]

Dam Ozzie's, u gotta love e'm. Lets blow some shit up. LOL

[sk8mike]

How loud was the explosion?

[EEVblog]

Pretty darn loud. The wife was inside and came running out to see what the bang was :->

[jagai]

loved the video

[mapleguy1029384756]

@EEVblog What voltage and current did you drive the capacitor at? And im assuming you connected the polarity wrong on purpose to blow it up right? Is the gas toxic?

[tr0nk]

BUST A CAP YO

[CheeseLoverBob]

The music at the beginning sounds familiar...

[gaijintendo]

I sincerely hope you get a whole bunch more varieties of cap to play with, this was great.

[pikuorguk]

Nice :)

I think you now need to investigate what happens when regular alkaline batteries are put in that 45 minute super charger from the other week...

[VeXorian1337]

poor caps :( booo

[PuraVidaProject]

Beautiful!

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Dont know much about EE but these videos are allways great, interesting and hillarious.

5 Stars.

[Dohzr]

holy crap lol

[shiroidebukujira]

The marks they score in the top of the caps do nothing from experience. I wired a 470uf cap up the wrong way one day, switched the thing on, looked at my laptop for a second and the next thing I know there's a massive bang and the other shell of the cap stuck in the ceiling.. messy paper everywhere.

[morto360]

nice video, as usual ;) but the sound on the new cam is very bad. you could try to use an external microphone.

[EEVblog]

I am using an external mic. But the Sanyo doesn't have an screen audio level meters, so not as easy to setup as the old cam. Need more practice.

[baddspella]

nice 300fps

[baddspella]

first :)