Big Ass Caps

[Anonymous No.751889]

Hey diy, I have 4 big capacitors and I was wondering what I could use them for.

I do have some amatuer electrical experience
Pic related

[Anonymous No.751890]

>>751889
touch both contacts to make sure they are discharged

[Anonymous No.751924]

Charge them up to a high voltage and put a wrench on the terminals

[Anonymous No.751948]

>>751889
A 15 farad capacitor? Shit, be careful and don't kill yourself. Or get with the guy in another thread with a gopro and doesn't know what to film, charge of the cap, follow the other anon advice in this thread and profit!

[Anonymous No.751957]

More likely 0.015 F. On older caps, the M stood for micro.

[Anonymous No.751982]

>>751957
That seems like a really low capacitance for a cap measuring 8in tall and 3.5in in diameter.

[Anonymous No.751997]

>>751889
Make an anti-theft system for your car.

[None !2Code3TV3M No.752039]

that thing is big enough to be very crude very dangerous taser, be careful with it.

[Anonymous No.752047]

>>752039
>Thing
Implying it's not things
Pic related

[Anonymous No.752049]

>>751982

But it's a 400V capacitor. Remember that energy stored involves squaring the voltage. A 400V capacitor will store 625 times the energy of a 16V cap, which tends to necessitate a similar increase in volume.

[Anonymous No.752065]

>>751982
It's rated for 400 volts.

I've got some 2,600F (yes, over two thousand farads) capacitors that are a fair bit smaller, but only rated for 2.5 volts. I've got 6 of them in series under the hood of my car so it cranks like it's the middle of summer when the temperature's 15 below zero (F). They're also good for about a couple thousand amps, so I could jump start a big rig if necessary.

For the high voltage ones, you pretty much have to vaporize some shit or make a coil gun. Hook 'em all up in parallel, charge them to 400 volts (or as close as you can get it) and short circuit them on something that conducts electricity.

Tip: wear ear muffs and don't look directly at it if you value your senses.They make a hell of a bang and flash

[Anonymous No.752067]

>>752065
Oops, meant to post this pic. Whatever.

[Anonymous No.752094]

Put them in a microwave. They'll explode real good.

[Anonymous No.752101]

>>752065
God that would be awesome

[Anonymous No.752104]

>>752065
>thumb right next to exposed terminals
>4400 MICROFARAD 400 VDC

You are not a smart man.

Store those with a conductive bridge across the terminals. They can and will accumulate charge, and that shock will ruin your entire week.

[Anonymous No.752105]

>>752104
I don't think only touching one of the terminals would do anything, m90roo

[Anonymous No.752110]

>>752105
>touch one terminal with left thumb
>nothing happens
>use other hand's thumb to touch terminal
>you're still safe because you're using a different hand
Try it

[Anonymous No.752111]

>>752110
>>752110
Are you saying touch both at the same time?

No one is that stupid

[None !2Code3TV3M No.752112]

>>752047
>>752065
there is no way this isn't dangerous

I like this thread, it's shit like this that makes me want to learn more electronics.

Where'd you guys even rip these out of? welders, microwaves and cars?

[Anonymous No.752113]

>>752112
Mine came from a starter bank for a huge electric motor
It blew some of the caps so they just replace the whole bank and throw away the old caps.

[Anonymous No.752123]

>>752111
>No one is that stupid
You would be surprised.

>>752112
That's because it is. Dangerous as fuck.

http://youtu.be/iyRpMN9uQEw

[Anonymous No.752124]

>>752112

No piece of consumer electronics, of any kind, has capacitors anywhere near this size.

These are typically only found on a power bus for serious industrial equipment. Short of that, specialty electronics only.

[Anonymous No.752146]

>>752039
Um, if you actually charged it fully at 400VDC, it's got enough energy to stop someone's heart or scramble their brains. Fucking dangerous shit.

>>751889
OP, whatever else you do: Check the terminals with a voltmeter. Caps that large can and do accumulate a partial charge just sitting around. Typically high-voltage, high-value caps like that, when stored, would have a piece of bare wire connecting the screw terminals to prevent that happening. If it's got a charge on it, don't just bridge the terminals with anything, it could actually arc-weld whatever you use. Instead, get a 100k-ohm 1 watt or higher resistor, and CAREFULLY cliplead it to the terminals of each of those caps in turn, letting it sit like that for a few minutes. Then check with a voltmeter again to check it's discharged. Then wrap a piece of bare wire around the terminals so it doesn't start charging up again. Do that to all of them and leave them that way until you're ready to do something with them.

[Anonymous No.752149]

>>752065
>I've got some 2,600F
Those are supercaps, not electrolytic caps, they're a completely different animal. With those you wire them in series to get the voltage you want.

>>752104
Glad to see someone else knows this too.

[None !2Code3TV3M No.752159]

>>752123
jesus christ, he should have tossed a hotdog onto that thing to show how much damage it can do, that was nuts

Although I think a chunk of the hotdog would probably explode.

>>752124
man I am at a pure loss at what could be done with these, short of blatant murder and really really crispy barbecue

could this sort of thing even be used in arc welding? or would it be too strong?

[Anonymous No.752166]

>>752159
Bigass transformers are more useful for arc welding. Continuous, steady current is useful there. You can actually do it with a variac and two microwave oven transformers, but like most electrical experimentation, it's dangerous as hell.

You could probably use that high voltage cap to pump a laser. That's a lot more equipment than just caps though, and you'd need to get your hands on a lasing medium which isn't easy for various reasons. Plus, designing a whole system around some caps doesn't make a lot of sense. Coilguns are fun but a potato gun is easier and more effective.

If you decide to mess with high voltage caps, be unnecessarily careful. You only have to mess up once for it to be potentially fatal.

[Anonymous No.752167]

>>752166
Welding like a man
A crazy man

[None !2Code3TV3M No.752177]

>>752166
What about a portable tack welder? what sort of a battery would be able to charge these sufficiently?

the first thing that came to mind until I realized just how big these are was using them to ignite something but that'd just be a waste for these unless you were trying to ignite thermite or something

experiments in exploding cheap electronics by putting clamps on them leading to the prongs of a power bar(for the switch) with a long extension cord plugged into it?


>>752167
I've done some spot welds using a couple car batteries in para, it's kinda fun to show off with but pretty fucking impractical, was enough to patch up someones bike frame though

[Anonymous No.752192]

>>752167

dat fucking transformer

[Anonymous No.752193]

Make a mini emp gun. Find a safe way to release that energy through a coil.

You can fry RFID cards and other small electronic circuits. But you'll need both things to be very close.

[Anonymous No.752220]

>>752167
That image is extremely impressive.

[Anonymous No.752493]

>>752104

why would they acuumulate charge?
though i agree on the brindging part.

>>752105
>>752110
top lol
if there is charge on the 400 V capacitor it is most likeley to run throgh you. I depends on the difference of the electric potential. If you are lucky the side you touch has the same potential as earth.

but then again, most people wont be stupid enough to touch a loaded capacitor.

[Anonymous No.752505]

>>751924
>Charge them up to a high voltage and put your tongue on the terminals
fixed

FOR SCIENCE

[Anonymous No.752525]

>>752493
>same potential as earth
Well if its not connected to anything then both terminals should be floating, so you could touch either one, just not both.
Right? In theory? No fucking way I would.

[Anonymous No.752563]

>>752493
These giant HV caps will suck up anything they can find. Static electricity in the air alone will do it.

>but that's miniscule!
Lightning.

>>752493
>but then again, most people wont be stupid enough to touch a loaded capacitor.
Most people don't know what a capacitor is.

[Anonymous No.752571]

>>752167
i doubt he is still alive

[Anonymous No.752572]

>>752065 here.

>>752104
I leave them shorted for a few days after using them. After that, it doesn't really matter. They don't accumulate more than a few volts, and even if they did, touching both terminals with one hand would just be painful and not particularly dangerous.

>>752110
Great idea, pass the current through your heart, which uses small amounts of electricity regulate your pulse,
instead of just one hand.

>>752149
I believe they are electrolytic ultracaps, but what you say is true.

>>752563
They don't really "suck up anything they can find" so much as regain some of their previous charge if not kept shorted for a long enough time. There's generally little or no voltage potential in the air between the two terminals, and fluctuates randomly, switches polarity, and can't really build up more than a few volts.

>>752112
I got the high voltage ones from some industrial frequency drives, for running 100+ HP electric motors. Bought the low voltage ones.

[Anonymous No.752656]

>>752192
Here's its closeup

[Anonymous No.752661]

>>752656
that is the very definition of nigger rigged lmao

op, you may want to try building a coilgun.
read a bit about them

[Anonymous No.752689]

>>751889
> Big Ass Caps
> What do

Coilgun.

/thread

[Anonymous No.752695]

>>752104
What is the chance of it charging up to 100V though? 22 joules of energy out of thin air when those things discharge themselves over time.

[Anonymous No.752698]

>>752695
They don't magically charge themselves. It's just that the electrolytic capacitors are more difficult to discharge than people often think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_absorption

[Anonymous No.752703]

>>752167
>>752656

[Anonymous No.752840]

>>752067

Know anywhere to get more cheap? Goldmine is out. I'm short about 8 to finish my full bank. Voltage was too low to arc weld with on this one. It was really hard to get an arc started, and tended to blow holes in what I was working on.

[Anonymous No.752843]

>>752656
its incredible the ingeniosity they have in the third world where you can't by factory made stuff
>diy transformer wow

[Anonymous No.752846]

>>752843
i've seen cars in africa where they replaced the drive shaft with wooden parts people made

[Anonymous No.752848]

>>752846

[Anonymous No.752850]

[Anonymous No.752854]

>>752656
another

[Anonymous No.752858]

ground.

[Anonymous No.752859]

>>752854
so where and how do they learn to build things like this?

[Anonymous No.752860]

>>752167
>>752656
>>752846
>>752848
>>752850
>>752854
Wouldn't be surprised if the ones who made these are smarter than 90% of university graduates.

Too bad the poor conditions lack of proper materials makes it all a disaster waiting to happen :/

[Anonymous No.752922]

>>752656
dear heavenly Jesus

[Anonymous No.752925]

>>752858
holy shit lol

[Anonymous No.752930]

>>752859
necessity is the mother of invention

[Anonymous No.752971]

>>752840
Not exactly cheap, but a lot of 12 on eBay for $35 a piece OBO:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-12-Maxwell-2600F-2-5V-ultracapacitors-super-capacitors-audio-Used-/281555877121

[Anonymous No.754022]

>>752840
That's a rather inefficient and impractical way to arc weld. You need to be able to strike an arc for more than a couple seconds, hence why arc welders draw power from mains, generators or sometimes batteries. For the less than the cost of a that enormous bank of ultracapacitors you could probably get a decent MIG or even TIG welder.

>>752167
>>752656
>>752854
Now THIS is the way you do a /diy/ arc welder.
I can't believe that guy's not even wearing gloves.
That's the sort of batshit insane ingenuity that can only come out of Africa or former Soviet satellite states.

[Anonymous No.754033]

>>752858
life hax

[Anonymous No.754393]

>>752167
1.21 niggawatts

[Anonymous No.754631]

>>752656
SHHHHHEEEEEEEEIIIITT