Power Caps and Charging

Happy weekend guys, question for the electrical/car people amongst you!

Have a friend who's ordered a powercap for his audio system in his car, and it needs to be charged up with a 12V charger.
He has a 12V battery charger, would this work, or do you guys know of any other way that it can be done?

 

Erm, if it's for a car audio system couldn't he just hook it up to the car's 12V ring? Especially since if you get the right one you can draw quite a lot of current if you needed to.

A battery charger wouldn't really work, since caps don't work like that. They charge and discharge multiple times every second. The point in an audio rig being that they hold a nice big charge, and when required they will discharge into the audio output to give some extra energy - so extra volume. Generally you have a source and sink of a certain p.d., and you have some kind of relay setup which discharges the charge into the audio circuits as required.

 

Hang on - I have NO idea what the hell these things are for. Or how they work. They don't look like simple capacitors - simple capacitors don't have LED displays on them, or "protective electronics".... hmmm.

Where are you supposed to plug them in? In the audio chain or the power supply? :/

 

Charge it from the car's electrical system when you install it. It should come with a resistor to connect between the power cable and the capacitor to control the electrical flow when charging it, otherwise you get a nasty spark when it's hooked up. Remove it when done. There shouldn't be a need for a relay. Mine didn't and I've yet to see any that do.

 

Solar Panels...we've got extras from the ISS, just fill out form niner-niner-sixer-three-backslash-fiver, and we'll FedEx 'em right out to you

Heh, heh I spammed a thread; I feel like I belong here now

 

hmmm, I have never seen a cap like this
http://www.carcheck24.de/TOX-2000/1k.jpg
is it one of those?I bet you could kill someone with that.

 

Splitt3r, add something consrtuctive to the thread or move on.

 

ok, sorry adrynaline, I would edit teh post but I can't.

 

That's it splitter.

 

2FD I can run my radio off of that for like 15 mins .... so ya plannin on busting the glass out of the car with the bass cranked .. no offince ment i just hate thows little rice cars with the over done sound systems .

Back to the subject, just hook it up in parallel with the cars battery should work fine... dont worry about messing up the cap, thoughs caps are very tough . Just be sure to get the polarity right .

 

I still don't get what these things are actually for. Not exactly anyway. I really don't get why you'd charge it up then unplug it - within a timeframe that a human could work it anyway. Why would you want a capacitor by itself? You'd want some other stuff with it as well wouldn't you?

If anyone can find an explaination then do post it - I'll be damned if I can.

 

From here:
http://www.shopping.com/xPO-Power_Acoustik_Power_Acoustik_Pc_5c_5_Farad_Digital_Hybrid_Super_Capacitor

"Product Description: Capacitors are used in car audio systems that require additional power on an instantaneous basis. This occurs when heavy bass notes hit inthe recorded material. During these bass notes, the current demand on the system is increased and can cause voltage drops. Power Acoustik Capacitors act as a power reservoir, supplying added power to keep your system playing strong..."

The lights and led's are strictly for show. It's basically a short-term power reserve for when you want more power than your car alternator can supply.

 

As GT posted there for the power hungry subs,each time the sub thumps out a beat it draws from the capacitor throught the Amp,inbetween beats the capacitor recharges enough to supply the power for the next beat for instance if the tune your listening to has a beat of 70 beats per minute the cap will charge and discharge 70 times a minute,if the tune your listening to needed that power all the time you would have to upgrade the alternator and battery and the Cap would be a waste of money

The LED's are to show you it charging and discharging with the beat,so when you'v bought it and your system doesnt sound any different you dont feel as ripped off

 

.....and sometimes the sound can cut out completely and the sub fail.
Luckily I don't need one for mine