How to charge 1F capacitor?

[IsLNdbOi]

I just received a 1F capacitor. The instructions say to charge it first before connecting it to my car's battery.

It doesn't say how to charge it though.

Can I charge it by connecting a power and ground wire to it, the connecting the power and ground wires to the respective points in this while it's plugged in?

http://www.dealextreme.com/productimages/sku_2705_1.jpg

[pinoypizzaboy]

what does it do?

[sportin83]

most caps come with a resistor. i believe you need a 1/2 ohm to charge. hook ground up to car and then put resistor on power wire and hook to battery will charge slowly may take 2 or 3 mins then can remove resistor and hook straight to battery and should be done.

[IsLNdbOi]

So it can't be charged from a wall outlet using the AC to 12V DC adapter shown above?

[battleversiontc]

you can if you get a cig lighter adaper and put the resistor on the power side and the neg side hook it up to the the cap thats how i run charged mine but i also used a volt meter to monitor how much volts was in the cap if its not a digital cap with the display they either come with a resistor or a bulb or i have the charger that came with my rockford one that i wired to a cig adapter and plug that into the cig adapter for the wall

[IsLNdbOi]

So I connect the cap.'s positive to the resistor and the resistor to outer part of the AC to 12v DC adapter (the metal parts that aren't in the center) then connect the cap.'s negative to the center round part inside the 12v DC adapter?

[battleversiontc]

its actually the other way around the middle is power and the other is ground. the other way is find a cig adaper that plugs into that way you just hook it up and go cause to hold it there for 2-3mins might be kinda long.

[talnlnky]

a popular way used to be to hook a lightbulb up inline with the cap.... the light would turn on while the cap was charging... and would dim as it got more and more charged.

When the light went out, you knew the cap was close to being fully charged.


Its been about 8 years since I read about this method.... and I personally never used a cap... So I don't know if i'm leaving out any important details... I'm sure if you google capacitor, charge, lightbulb you'd come up with some instructions.

[battleversiontc]

thats also another method i mentioned thats actually a better way to know when its done charging

[IllusionX]

actually, a cap will never get a full charge.. it will TEND to a full charge, but it will never be fully charged.. or fully discharged..

[battleversiontc]

actually, a cap will never get a full charge.. it will TEND to a full charge, but it will never be fully charged.. or fully discharged..
:laughabove:
ok and the point is? you still need an intial charge on it so it dont matter if it doesnt fully charge or not. but in actually it does fully discharge i have put a multimeter to it to see if it has and it does and it also fully charges to so whats the point again

[talnlnky]

:laughabove:
ok and the point is? you still need an intial charge on it so it dont matter if it doesnt fully charge or not. but in actually it does fully discharge i have put a multimeter to it to see if it has and it does and it also fully charges to so whats the point again

I think he's arguing the semantics of a power source will only discharge to the point of where the voltage is at.... SO... realistically a cap won't fully discharge.

I'm not sure if this is true with caps... I know it is for batteries, and it would make sense for caps to be the same as well.

I don't see why one couldn't be fully charged however.

A cap can fully discharge I think.... they lose power, caps suck at storing power, they are actually a drain on your electrical system. So.. unhook a cap and leave it for a week, and it'll naturally have lost its charge if not connected to a power source.

[IllusionX]

it shows +-12v because the car charges it between 11.3 and 14.4v. of course you will read under 14v when plugging your voltmeter.

as talnlnky said.. a cap gets discharged quickly even when not in use, so i don't see the point of charging it before installing ?

you know those cap with a digital voltage reader right on it ? that uses power... you turn off your car/amp and go shopping for an hour.. your cap is already near empty.

[battleversiontc]

it shows +-12v because the car charges it between 11.3 and 14.4v. of course you will read under 14v when plugging your voltmeter.

as talnlnky said.. a cap gets discharged quickly even when not in use, so i don't see the point of charging it before installing ?

you know those cap with a digital voltage reader right on it ? that uses power... you turn off your car/amp and go shopping for an hour.. your cap is already near empty.

to answer the first part i didnt have it hooked up to the car when i tested it it was actually charged up and left then i put then i put the voltmeter to it i know that when connected to the car and when its running that it would read at that im not an idiot

it doesnt discharge that quickly

the ones with digital read outs actually shut off after awhile so its not depleting anything and a cap wont disharge that fast it even takes. if it did the car battery would disharge quickly to same theory

charging a cap is to ensure theres power in it if you just shock it to the battery it will throw a spark and will only surface charge.

[sportin83]

when a cap is hooked to the power wire it will stay charged as long as it keeps connection. if cap is disconnected or fuse blows on powerline, it will go dead rathr quickly. a cap will sit at whatever voltage the alt is at until you start playing and it will fluctuate with the power being pulled.