SuperCapacitors / UltraCapacitors

[nige2000]

to we have a contender to lifepo4?


wonder if its cost effective


http://www.mouser.ie/ProductDetail/Maxw ... %252bwo%3d

[jkeny]

The one in the video is a 2600 Farad capacitor - cost about €50 & you would need 2 of them to be able to get 3.3V - €100
If you were powering them with 3.3V you would need a balancing circuit between the two caps to ensure 1.65V on each cap

[Animaniac]

http://www.bioennopower.com/collections ... capacitors

These are at 2.7V, maybe you can use it for 2 1.35V RAM sticks? I haven't gotten to capacitors yet in my readings.

[jrling]

nige - wondered if you had moved forward on using these at all?

I came across this Ultracap 5v PSU which is using two 310F Maxwells by the look of the blurb - http://audiobyte.net/products/hydra-zpm which is fairly modest capacity in terms of Ultracaps and cost now £7.85 each at Digikey. Even higher capacity ones now are very affordable and certainly on a par with the cost of LiFePO4 batteries.

To do a DIY Ultracap PSU would need a charging circuit/transformer, but not a lot else. Did you look at how that could be done?

The low ESR and lack of complexity (noise) potential looks like a pretty perfect PSU for digital. At 2.7v nominal, two of them in series is going to be perfect for 5v supplies like for WaveIO et al without need for regulation.

Cheers
Jonathan

[nige2000]

http://m.ebay.com/itm/201128294261?_mwBanner=1

These are quite useful and very reusable
Using a dual secondary transformer of about 3to 4 v you can either add the super caps in parallel or replace the ones in the reg once set at 2.5v

Unfortunately I haven't had much time for tinkering recently
But judging from my ram power mod there's definetly something to these supercaps

[jrling]

Thanks as always for insightful comment.

My main objective of using SuperCaps was to try and avoid the need for any mains supply running when playing music. I am only looking at the 5V PSU for my WaveIO which draws c. 1.75W, much less than your use of them.

Currently I am getting good results with an EasyAcc 12,000 maH LiPo mobile charger pack. They do though have a DC-DC converter inside.

The great appeal of SuperCaps, if they have enough storage to run the WaveIO for a good listening session, is that they look to be as noise-free as is possible to achieve. Lower ESR than LiPo batteries should mean they react quicker to current draw changes.

2.5V 3,000 Farad Maxwells are now £37.50 and two of them in parallel to give 5V might just be enough capacity.

Do you think putting say 310F Maxwells (£7.50) in parallel to the LiPo would give any improvement or is the battery DC-DC noise just going 'straight through'?

Thanks
Jonathan