Re: Super Capacitors

Besides electric dragsters, what are they good for?

Spot welding? The rated max current for the 3000F ones is about 2kA, so you'd need a few of them in series and parallel to get enough current and voltage whilst remaining within ratings, and a big array of MOSFETs to switch the welding current.

Most of the uses on youtube seem to be starting car engines in very cold weather, and LED torches etc.

I think a little UPS for the raspberry pi would be handy, to allow it to close all its files before the power goes off, to prevent corrupting the SD card when someone pulls the plug. The main advantage of a small supercap over a LiPo might be that you could send it through the post and in all honesty tick the box to say there are no batteries inside. It might also last longer before the battery / cap needs replacing, perhaps.

Chris

Going off the subject a bit,what is this no batteries through post if I post something when I get lithium batteries from ebay through post all the time and millions of batteries get through post separately and built in items every day?

Don't ask me. Go to the post office and ask them (if you're in Australia). There are some nonsensical rules that have something to do with whether the battery is installed inside something or just a spare battery. The rules as written don't make sense, and the staff sometimes implement them in a way that is different again. The end result is that it is slightly advantageous to avoid using lithium batteries (including coin cell primary cells) because the rules are a hassle.

Chris

I have asked and got nowhere, just cant post batteries no mention of type.