3000 Farad ultracapacitors, cheap used surplus

Yeah, and I shoulda tried messing with those, because it wasn't until decades later that Nyle Steiner discovered you could make one out of almost nothing:

Three-inch TEA nitrogen laser

Whaaa HO! Wow that is kewl!

--Winston

ng.

Does IRC have anything to handle 3kA? If so I bet it's unobtanium and megabucks. No, I was thinking more like an array of 10 or 20 regular parts. Goldmine even had a few candidates.

Arrrgh!

-- Cheers, James Arthur

I think thyristors have the highest available surge current rating in a single part. I was idly looking at this with the idea of making a source for the IEC surge test (0.5-4.0kV with 2 ohm source impedance IIRC).

I got as far as buying a box of non-roHS electrolytics going cheap...

Dunno, but even so, that wouldn't mean it's not in their catalog as such.

Time for a TEA Party...

-- Cheers, James Arthur

e:

ap

o,

Bang.

the

ble

That makes sense. On the flip side it'd be hard to turn those babies off for a less-than-complete discharge. Oh, and their forward drop takes a big bite out of a 2.5v supercap.

So, that leaves bipolars and FETs, AFAICT.

Goldmine has the STB80NF10, which is surge-spec'd for 320A, Rds(on) I was idly looking at this with the idea of making a source

I did that back in the day with...a spark gap (for some surge standard, I don't remember which). I made the HV cap, winding mylar and aluminum foil. Had to, since we needed it immediately and didn't have a suitable, massive-surge capable HV energy-storage cap on hand. The inductor was made from copper tubing.

I got a couple batches of those too, likely with similar ambitions...electrodischarge machining, spot welding, surge- generation, magnet-charging, etc.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Bang.

Sure, it's no good for the supercap, I was thinking more of JLs couple of hundred surplus electrolytics (and my own slightly smaller collection).

Sounds like fun!

Mine will probably stay in their box for the next 20 years - too busy with more boring - but lucrative - stuff.

Thyratrons (tubes, mon, tubes) do a lovely job - especially at a few hundred to multi-kV levels. We used a piddly little one to fire the big ugly one switching 30KV in the nitrogen lasers (and a 555 to fire the piddly little one and set the rate). Not electrolytics...I suppose you could stack a few supercaps to get some reasonable voltage, but less "super" with better numbers for actual use are probably more sensible.

I had formed the impression that if I mentioned these I was liable to end up on a List.

But I see they appear to be available on ebay now, and great fun they look too!