What is a Cap and what is it used for?

[aldive]

What is a Cap and what is it used for?

Thanks.......

 

[sideswipe]

hey al, i asked this question a while ago. do a search and something should turn up...

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by sideswipe
hey al, i asked this question a while ago. do a search and something should turn up...

Thanks....

 

[ChuckyD]

I could be wrong or this could be explined further, but, basically it stores power in the cap and when heavy bass hits instead of your power draining and your lights flickering it draws it from the cap first, hence making the stress on the batt and alt less.

 

[Michigander]

Originally posted by ChuckyD
I could be wrong or this could be explined further, but, basically it stores power in the cap and when heavy bass hits instead of your power draining and your lights flickering it draws it from the cap first, hence making the stress on the batt and alt less.

that's what i always though too.... but then again i'm not an audio genius

 

[Black Magic]

You can also take the cap and change it up real good. Then throw it to a friend and let them shock the s*!t out of them selfs!

WARNING - THIS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INJOURY OR DEATH, BUT IT'S DAMN FUNNY!

 

[tbomb]

Originally posted by Black Magic
You can also take the cap and change it up real good. Then throw it to a friend and let them shock the s*!t out of them selfs!

WARNING - THIS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INJOURY OR DEATH, BUT IT'S DAMN FUNNY!

yeah, actually, less than an hour in my ee class (electrical engineering), our teacher was charging up a 450 microfarad cap and discharging it with paperclips --> helluva a bright and loud explosion, heh

on a useful note, chuckyd is right about what it does.

 

[davesexplorer]

quick Q: does the cap have to be inline with the power source?, i thought it had to be.

 

[Brian's98XLT]

Actually a 12 volt cap is not going to zap you. There is not enough voltage for that. It would be like putting one hand on the positve terminal of the battery and the other hand on the negative.
The way too hook them up is that the positve from your battery goes to the positive terminal and the positve from your amp also gets hooked up to the positve of the cap. The negative terminal of the cap goes to ground and the negative from the amp goes to the negative termminal of the cap.
The way a cap works is by the fact that a cap has a lower resistance than a battery and is able to supply power to the amp faster than the battery. The cap can discharge and recharge faster than a battery.

 

[Black Magic]

Brian,

Now I could be wrong, but, with the little caps that we used from Radio Shack they would zap you really good. I would like to see you take a screw driver and cross the two terminals on a fully changed cap.

Like I said it might not do anything. But I know my friend was rearended and his 1 fa cap exploded when the terminals were crossed.

 

[leenjen]

Originally posted by Black Magic

Like I said it might not do anything. But I know my friend was rearended and his 1 fa cap exploded when the terminals were crossed.

any good capacitor for a car stereo will not explode no matter what you do tho it. the capacitor should have a vent on it so if the polarity gets crossed, a bunch of liquid goo will leak out. this prevents the explsion. i would never buy a capacitor so unsafe that it would explode in my car.

 

[tbomb]

Originally posted by Black Magic
Brian,

Now I could be wrong, but, with the little caps that we used from Radio Shack they would zap you really good. I would like to see you take a screw driver and cross the two terminals on a fully changed cap.

Like I said it might not do anything. But I know my friend was rearended and his 1 fa cap exploded when the terminals were crossed.

also, keep in mind (not as far as stereo stuff goes, but as far as electrical stuff goes), a 1 farad capacitor is a very big capacitor - thats a lot of energy to play with.

 

[Brian's98XLT]

A direct short with a highly conductive material like metal will normally result in damage to a cap or blow the thing up. I have had quite a few caps come back from customer who either hooked them up wrong or shorted the + and - terminal together and the top of the caps were blown off.
As far as getting a shock from the little caps do you know what the voltage of them was. I will bet it was more than 50 volts. It take voltage to over come the resistane of the body not current and 12 volts is just not enough unless you are maybe standing in a pool holding the 2 terminals
I would take a screw driver across a fully charged
while holding it if you were willing to pay for the thing because it will be damaged. The best dispaly I ever saw was buy a guy by the name of Richard Clark ( most guys in the busniess know this guys name) who took a fully charged 1 farad cap and put it down the front of his pants and shorted the terminals together.

 

[tbomb]

Originally posted by Brian's98XLT
The best dispaly I ever saw was buy a guy by the name of Richard Clark ( most guys in the busniess know this guys name) who took a fully charged 1 farad cap and put it down the front of his pants and shorted the terminals together.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

[Black Magic]

Did you say the front of his pants was shorted?