How many watts can you run?

[xtremerevolution]

wait, I do not need an explanation from that guy to know my cart benefits form them. so are you saying they are good or bad, I cant understand you?

You do need an explanation because you're still not sure of whether or not a cap is good or bad. Please take the time to read the whole post. There's valid and undeniable math behind what's being said that proves that capacitors are a colossal waste of time and money.

I have a Boss 3.5 farad cap with digi display. it ensures there are no voltage drops. the only time that is useful is all the time.

being they are for SQ cars I will not dispute. $400? that must be a good one.

How many SQ competitors use capacitors? Show me one that has won a competition using a capacitor. Capacitors don't do jack shit in a car. In fact, want mine? Its been out of my car since I put the IDMax in and I've yet to hear, feel, or measure a voltage difference. 1 Farad Rockford Fosgate. Worst $20 I ever spent on my car.

Pay for shipping and its yours; I have no use for it. The only thing that cap ever did was buzz the hell out of Bob when he was working on my electrical system and didn't know it was in there.

[white4d96]

You do need an explanation because you're still not sure of whether or not a cap is good or bad. Please take the time to read the whole post. There's valid and undeniable math behind what's being said that proves that capacitors are a colossal waste of time and money.



How many SQ competitors use capacitors? Show me one that has won a competition using a capacitor. Capacitors don't do jack shit in a car. In fact, want mine? Its been out of my car since I put the IDMax in and I've yet to hear, feel, or measure a voltage difference. 1 Farad Rockford Fosgate. Worst $20 I ever spent on my car.

Pay for shipping and its yours; I have no use for it. The only thing that cap ever did was buzz the hell out of Bob when he was working on my electrical system and didn't know it was in there.

Bahahaha awesome!

[Garrett Powered]

It said it was useless for improving SQ in that post. a bunch of stuff said about caps not proving they are worthless, in fact I read stuff supporting their use in car audio.

Bob got zapped by 12volt?


but if you are expecting to somehow hear an audible difference by cushioning your alternator and you are not, well...then it's working. leaves you to concentrate on just your music and whether you are actually hearing it all.

[xtremerevolution]

It said it was useless for improving SQ in that post. a bunch of stuff said about caps not proving they are worthless, in fact I read stuff supporting their use in car audio.

Bob got zapped by 12volt?


but if you are expecting to somehow hear an audible difference by cushioning your alternator and you are not, well...then it's working. leaves you to concentrate on just your music and whether you are actually hearing it all.

Let me know when you read the post. I think it proves pretty blatantly that caps are useless.

[RobertISaar]

speaking from a general electronics point of view(which i believe i have a damn good grasp on):

batteries and capacitors do more or less the same thing: store energy.

now, the big difference between them are two things, one of which was mentioned: capacity(which caps suck at, oddly enough) and the time it takes them to charge/discharge(which caps are VERY good at, since they can charge/discharge almost instantaneously, assuming no/low resistance from where the voltage is either coming from or going to).

i'm not suggesting anyone do this(imagine if you will), but charge up a common ~1F cap to near it's full rated voltage, then get a battery of the same capacity and charge it to near it's full rated voltage. now find a way to connect the positive and negative terminals using a material that can handle a large amount of amperage and has very low resistance. you'll notice after a very bright initial flashweld, the cap will drain almost instantly. the battery, not so much, it can only deliver so much of it's stored capacity so quickly due to it's design.



so, what have we learned? caps charge/discharge faster than a battery, so assuming the rest of your electrical system is up to par, it will only be useful(noticable) when your amp(or anything else in-vehicle) is trying to draw more power than the battery and alt can provide without a severe voltage drop. if you add more batteries, you increase the amount of power you can instaneously draw without that happening. you can also get ahold of an alt that provides more output and have the same effect.

FWIW.

[xtremerevolution]

speaking from a general electronics point of view(which i believe i have a damn good grasp on):

batteries and capacitors do more or less the same thing: store energy.

now, the big difference between them are two things, one of which was mentioned: capacity(which caps suck at, oddly enough) and the time it takes them to charge/discharge(which caps are VERY good at, since they can charge/discharge almost instantaneously, assuming no/low resistance from where the voltage is either coming from or going to).

i'm not suggesting anyone do this(imagine if you will), but charge up a common ~1F cap to near it's full rated voltage, then get a battery of the same capacity and charge it to near it's full rated voltage. now find a way to connect the positive and negative terminals using a material that can handle a large amount of amperage and has very low resistance. you'll notice after a very bright initial flashweld, the cap will drain almost instantly. the battery, not so much, it can only deliver so much of it's stored capacity so quickly due to it's design.



so, what have we learned? caps charge/discharge faster than a battery, so assuming the rest of your electrical system is up to par, it will only be useful(noticable) when your amp(or anything else in-vehicle) is trying to draw more power than the battery and alt can provide without a severe voltage drop. if you add more batteries, you increase the amount of power you can instaneously draw without that happening. you can also get ahold of an alt that provides more output and have the same effect.

FWIW.

And considering the price of some capacitors these days and how little they actually do, an extra battery is even more cost effective.

[RobertISaar]

assuming it can cover your instantaneous demands? sure, why not. you can never have too much energy storage.

personally, i would spend money on wiring/alt/battery (in that order, i would think), before going to cap(s), since all 3 of those things would need to be at their peak for a cap to be used to it's fullest potential anyways.

[xtremerevolution]

assuming it can cover your instantaneous demands? sure, why not. you can never have too much energy storage.

personally, i would spend money on wiring/alt/battery (in that order, i would think), before going to cap(s), since all 3 of those things would need to be at their peak for a cap to be used to it's fullest potential anyways.

About the cap and the power it can actually assist with, what do you have to say about it with respect to the post I made earlier? If you are already pulling well over 1000W of power when you actually need something like a capacitor, will the 50W it can provide once before recharging actually do anything?

[RobertISaar]

depends.... if the alt and battery alone can provide all of the power that the amp is trying to draw, it's not going to contribute much if anything.

however

if your battery and alt CANNOT provide the instantaneous current required, then the cap's presence will be noticable. since can charge as quickly as it discharges, whenever system voltage starts rising above the voltage that the system dropped to during the high draw event, the cap charges and is ready to contribute during the next high draw event.



this is exactly why the rest of the electrical system NEEDS to be up to par when using a cap to get any appreciable effect from it. if the alt can't quickly replace the "reserve" that was drawn upon during the high draw, or if the wiring to/from the cap/alt/battery circuit has too much resistance(all the way down to mOhms will be significant), or if the battery itself doesn't have a high enough capacity to keep it from dropping voltage too quickly, they all nullify it's existance and the cap will only be useful for the first high draw event it is subjected to.

[Garrett Powered]

I have had weak batteries and still enjoyed the cushioning effect of the capacitor during voltage spikes created when the radiator fan kicked on. it was a beautiful thing. the cap was fully charged even though the battery was weak, and it kept the alt's regulator from getting hammered on in that event.

[xtremerevolution]

depends.... if the alt and battery alone can provide all of the power that the amp is trying to draw, it's not going to contribute much if anything.

however

if your battery and alt CANNOT provide the instantaneous current required, then the cap's presence will be noticable. since can charge as quickly as it discharges, whenever system voltage starts rising above the voltage that the system dropped to during the high draw event, the cap charges and is ready to contribute during the next high draw event.



this is exactly why the rest of the electrical system NEEDS to be up to par when using a cap to get any appreciable effect from it. if the alt can't quickly replace the "reserve" that was drawn upon during the high draw, or if the wiring to/from the cap/alt/battery circuit has too much resistance(all the way down to mOhms will be significant), or if the battery itself doesn't have a high enough capacity to keep it from dropping voltage too quickly, they all nullify it's existance and the cap will only be useful for the first high draw event it is subjected to.

So let's say my electrical can deliver 90amps and my amplifier is trying to pull 120amps, what good is a capacitor going to do me?

Sent from my HTC Awesome using Tapatalk

[RobertISaar]

i had a nice long post written, hit post, and then network connection dropped, causing me to lose it....

so, in short:

1. if the periods between the excessive draw(beyond what the alt supplies) are long enough, the cap will charge when the alt supply isn't being exceeded and you'll notice no significant voltage drop.

or

2. if the periods between the draws aren't long enough, or are too severe and the cap doesn't have enough time to charge between draws, you'll go from no voltage drop to battery voltage pretty quickly, depending on draw duration, draw off period, and draw severity.

Rick has seen one of the non-audio related effects a cap can have, since the fans can temporarily draw up to ~80 amps IIRC, then as they spool up the current draw drops down to normal.

[Garrett Powered]

He just said that the rest of the electrical system needs to be up to par before getting appreciable effects from it. however I disagree because it will still cushion the regulator and that really helps delay thermal shutdown. especially with older cs130's using internally mounted regulators.

[Garrett Powered]

sorry , you beat me to it...

[Nofear10499]

http://www.alternatorparts.com/chevy3_1old.htm eve have 250amp Alternator
http://www.zzperformance.com/grand_p...=178&catid=108