#139 Is there a simple and cheap way to protect your super caps? How? 

Best supercapacitor video on the internet

Finally someone explains how to use Ultra capacitors instead of doing a show

Morning Andreas 😀 I've been working on my solar all week with my super caps. This video is a great addition and has demystified a lot. I will be adding this component to my list of purchases right now. Wonderful work, always worth the wait and you never disappoint.

Your videos are always of a superior quality! Thanks!

Genius... And as always, Awesome... 🙌 Had worked with super capacitor banks with inbuilt protection on a project, but never cared what went into it... your make a lot of difference to our knowledge Sir!

tl431 rocks! perfect for driving an optocoupler in isolated voltage comparators. much used in power supplies. thanks for another great video andreas

Many thanks for the tutorial!

Again a great video ! You're an excellent professor.

very nice to know that there is basically a programmable zener with such a sharp curve. thanks for testing the different methods

Excellent! Thank you. I'm using a Pi 3 to run Node Red in a building automation system and I was about to use a battery for clean shutdown but I prefer supercaps for longevity. Protection of those caps was always a sore point.

Thank you for helping humanity!

Andreas, thanks for this video. As always - very interesting.

Many thanks for this informartive video. My question : why do you use a zenerdiode on the transistor-base and which voltage ? Best regards from germany

Having a bag of those TL431 laying around is really useful. They go into pretty much every op amp circuit I build when there's signal to invert, amplify or just generally adjust to max out the resolution of a connected ADC (in a micro controller for example).

Top notch and upside down at times. Loved it.

thank you for the excellent video and great descriptions.

Excellent! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Excellent & understandable description - in contrast to many others (mainly USA!) videos.

a VERY handy design, thanks a lot!

so many starters about super capacitors but so little of the real usage, thanks to your video I will build UPS-like for my RPI 4 but using the high capacitance, maybe 500F, lets see how it works. my RPI 4 (3 pieces) are working as servers and sudden power off is not what the SSDs inside would like to happen - great video with basics to start with

Interesting and useful. Thanks.

Another great video, thanks !!!

Watching this video made me recall your #436 video about voltage supervisors. I forgot that in that video you were talking about KA75xx0. So I opened it again to check if you were talking about TL431 in that video too. As it turned out: no :) But these parts are still looking very similar to me :)

I really don't understand why are some people criticizing your video and your circuit? You DID explain everything well!

thanks, awesome video.

Thank.s Bro. Good Job. Paul. Latvia.

Well done, Thanks you

But the commercial product, in the end, was unable to comply with the USB specs... it's an "happy end" or not, about them? I'm on my way buying some of these rounded chinese boards!

Thanks

Hi Andreas, thanks for this great video. I am currently planning to build a small LED torchlight with supercaps and I was considering to protect them with a TL431. So I am intrigued by the protection circuit that you reverse engineered. I suspect that what you have as a zener diode in your circuit is actually a small signal transistor. This would explain why the power transistor is PNP.

Hi Andreas... Supercapacitors are ready quite expensive in India. What I found ceap is 16v 1000uf capacitors. Can you do a video of making an array of , say, 100 (even 500 or 1000) of these whether it could be used on solar as a battery pack ... U know, in parallel. What's the upside/downside? Will it store enough power as a boost to my solar setup?

At 9:30, Rsup is necessary, even with USB voltage. The whole idea of protection is not for normal situations, but for situations when something goes wrong. Rsup must be there to limit the current for situations when something is malfunctioning, like e.g. a defective TL431 or a shorted supercap. I like your videos, thanks and keep them coming, please!

Very nice + useful

Andreas, thank you very much for the most informative videos! What would you think about using 5.5V 4F computer backup supercaps? They don't need protection circuitry and 4 in parallel would yield 16F of storage capability. I would believe this should support the RPI3 until shutdown. Kind regards, Mike

Thanks for another great informative video. I have two of the CSDWELL six capacitor pcb's and was very curious about the circuit. I'm also interested in this type of circuit as Li-ion balance board since the prebuilt ones are all 4.2V and not adjustable (I want 4.1V)

I used power mosfets with Vth at 2.5V to protect my supercap battery. It worked fairly well.

Dear Andreas, I like your videos very much. I noticed you reversed cathode (drawn blue) and anode (drawn white) side in the schematic which is shown around 0:56. Keep the good work coming. Kind regards.

Obrigado!

hi i have been watching your videos quite some time, you are clear and detail, i have a query if i want to build super capacitor 'battery' in series 6 nos each of 2.7v 500f, for car starter, need build protection as shown on single pcb with parts ( importing has stopped/ banned since covid.) pls help

Great video! Very informative. In the schematic for the balancer board, what is the role of the zener diode connected to the base of the npn transistor? is the purpose of the 3 1.2ohm resistors to dissipate or bleed current from the capacitor? if so wouldn't the npn be on when the reference is under the trip point?

Amazing!!

Nice video. I thought the protection modules would use a specialized IC. The TL431 is one of my favourite parts. I guess I could use it with a pass transistor to make a lipo/li-ion balance module.

Hi. Thanks alot for sharing your valuable reverse engneering. i am unable to find D1804 transistor in my local market. So i am planning to replace it with APM4010 mosfet. Is it possible to do so. Or i need to replace some other components too?

I was wondering Mr Spiess. Would it be possible to build an esp, super cap and small solar panel. That will charge the super cap, once it contains enough energy to send off a reading, power up and shuts down, wait for voltage to rise and repeat. In essence it will be self powered. As I am looking into wind and solar and neither is a continuous input of power. I did not want to have to deploy a battery. So my thoughts are when there is enough wind/sun it can harvest power and then send my readings to my DietPi 😀😀😀 Would you mind exploring this in the way that you do Andreas. That would be a great help Thank you

Awsome video. If you used multiple zenor diodes would it have a more agresssive/ safer protection effect between the two Capacitors voltage differences? Like keep the higher voltage capacitor from going past the 2.7volts?

Can we use this for 5 v capacitors , for that we will use voltage divider 10k-10k and feed middle point to refarance of tl431 and one more question here used 3x1.2 ohm resistor in parallel so can we use 0.4 ohms directly?

thanks going to connect 5x500f and looking for charging method. Charge individually i think the safest way but tedious.

Very cool design Andreas. What's the value of R5, R6 resistors?

Weary useful for me

Danke!

Well done mate :-) But one thing you should mention for beginners (or i missed it?) is that in series you lose capacity 1/c total = 1/c1 +1/c2 +1/c3... :-)

Advice: Check out a company called Amperics, they sell 3.0v ultracapacitors for VERY inexpensive. I spent $80 an scored 40 of the 50F ones! They are tested and proven 3.0v (I personaly determined most don't breakdown until ~3.6-3.63v and the worst was 3.43v, so in series that's at least 6v easy!)

Andreas, Thank you. A couple of things: Check out the ALD series ALD8100xx for example. Also I don't see a voltage value for the BX84 diode, ex. BX84C2V4. 14.4k/180k = 2.7V; 12/180 = 2.66 volts Rob

Hi Mr. Spiess. I wish to put 3 super caps 10uF/2.8v in series= 8.4v unprotected., on a rc helicopter which is powered with 7.4 volts. Do you think will working?

some of these board have a LED on them , so when they are charged the led will light , any idea of that circuit ?

perfect

Sir, Its a nice video. I brought the balancing board. I tried testing the balancing board for verifying its regulation by connecting the supercapacitor and a variable power supply to the same slot and used a multimeter to measure the voltage of the supercapacitor. Not sure if the method is right because the multimeter would not be able to show the actual voltage of super cap as the source is also connected to same point. By this method, I find the voltage rising above 2.8V. Didnt check after that. Is there any way to ascertain that regulation is happening? What is the max applicable voltage to the board for the regulation to happen?

Would this be overkill or safer if used with a tesla coil capacitor bank

I bought those protectors as well, for my 500 F caps. But according to specifications it can only hold less than 1 A (actually the resistors will blow up since they use 0.4 ohm smd resistors, how much Watt can that withstand? They will get up to 6 Amps above 2.65 Volt). Can I remove the small smd resistors and use real 20 W 0.5 Ohm external resistor? How much current can the mosfet switch? (I found it: the D1804 is a silicon NPN transistor and not a mosfet, Ucb = 60V, Ic = 8A). So we can switch up to 8 A. Using 2 external resistors of 1 Ohm in parallel we create 0.5 ohm. We could then divert or reroute 5.3 Amps. The resistors would need to be P=i*i*R = 2.65*2.65=7 Watt each (10 Watt each is even better). What do you think of this? (I will set up a test bench for this soon as I have the parts needed).

i have 2 * 2.7 10f supercap in series and power input from USB type C so i need to place this diode or this solution to my circuit or it is okk ??

Which switching circuit topology you can suggest for FAST charging large capacitance supercaps? (3Series)

Sir can we also use LM317 adjustable voltage regulator ?

What if you just put a medium power transistor with a 2v or 2.2v zener between collector and base ?

Thanks for sharing. :-) One thing, in the diagram you have inverted the capacitors, so +5V is connected to the MINUS pol of the capacitors.. This happens

1) when i charge 5 x 2.7v 500F, the light appear at the protection board. What is the problem. 2) The capacitor voltage drop so fast offload

I don't see how it protects each series capacitor from being reverse charged, since tolerance is 20% some capacitors charge and discharge faster. So the lower value capacitors will reverse charge right after they discharge (in a series circuit)

It seems, that schematic of the commercial protector is wrong! The transistor Q2 will be opened until voltage across device will reach 2.66V. At that voltage, transistor will be closed. So this schematic is working in the opposite way as is expected. Either super capacitor connection terminals should be in the Q2 collector current path, either transistor should be pnp type and resistors R4-R6 tied to minus terminal.

I don't know why i am watching this even if my pi an asus eeepc701 is now dead but The video was useful I will get new pi in next month

Hi Andreas

Hello ! It seems that the translation option is blocked again ...

Zener doides almost forgot that curve on the graph. Check out my next video may need a hand mate. What can I say about your video Andreas as alway amazing work.

Thank you for this excellent video. Else I would have destroyed my Supercaps.

This is what I use with my solar NEW! BULLZ AUDIO 2200W 12V BCAP 2.2 Digital Car Power Farad Capacitor | BCAP2.2, with no charge controller or battery, I also use this DC Converter 12V to 5V 3A Double 2 USB to Auto Power Regulator Voltage Step Down with it

Hi Andreas. To make your videos more clear, you should say "charge" instead of load - load gives no meaning in this context. - I know that english is not your main language, but you are doing very well anyway :D

We can use this idea and use Super Capacitor Balancing Protection Board as a voltage supervisor for an MCU, no? :-\

Hallo Andreas Regarding the "Gold Caps" there are also versions with 5.5V like this one sold by Conrad..Or are they different ones from your video (lower characteristics?)? www.conrad.de/de/p/473120-gold-cap-kondensator-1-f-5-5-v-30-x-h-21-5-mm-x-10-mm-1-st-473120.html As for the protection circuit I found this interesting video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dJklnvxLR5A.html VG George

Question regarding its charging procedure and working. Question -1) Is For super capacitor the charging voltage should be always10 percent less than the capacitor rated voltage.To increase the life of capacitor. Question-2) regarding charging current to these capacitor for example 3 volt capacitor of 500F connected in series of 27 pcs.so total voltage will be 81 volts and capacitance will be 18.5 farads.Hence what will be the safer charging current.if we connect it to 79 volts,45 amps power supply.(transformer type power supply). Is there any problem to capacitors. Question-3) after capacitors fully charged it means voltage across the series capacitance network will be 79 volts is equal to power supply voltage. hence in these condition if the capacitor network remains in the circuit parallelly with the power supply with no load connected. Is there any problem of heating capacitors. Question-4) Is there any need for protection circuit.i seen protection boards available in markets. Question-5) What is the leakage current of these capacitors.500F,3V Question-6) terminal resistance of these capacitors.500F,3V waiting for your reply

Are you really up this early? Damn!

grüezi würd ez i zeige wie me en speicherserverli mache chönt mit himbere pi3

I think that the circuit diagram is incorrect ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NsTAyD2i3rc.html The transistor should be PNP.

Hello Andreas I came across another video for using a different balancer circuit but i have been left bewildered and lost he has made a custom circuit for thus setup. I am a complete rookie in electronics but more practical and would love if you could help me in the balancing circuit he has used. The video is as follows ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7nya-x_D6G4.html I would really appreciate your help. Thankyou for video love the content