Using a supercapacitor instead of a battery

[allan5oh]

http://www.esma-cap.com/Use/Transpor.../?lang=English

Very very interesting. I know someone that uses a cap to jump start trucks. The batteries can be almost completely dead. Hook up the capacitor for a few minutes, using the almost dead batteries to charge the capacitor. Then the truck fires right up!

The application for this would be to have one good quality deep cycle battery, with this capacitor isolated from the system(starting ONLY). Hell, even one 50W light would have that cap totally dead within an hour. That's what the deep cycle is for.

Imagine being able to park on a ramp, with all your marker lights on and the truck OFF and not having to worry about it!

The weight savings would be very welcome as well. Not only that, but you would probably never have to change a battery again! It's the cycles that kill the "quick discharge" batteries.

You could completely discharge that deep cycle battery, yet still be able to start. Not only that, the capacitor is not affected by temperature anywhere near as much as batteries are.

I've already emailed them asking a few questions. I'll keep you guys updated!

[allan5oh]

My concern would be how much do the caps leak(ALL caps leak) and how long can this cap sustain turning over an engine?

[possum squat]

The application for this would be to have one good quality deep cycle battery, with this capacitor isolated from the system(starting ONLY). !

I think it would need to be wired parallel to the starter AND both positive and negative plates be isolated with some sort of electronical sensing contacts to avoid discharging back through the circuit (I dont know how but wouldnt be suprized )....or just manual switches.

What size caps are they talking about?

[Windwalker]

The application for this would be to have one good quality deep cycle battery, with this capacitor isolated from the system(starting ONLY). !

I think it would need to be wired parallel to the starter AND both positive and negative plates be isolated with some sort of electronical sensing contacts to avoid discharging back through the circuit (I dont know how but wouldnt be suprized )....or just manual switches.

What size caps are they talking about?

I'm afraid that the amount of capacitance required to sustain cranking until the engine fires would be a bit more volume than the current batteries. Also, with the current type of dielectric used between the plates of the capacitor, the amount of leakage would not sustain cranking overnight. It would be about the same as an AIR-STARTER. And what do you do if the air drains off? Have one of those little 12 volt air compressors to charge up your air tanks.

Some years ago, I had a capacitor on a motorcycle. It worked well to take place of the battery when running, but hit the starter, and the charge in the capacitor was instantly drained. It required being KICK-STARTED every time. However, the capacitor did last for ten years until I sold the bike.

[allan5oh]

These units would be a little different then the ones "in the old days". They're a different design, and do not leak much at all.

But you're right, they wouldn't crank the engine more then 10 seconds probably.

The big one is 35,000 watts. That's a lot of jam. 3,000+ amps.

I like the idea the old bombers had. They used a blank 12 gauge shotgun shells and that produced the air pressure required to turn over those big ass radial engines.

Caps are pretty cool though. They can recharge themselves with almost no power at all over a period of time then release all they have in a second.

[allan5oh]

Yeah that's where I heard about these, a guy I know from a truck service shop uses them on the dead trucks. Charges the cap for about 30 seconds off the DEAD batteries, and the truck starts!