A circuit demonstrating exponential decay....

[[email protected]]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

Ideas?

Thanks,
Will

 

[John Fields]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

No.

Try this:

+------->\ <------+
| \ |
|+ O |
[BAT] |+ [LAMP]
| [1F] |
| | |
+----------+---------+

It ought to work with the 0.1F as well.

 

[John Popelish]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

It might produce a brief flash. There are a couple problems with
lamps in this experiment. The first is the very low resistance of a
cold filament. By the time the filament has gotten hot enough to see,
most of the energy has already been drained out pf the capacitor with
a much shorter time constant than you are expecting. The second
problem is that the light output from a filament is at all
proportional to the current through the lamp.

I suggest you go back to your original cap, but replace the lamp with
a red LED. it will produce light very nearly proportional to the
current through it, and you should see a nice decay each time you
reverse the capacitor connections. I say a red LED, because it takes
less voltage to light it than other colors.

 

[Bob Monsen]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

Ideas?

Thanks,
Will

I think the cap is doomed to failure. The bulb probably draws more than
500mA. Thus, the voltage will change at 0.5V/s. If there is even 1 ohm
of resistance in the cap, it'll suck up 0.5V, probably preventing your
bulb from lighting at all.

If you have a darlington transistor, (or two NPN transistors,) you can
use it to do something similar to what you want, although you will have
to use a couple of batteries in series.

Use a 100uF capacitor, and a 100k resistor; connect both to ground, and
to each other. Connect the positive junction between them to the base of
the darlington. Then, connect your flashlight battery to the emitter of
the darlington, and the collector to 3V.

Now, momentarily touch the junction of the base, 100uF, and 100k
resistor to 3V, through a normally open pushbutton or something.

It'll charge up to 3V. When you release the button, it will decay down
to 0V using a nearly exponential decay. The bulb will thus have an
exponential decay of the voltage across it, and should dim accordingly,
over about 5 seconds.

I just built one using two 2N4401 transistors to simulate the
darlington. I only had a 3V flashlight, so I set my power supply to
4.5V, and gave it a try. It starts out quite bright, and decays over a
period of about 7 seconds to nothing. It is hard to determine if the
decay is exponential, but I'm guessing that the non-linearities in light
vs voltage are keeping that from happening.

The flashlight bulb passes 0.5A at 3V, so the 4401 is getting warm.
However, it's well within the dissipation limits of the device.


.-------------o---o----------.
| | | |
no switch |/ | |
o------o----| ' |
| | |> |/ ---
| | |-| - 3V minimum
| | |> |
'+ .-. | |
=== | | | ---
/-\ | | .-. -
| '-' ( X ) |
| | '-' |
| | | |
'------o----------o----------'
(created by AACircuit v1.28.5 beta 02/06/05 www.tech-chat.de)

 

[John Fields]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

No.

Try this:

+------->\ <------+
| \ |
|+ O |
[BAT] |+ [LAMP]
| [1F] |
| | |
+----------+---------+

It ought to work with the 0.1F as well.

---

Or, better yet:

+-----> |
| |
| O
|+ |
[BAT] +------+
| |+ |
| [1F] [LAMP]
| | |
+--------+------+

That way, when you turn the switch ON the battery will get the lamp up
to operating temperature and charge the cap at the same time, then
when you turn the switch OFF the cap will discharge through the lamp
without having to use a lot of its charge to heat the filament from a
cold start.

 

[[email protected]]

Or, better yet:


+-----> |
| |
| O
|+ |
[BAT] +------+
| |+ |
| [1F] [LAMP]
| | |
+--------+------+


I like it, but I think the (assumed) high cap resistance of the 1 f
double layer electric cap will prevent it from working.


If I use a 0.1 f electrolytic and the hot bulb has 5 ohms resistance I
can get a time constant of 0.5 seconds, which isn't what I was hoping
for but isn't bad. (If the electrolytic has negligible internal
resistance).

 

[[email protected]]

I like the LED idea, what is its resistance?

 

[[email protected]]

.-------------o---o----------.
| | | |
no switch |/ | |
o------o----| ' |
| | |> |/ ---
| | |-| - 3V minimum
| | |> |
'+ .-. | |
=== | | | ---
/-\ | | .-. -
| '-' ( X ) |
| | '-' |
| | | |
'------o----------o----------'

Nice work. But.... I'm trying to put this thing together for a
calculus book for junior high students to illustrate an exponential
function (starting from the DE characerizing the circuit) in nature, so
the circuit has to easy for anyone to wire up. Hence, no
transistors... etc.

I did take a few EE course in college, and as I recall caps always had
0 resistance. What are the facts? How about a 0.1 farad electrolytic?

 

[John Popelish]

I like the LED idea, what is its resistance?

It is very nonlinear, like any forward biased diode. The higher the
current, the lower the resistance. I was assuming that the high
internal resistance of the double layer capacitor would dominate the
time constant.

 

[Bob Monsen]

.-------------o---o----------.
| | | |
no switch |/ | |
o------o----| ' |
| | |> |/ ---
| | |-| - 3V minimum
| | |> |
'+ .-. | |
=== | | | ---
/-\ | | .-. -
| '-' ( X ) |
| | '-' |
| | | |
'------o----------o----------'

Nice work. But.... I'm trying to put this thing together for a
calculus book for junior high students to illustrate an exponential
function (starting from the DE characerizing the circuit) in nature, so
the circuit has to easy for anyone to wire up. Hence, no
transistors... etc.




I did take a few EE course in college, and as I recall caps always had
0 resistance. What are the facts? How about a 0.1 farad electrolytic?

Caps have both resistance (called ESR) and inductance (called ESL).

Here is a tutorial containing more that you ever wanted to know about
capacitors:

http://my.execpc.com/~endlr/index.html

BTW, if the students have access to multimeters, it's easier to just
have them take time measurements of voltage across a resistor in an RC
setup. 100uF + 1MEG ohm gives a time constant of 100, so measurements
are likely to end up looking exponential on a graph in a lab. Two
students, one saying 5, 10, 15, 20... the other recording voltage at
that time.

Also, the parts are much cheaper (except the multimeter, of course,
which they could share).

 

[John Fields]

Or, better yet:


+-----> |
| |
| O
|+ |
[BAT] +------+
| |+ |
| [1F] [LAMP]
| | |
+--------+------+


I like it, but I think the (assumed) high cap resistance of the 1 f
double layer electric cap will prevent it from working.

---
Take a look at this:

http://www.elna-america.com/PDF/DZ-N.PDF

Note that the 1F unit has an internal resistance of less than or equal
to 0.12 ohms.

If you look up the spec's for a 1728 lamp (1.35V, 0.06A) it'll present
a resistance of about

E 1.35V
R = --- = ------- = 22.5 ohms,
I 0.06A

when it's hot, so that 0.12 ohm ESR in the cap is only going to "kick
in" and decrease the initial current through the lamp by about 5% when
the switch is opened.
---

If I use a 0.1 f electrolytic and the hot bulb has 5 ohms resistance I
can get a time constant of 0.5 seconds, which isn't what I was hoping
for but isn't bad. (If the electrolytic has negligible internal
resistance).

---
See above. With a 1F cap discharging into a lit bulb with a filament
resistance of 22.5 ohms in series with the cap's 0.12 ohm ESR one
would expect a time constant of about 22.5 seconds, but since the
lamp's filament resistance will be dropping as the cap's charge
becomes depleted and its output voltage decreases, the time constant
will be considerably shorter. How much shorter? I don't know, but if
I took a WAG I'd say by about a factor of two.

IMO, that would be an interesting experiment/ exercise for you or your
students to perform. That is, calculating the filament resistance by
measuring the current through it with different voltages across it,
and then determining the time constant of the system as the resistance
falls because of the decay of the capacitor voltage across the falling
filament resistance.

 

[Rich Grise]

[email protected] wrote:
Caps have both resistance (called ESR) and inductance (called ESL).

Here is a tutorial containing more that you ever wanted to know about
capacitors:

http://my.execpc.com/~endlr/index.html

BTW, if the students have access to multimeters, it's easier to just
have them take time measurements of voltage across a resistor in an RC
setup. 100uF + 1MEG ohm gives a time constant of 100, so measurements
are likely to end up looking exponential on a graph in a lab. Two
students, one saying 5, 10, 15, 20... the other recording voltage at
that time.

Also, the parts are much cheaper (except the multimeter, of course,
which they could share).

Be sure and use _analog_ multimeters, you know, the kind with a
meter needle? DVMs are almost useless for this sort of thing.

And I've done this very thing, except with a fairly large aluminum
electrolytic cap, maybe 1000 - 10000 uF (I don't remember the exact
value), ~24 VDC, and an LED + 1K resistor. The voltage across the
resistor was 1V per mA, of course.

I was amazed - from 20 mA down to 10 mA, the brightness seemed not
to change _at all_, at least to the naked eye (shame on you! Put
some clothes on!) over a period of about a second, and then decreased
practically linearly from 10 mA to zero. I _saw_ the knee at 10 mA! I
even turned off the room lights, where the LED was the only light in the
room, and the LED just kept dimming, and dimming, and dimming, until there
was zero light at zero current.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[[email protected]]

Here is a tutorial containing more that you ever wanted to know about
capacitors:

Nothing on double electric layer caps that I can find .

 

[[email protected]]

And I've done this very thing, except with a fairly large aluminum
electrolytic cap, maybe 1000 - 10000 uF (I don't remember the exact
value), ~24 VDC, and an LED + 1K resistor. The voltage across the
resistor was 1V per mA, of course.


Excellent. I see that 100000 uF electorlytics are available cheap, so
that's good.... and I suppose I could go with a 9 volt battery.... (not
having a power supply)

I'm not really concerned that the LED brightness doesn't accurately
represent an exponential, I just want the thing to slowly turn
off.....that will be enough.

I'll give this one a go.

Thanks,
Will

 

[[email protected]]

Take a look at this:

http://www.elna-america.com/PD­F/DZ-N.PDF


Excellent. I didn't find the internal resistance spec for my Panasonic
double layer 1 farad ... but according to the spec for the ELNA the
internal resistance is 10% the usual, and is what .12 ohms which means
the Panasonic should be about an ohm which means my original circuit
should have worked.....

In any case..... I'd like to get one of these caps if they're cheap.

I did hook mine up the wrong way .......once.... maybe I cooked it.

Hmmmmm, in any case, we're getting there.

Thanks,
Will

 

[Bob Monsen]

capacitors:

Nothing on double electric layer caps that I can find .

Hmm, I guess it isn't the be all and end all site. Drat.

 

[John Fields]

Take a look at this:

http://www.elna-america.com/PD?/DZ-N.PDF


Excellent. I didn't find the internal resistance spec for my Panasonic
double layer 1 farad ... but according to the spec for the ELNA the
internal resistance is 10% the usual, and is what .12 ohms which means
the Panasonic should be about an ohm which means my original circuit
should have worked.....

Not necessarily. Because of the low cold resistance of the lamp
filament in series with the cap's one ohm ESR,

http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/ABC0000CE7.pdf

you might not have been able to get enough energy into the filament to
heat it up to incandescence before the charge in the cap was depleted.
It also depends on the thermal time constant of the filament.

Note that the ESR of their 10F offering is <0.1 ohm
---

In any case..... I'd like to get one of these caps if they're cheap.

---
Mouser's got them:

http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?han...yer+Electrolytic+Capacitors&pcodenumber=55503
---

I did hook mine up the wrong way .......once.... maybe I cooked it.

---
Easy enough to find out.

Charge it up through a resistor and measure the charge current. If
the current into the cap doesn't eventually decay to the specified
leakage current of the cap, then you've hurt it. If it looks good,
then discharge it through the resistor. If T = RC is out of spec,
then you've hurt it.
---

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks to all for the assistance. I finally got something to work
using an LED. I found the spec for the Panasonic cap, it has an
internal resistance of 30 ohm at 1000 Hz...this doomed my original
circuit.... I do have the Elna cap on order and will hopefully get
something going with a bulb.....

Will

 

[mike]

I'd like to hook up a flashlight lamp, 1.5 v battery, and capacitor in
series, close the circuit, and watch the lamp come on and slowly go off
as the capacitor charges up.

I tried it with a double electric layer capacitor (1 farad), but I now
think this type of cap has a big internal resistance, so, nothing
(observable) happened..

Now I'm thinking an electrolytic cap (0.1 farad) and maybe a 10 ohm
resistor in the circuit to get the time constant up to > 1 sec (R*C).

Is this going to work?

Ideas?

Thanks,
Will

If it's just a demo of exponential decay, why not make it easier on
yourself.
Use a LED, higher voltage and a MUCH smaller cap.
If you must have an incandescent, use an emitter follower to drive
it from a much smaller cap. Ain't nobody gonna be able to tell by
looking whether it's perfectly exponential anyway.

The key phrase is, "much smaller cap" ;-)

mike

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