Charging Supercapacitor

[zdillman]

Hi, I bought a supercapacitor and I was wondering how I could charge it fast. The supercapacitor is a 2.5v 2600 Farad capacitor. My question is, do I have to charge it at 2.5 volts or can I charge it using a higher voltage. I have a low voltage power supply but it can't put out too many amps and it charges it dreadfully slow at 2.5 volts. Thanks!

 

[(*steve*)]

You can charge it from any voltage source as long as you use a resistor to limit the current AND you stop the charging process BEFORE the voltage hits 2.5V. Once you go over 2.5V you may own a DEAD 2.5 capacitor

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

The rate at which energy can be put into a capacitor or supercapacitor is directly proportional to the current that you can feed into it.

If you have a higher voltage at a low current, you could use a switching power supply to step the voltage down and in the process, step the current up. But if your supply can only deliver a low voltage and a low current, you can't charge your capacitor any more quickly.

 

[GreenGiant]

Hi, I bought a supercapacitor and I was wondering how I could charge it fast. The supercapacitor is a 2.5v 2600 Farad capacitor. My question is, do I have to charge it at 2.5 volts or can I charge it using a higher voltage. I have a low voltage power supply but it can't put out too many amps and it charges it dreadfully slow at 2.5 volts. Thanks!

see bold portions there.

if it is in fact a 2600 FARAD capacitor anything is going to take a while to charge it, thats the nature of the beast really, you have to look at how much energy is being stored here, thats going to take a while to dump that much (8125 Joules)

Because no one has asked yet....
Why do you have a 2600 Farad capacitor?!?!
And how big is it?!?!

 

[(*steve*)]

And how big is it?!?!

Probably like this.

 

[BobK]

Wow, charge and discharge at 600A in 0.3 seconds.

Bob

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

Wow, charge and discharge at 600A in 0.3 seconds.

And an ESR of 0.9 milliohms! And I used to think that 4000 uF at 60V made a big bang

 

[BobK]

I think you could jump start your car from 5 of these in series.

Bob