I shorted a four farad as a kid. It was pretty smartly designed accounting for someone just like me, because it'd exploded out the other end - which is how I still have my eyes typing this in.
I think these are actually batteries, and not capacitors. BigClive did a video on them som time back. They just call them capcitors because of the package type. Expressing the value in farad sounds much more impressive than doing it in maH
I just found you and love your channel! I have always been interested in Supercapacitors for their cycle life, and this is very cool idea, this hybrid. Your presentation is not only hyper-interesting, but expertly presented. I subscribed immediately. Can't wait for more. All good wishes.
I guess these could be used for dash cams, but most often one buys a "hard wire kit" which connects to the car's 12V battery via a cutout that operates around 12.6V, preventing the battery being completely discharged. Some brands offer lithium batteries as the "vehicle off" supply instead. These'd be very useful for remote outdoor IoT sensors or actuators (say a self resetting rat trap), or trail cameras though, with a small PV panel. Especially in places where it gets cold or very hot. 30,000 daily cycles is an eighty year life! That's what I call "set and forget".
The data sheet on Julian's desk shows a max temp rating of 65-85C. Depending on where you are car interiors can get up to 70C so perhaps still not a replacement for supercaps?
@@GnuReligion Really useful on farms, monitoring soil temperature and moisture, waterway parameters like water clarity, pumps and tanks, fence gates, and much more.
afaik highend industrial ssds use such supercapacitors in a failsafe situation so that the nand could finish writting the pending data somewhat safely in case of power failure
"And don't do that. Why would you do *that*?" Well, they in fact are referring to chucking them all together in a big bowl where they can freely short each other out.
I know someone who routinely stored his fully charged 18650 cells for his torch in a plastic box amongst many other metal stuff, including bits of fine metal chain jewelry and rings.
Used in remote sensing, telemetry backup, essential control backup. Lets you turn something back on remotely if it's been turned off remotely. Keeps ears and little blue lights turned.
My first Tandy meter had 2mm banana plugs. it was a shame nothing else did at the time. The only real advantage of 4mm is you can see them from the back of the class
A few years ago there was a YT channel on super capacitors (I forget which one) where one of the commenters mentioned they would want to see when the caps have as much energy storage as a lithium ion battery. I responded with the future super cap will probably be a mix of capacitor and battery.
I added a 5F cap to my car audio system 20+ years ago. It is about the size of two soda cans. Remember thinking it was such a huge amount of capacitance! Well, my headlights don't dim when the bass hits...
Maybe but this seems more like a niche product targeting special applications. They're an order of magnitude more expensive per capacity than a high quality lithium ion. Hopefully if you're spending that kind of money you know what you're doing.
Kind of interesting caps, but I can't think of any practical application for one. When you need to add a bunch of support and protection circuitry just for a capacitor, might as well just use a battery. 🤔
even more devices spontaneously catching on fire when left in a drawer or thrown in the bin... YAY!!!! i also doubt the construction allows for the same type of discharge/recharge cycling a well constructed "pulse" type capacitor can achieve... along with all this capacitance, what sort of parasitic INDUCTANCE do they have?
These are useful for USB powered devices that need more peak power than USB provides. I made a high voltage tester that charged a 5 Farad supercapacitor from USB to make a measurement. The 5F supercapacitor was barely large enough. I wish I’d had one of these Li-ion supercapacitors instead.
I would say the high number or charge/discharge rates and the temp ranges make it ideal for use on an outdoor weather monitor with a solar charger. You could leave it outside for years.
I could imagine a scenario where it makes sense to use these hybrids as a buffer for a much larger battery for both charging and discharging. IE regenerative braking perhaps. The 30,000 cycles has me intrigued. If we consider that these are roughly 1/10th as energy dense, that means we'd need about $10 for the same storage as an 18650 cell that costs $3. So about 3x the cost, 10x the size, but would essentially last forever. I could see these being very useful for some sort of off-grid workshop with big equipment. Using some sort of smart charging/pass-through, perhaps combine with LTO batteries for the bulk of the storage.
Some of those mobile phone holders that have motorised clamps are advertised as having "super capacitor" to allow the arms to open or close a few times after the ignition/accessory power is off. Another use for them.
Wow, That Notecard is Clearly readable, even for a visually impaired like me. :-) Used te Perfect font!! Also good explanation about the differences and workings of them.
I can see these being used on thermostats with the caveat that there must be voltage supplied to it so that during a power outage it keeps the settings. Then at the same time while there is no call for heat or cooling it charges the cap back up and then a run can happen just off the capacitor. I may get some to experiment with for this purpose.
Maybe it's to avoid self discharge. Li batteries I've had with a protection circuit all self destructed after not being used for a while - typically swelling up and going completely flat. Bare cells can last for years without being used. They no doubt degrade but they don't become totally useless like the ones with protection circuits do.
Very interesting little caps/batteries. They are still rather expensive tough but maybe advantegous in some applications 🙂 Could be a game changer when these are further improved with more capacity and charge time and price ;-)
I don't define that as a capacitor, it's a battery if you can't discharge it past a certain voltage. Capacitors have no discharge limit, its part of the characteristic that defines them as a capacitor. Having said that, when they start to make these in the 5 amp range things will suddenly become very interesting!.
I'm struggling with the idea that you said the Anode is Negative and the Cathode is Positive. You then connect an LED to the Caps and clearly show the Cathode of the LED connected to the Negative lead of the Cap. Am I missing something here?
To protect against over-discharge, could you get a zener diode driving the base of a simple transistor? So when the voltage isn't enough to overcome the zener, the transistor just cuts off? Stick a resistor inline with the diode, too. Would that simple solution work? If it's bipolar, I suppose you'd have to account for it's own base-emitter voltage drop too of 0.6V.
Not all LEDs are on/off. You can get many that are internally designed to blink, or cycle through several colors. Or blink two alternating colors. All done internally.
So I'm wondering whether they follow standard capacitor theory, when connecting in series or parallel? And if in series, would they need a BMS to balance the cap's voltages? I would imagine so, due to the 2.5v lower limit
Maybe these are useful in buffering windturbine power generation fluctuations. Quickly charging a bank of these and if wind drops it takes over the 12/24/48v output. 30.000 cycles might be just enough to last you a year if not longer. building might not as simple and costly, any ideas?
My Joule Thief supercapacitor flashlight lasts 20 minutes on one charge of a five volt 4 Farad supercapacitor. At 1.1 kilo Farad it would last around 9 days one one change 😂.
I was thinking that this might be useful in a case where the minimum voltage is below the voltage drop of an LED, so it's sort of a passive protection thing.
So I could connect this directly to my 5v solar panel that is powering my little water pump. The water pump stops working around 3v and only works in direct sun but with the LSC between the two it would theoretically work during cloudy days.
I was sort of thinking of an application like that, where no extra protection circuits are needed because the charge and discharge completely fit within the range. 🤔
Thank you, Julian. I really enjoyed your video. Nice to know that capacitors are so close to having the same energy density as batteries (for example, a htc1450 LTO ). Mind blowing! Try the S9V11MACMA buck/boost regulator from Pololu with adjustable voltage cut-off. They are great and still tiny. All the best.
Why use these? If you are holding out for the perfect supercap which also has capacity like a battery, you can use these while you are waiting. They are 1/6th the capacity of an 18650, or 6x the size, allowing 30k cycles and freezing temp charging(?). 500mA good for unattended or remote installation; telephone pole cam wi/solar panel will last decades. Set up an Eagle nest cam, climb the tree once, install and cheer on the internet eagle chick stream forever.
"they don't shoot out flames"... color me skeptical, but this very much looks like adding a Li-ion cell to a design without a protection circuit... If you have a single component fault in your circuit (Vreg dies and applies 12V to one of these, or a downstream component fails shorted) will these become unsafe? Is your product now a "battery" if you design one of these in? Do you now have to meet UN3480 before shipping?
Put in short, they are fairly useless compared with modern LFP cells. Modern LFP cells can do 20C easily, modern LFP cells can do 5k~10k cycles at 1C, modern power-type LFP cells have less than 1mR@10Ah, while those CDA cells have 2mR@10Ah. Other than low temperature and being available in really small capacity, I don't see any advantages. So maybe, those are great for EDLC replacements, but that's all. I can't see them challenging true batteries even for pulse power applications. What I can see usage of this thing is in embedded systems needing more than an RTC battery. Say, a multi-core SoC with rewritable storage subsystem where the system takes more than a few hundred milliwatts to finish its current job, flush the memory, and gracefully shutdown. You might want a small solderable component in the system to support all of these while taking minimal space and still be safe by not storing too much energy to piss the TSA/IATA off.
Maybe have a try DIYing some capacitors? out of anodised titanium sheet, submerged in water, and inside say a length of copper pipe. The anodized layer has a high dielectric constant. Should self repair(with decreased capacitance) if over volted. Anodised layer is very thin, and has extremely high resistance...in comparasion the resistance of the water can be considered neglible. In effect separation between capacitor plate is tiny. Taken together very high capacitance for surface area. And without the usual voltage limitations of supercaps *And* it can get even more interesting.. it's a wide range variable capacitor. Adjust the water level and capacitance value changes...If capacitor is charged, it'll hold a certain amount of energy. E=C*V*V/2 let some water out of a charged capacitor. Even as capacitance drops, energy wants to stay constant so. . the voltage across the plates has to increase.
the water bit is interesting as its related to coulombs, AND hydrostatics. "charge" versus "potential"... or, for the liquid itself... "volume" versus "pressure". a litre of water, a coulumb of charge, can be in a shallow bowl/large surface area, with little to no pressure/potential. that same litre in a thin vertical tube/charge concentrated on a small surface area, can reach incredible pressure/extreme potential. anyway... the anodising will be on both sides. and that isnt how an electrolytic is constructed. theyre assembled, THEN "anodised". and water is only "conductive" when it has an "electrolyte" in it, ionic flow...
@paradiselost9946 8mm copper pipe T with a short length of pipe. 4mm width Strip/rod of titanium fixed at one end by an epoxy plug Filled with "tap water" not distilled water. My local tap must be unusual in containing ions. current path length through water not much. Resistance across device measured before anodising of under 10kOhm. I'd agree far from a *perfect* conductor, and will contribute to ESR of cap, but it is small compared to resistance of above 10Mohm after anodising with diet Pepsi! Ie 0.1% The titanium rod becomes the positive connection, the conductor to the + plate, support for the + plate, and where surface in contact with water the dielectric. The copper pipe t... the negative electrical terminal.
I've often wondered how something like these (or regular supercapacitors) would work for regenerative braking. They'd very quickly soak up charge from braking, and trickle it back to the slower-charging main battery. Maybe they already do that. I dunno.
They don’t. Regen is being held back by going straight into the battery packs I’ve been saying the same thing for years. In fact there should be a supercap bank on both sides of the battery bank. Help take that hit under acceleration, and during regen. It’s almost like manufacturers just don’t care about battery life. Probably because they also sell replacement batteries at a huge profit
@@geauxracerx I recently read about some tiny electric car that used supercapacitors for acceleration due to it's small-size batteries. Cannot recall the source...
I am curious how tolerant of overdischarge these are. The standard DW01 cell protection IC has an overdischarge threshold of 2.4V, which may be OK if that 2.5V min discharge voltage is a little conservative. Otherwise, most other cell protection ICs state their overdischarge threshold as 2.5V, so perhaps it would be better to go with one of those rather than a DW01.
DW01 style ICs also require charge and discharge MOSFETS to turn off, so if you wanted to be able to charge or discharge one of these at high rates, you'd need some seriously high current MOSFETS. I guess if no high current is needed in the application, it wouldn't be bad.
Farads don't really apply to batteries because their voltage rise is not linear over time at a constant current. But you can still use the Q=CV formula if you like.
Mind you, I have no clue how this works, but shouldn't a 1000 farads at 3v be about equal to 1 watt-hour? If so, this is getting into battery territory, an 18650 has about 8 watt-hours.
Those are not capacitors. They are merely Li-ion cells dressed up as capacitors. Their minimum allowed voltage is what exposes them as a fraud. My guess is that their working temperature range and the cycle life is not what they claim, and that they are not cheap. I would say they've found a way to sell ultra-low capacity Li-ion cells (possibly old depleted ones) as "ultra-capacitors". I hope I'm wrong.
Julian have you gone over to the dark side?? I know it's only a "convention" after all . . Usually in your vids the Anode is +ve, and is the source of electrons to a circuit? edit: insert discussion here . .
@@JulianIlett I'm sure it does, however energy density and cost are greater considerations in the context of disposable vapes, per OPs question. I will welcome a ban of the disposables, and that's from someone who vapes. Can't go wrong with a replaceable 21700, coils, and good quality liquid that comes in at
@@JulianIlett I hadn't heard of that - just had a search. Yeah it's the liquid - £2.20 *tax* per 10ml from 2026. The UK is becoming death by 1000 cuts. They couldn't exactly tax flat top cells. If I still live here in 2026 (doubtful), I'll just mix my own by the litre, I guess. Govt will doubtless have a surprised face when there are inevitable deaths from the general public getting even this simple task wrong.
@@JulianIlett I mentioned elsewhere about an electric car that used supercapacitors to enhance acceleration, but darned if I can find the article! It might've been the Lamborghini Sian described in an "E-Mobility Engineering" website I found...
Офигенно придумали, как увеличить ёмкость суперконденсаторов - да просто обозвать аккумулятор суперконденсатором и продавать его по ещё более завышенной цене - профит.. Мда, какими только способами не дурят мозги не разбирающимся людям, лишь бы хапнуть бабки..
So.. inferior in every way to a 3$ 32650 7aH 3C lifepo cell which is just a little bit larger. I still don't understand where to use these. They cant even help with spikes as they are, unlike normal caps, really poor at surge delivery. Very strange product.
The 20c rating is the difference, it's like a small hybrid battery you can charge up quickly. Fast charging without the degradation and increased charging cycle is pretty nice. If a cellphone battery had a 20c rating, it would take a few minutes to fully charge.
They aren't quite the same as a lithium ion battery, as has been briefly gone over at the start of the video. They are a hybrid technology that combines both electrochemical storage and electrostatic storage, which are properties of batteries and capacitors respectively.
They have 50,000 charge discharge cycles instead of 800, for instance. Also a much wider operating or storage temp range. Plus 10C charge/discharge rates. Typical super capacitors also have a high self discharge rate where these have very low. It's only the 'must not go below 2.5V'vthats a real problem, but that's no worse than batteries. Maybe they'll come out with a protected version?
I'm not going to watch all 29 minutes on the offhand chance that you explain why a cathode is 'positive' and an anode is 'negative'. Do these devices use positrons instead of electrons? Someone please explain this to 'dummy' who has been dabbling in electronics since 1967. Is this some sort of 'conventional current flow' nonsense?
From Wikipedia: A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device such as a battery. Cathode polarity with respect to the anode can be positive or negative depending on how the device is being operated.
"ana hodos" way up. "kata hodos" way down. greek. thats the literal meaning. terms designated before electron theory established current flows from cathode to anode. then we could delve into the concept of... are you talking about the circuit CONNECTED to the anode and cathode? or the OTHER HALF OF THE CIRCUIT, the movement of charge in the dielectric or electrolyte? because one must bear in mind that what WE call polarity is in the CIRCUIT, not whats happening in the SOURCE of EMF.
Anode and cathode of a battery are not defined in terms of polarity. Rather, the anode is where an oxidation reaction occurs (loss of electrons), and the cathode is where a reduction reaction occurs (gain of electrons). For a battery that is being discharged, the negative terminal is the anode and the positive terminal is the cathode. When the battery is being charged, it's the other way around.
First time in my life I hear "killo farad"
Just wait until we have flux capacitors, then you will see some serious shiit
@@whatthefunction9140 whoa, that's heavy!
I shorted a four farad as a kid. It was pretty smartly designed accounting for someone just like me, because it'd exploded out the other end - which is how I still have my eyes typing this in.
I think these are actually batteries, and not capacitors. BigClive did a video on them som time back. They just call them capcitors because of the package type. Expressing the value in farad sounds much more impressive than doing it in maH
The discharge 'curve' is a straight line though.
I'm using hybrid super-caps for solar charged outdoor lights. I find the voltage range corresponds pretty well to what a white LED wants.
I thought anode is the positive one..
I just found you and love your channel! I have always been interested in Supercapacitors for their cycle life, and this is very cool idea, this hybrid. Your presentation is not only hyper-interesting, but expertly presented. I subscribed immediately. Can't wait for more. All good wishes.
saw a 2500F 2.5V cap the other day and it was literally the size of a tall-boy can.
I guess these could be used for dash cams, but most often one buys a "hard wire kit" which connects to the car's 12V battery via a cutout that operates around 12.6V, preventing the battery being completely discharged. Some brands offer lithium batteries as the "vehicle off" supply instead.
These'd be very useful for remote outdoor IoT sensors or actuators (say a self resetting rat trap), or trail cameras though, with a small PV panel. Especially in places where it gets cold or very hot. 30,000 daily cycles is an eighty year life! That's what I call "set and forget".
The data sheet on Julian's desk shows a max temp rating of 65-85C. Depending on where you are car interiors can get up to 70C so perhaps still not a replacement for supercaps?
Fun to think about designing things like durable remote sensors, that recharge with wind or solar, and use LoRa to occasionally phone home.
@@GnuReligion Really useful on farms, monitoring soil temperature and moisture, waterway parameters like water clarity, pumps and tanks, fence gates, and much more.
afaik highend industrial ssds use such supercapacitors in a failsafe situation so that the nand could finish writting the pending data somewhat safely in case of power failure
@@nevilenobody606 70 Celsius degrees inside a car? Near a vulkan or something?
"And don't do that. Why would you do *that*?"
Well, they in fact are referring to chucking them all together in a big bowl where they can freely short each other out.
I know someone who routinely stored his fully charged 18650 cells for his torch in a plastic box amongst many other metal stuff, including bits of fine metal chain jewelry and rings.
How am I supposed to hand them out to trick-or-treaters if not in a big bowl?
@@G1ZQCArtwork they be the people giving other responsible users and keepers of such batteries a bad rep when they melt their jewels off. 🫠
I thought it was a ban on using them in Free Zero Point Energy Harvester circuits.
"Don't cross the legs."
"Why not?"
"It would be bad."
A bank of Lion cells would need a charge controller, would the same apply to these hybrid caps?
I would.caps can explode, lithiated explosions????
Used in remote sensing, telemetry backup, essential control backup.
Lets you turn something back on remotely if it's been turned off remotely. Keeps ears and little blue lights turned.
My first Tandy meter had 2mm banana plugs. it was a shame nothing else did at the time. The only real advantage of 4mm is you can see them from the back of the class
A few years ago there was a YT channel on super capacitors (I forget which one) where one of the commenters mentioned they would want to see when the caps have as much energy storage as a lithium ion battery. I responded with the future super cap will probably be a mix of capacitor and battery.
i wish that hybrid caps were liked by the entity. i will check on that soon tho
Julian, AL142 is FP6291
Last 3-digit reflects xyy
X = year
YY = lot
So 142 is 2021 lot #42.
I added a 5F cap to my car audio system 20+ years ago. It is about the size of two soda cans. Remember thinking it was such a huge amount of capacitance! Well, my headlights don't dim when the bass hits...
Very nice demonstration of this product. Thanks for sharing.😊
It's basically a battery people will use as a capacitor and end up ruining in 1 week.
Maybe but this seems more like a niche product targeting special applications. They're an order of magnitude more expensive per capacity than a high quality lithium ion. Hopefully if you're spending that kind of money you know what you're doing.
Kind of interesting caps, but I can't think of any practical application for one. When you need to add a bunch of support and protection circuitry just for a capacitor, might as well just use a battery. 🤔
I was thinking the same. It doesn't have built in cut off.
even more devices spontaneously catching on fire when left in a drawer or thrown in the bin... YAY!!!!
i also doubt the construction allows for the same type of discharge/recharge cycling a well constructed "pulse" type capacitor can achieve...
along with all this capacitance, what sort of parasitic INDUCTANCE do they have?
Would be perfect to power a wireless outdoor thermostat with a small PV array to recharge in the daylight.
These are useful for USB powered devices that need more peak power than USB provides.
I made a high voltage tester that charged a 5 Farad supercapacitor from USB to make a measurement. The 5F supercapacitor was barely large enough. I wish I’d had one of these Li-ion supercapacitors instead.
I would say the high number or charge/discharge rates and the temp ranges make it ideal for use on an outdoor weather monitor with a solar charger. You could leave it outside for years.
I could imagine a scenario where it makes sense to use these hybrids as a buffer for a much larger battery for both charging and discharging. IE regenerative braking perhaps. The 30,000 cycles has me intrigued. If we consider that these are roughly 1/10th as energy dense, that means we'd need about $10 for the same storage as an 18650 cell that costs $3. So about 3x the cost, 10x the size, but would essentially last forever. I could see these being very useful for some sort of off-grid workshop with big equipment. Using some sort of smart charging/pass-through, perhaps combine with LTO batteries for the bulk of the storage.
Interesting. I guess they should have discharge protection IC's produced at some point.
You can use a lithium ion battery low voltage cutoff. Like a dw01.
Protection must be added externally.
They would be perfect for garden solar torches.
Great stuff Julian. Wouldn't expect anything less... 3 or 4 of those for 1Ah not bad.
Some of those mobile phone holders that have motorised clamps are advertised as having "super capacitor" to allow the arms to open or close a few times after the ignition/accessory power is off. Another use for them.
I bet is super fun to touch the leads when they are fully charged
Wow, That Notecard is Clearly readable, even for a visually impaired like me. :-) Used te Perfect font!! Also good explanation about the differences and workings of them.
I can see these being used on thermostats with the caveat that there must be voltage supplied to it so that during a power outage it keeps the settings. Then at the same time while there is no call for heat or cooling it charges the cap back up and then a run can happen just off the capacitor. I may get some to experiment with for this purpose.
If they shouldn't be discharged below 2.5v then why don't they have a built in protection circuit?
Maybe it's to avoid self discharge. Li batteries I've had with a protection circuit all self destructed after not being used for a while - typically swelling up and going completely flat. Bare cells can last for years without being used. They no doubt degrade but they don't become totally useless like the ones with protection circuits do.
Very interesting little caps/batteries. They are still rather expensive tough but maybe advantegous in some applications 🙂 Could be a game changer when these are further improved with more capacity and charge time and price ;-)
There is a similar alternative - Nichicon SLB (LTO battery) - but have a lower voltage range.
Very nice information Great wark Excellent Video Very good 👍
I don't define that as a capacitor, it's a battery if you can't discharge it past a certain voltage. Capacitors have no discharge limit, its part of the characteristic that defines them as a capacitor. Having said that, when they start to make these in the 5 amp range things will suddenly become very interesting!.
The lithium ion super capacitors would be interesting to try for motorized rubber powder model airplanes.
Great and very interesting video. Thanks for that. Do you also have details about the power module and measurement module?
Thanks Martin. I'll add links for the ZK-SK40 PSU and the DT20 Voltage and Current module to the description before I publish the video. Cheers.
I'm struggling with the idea that you said the Anode is Negative and the Cathode is Positive.
You then connect an LED to the Caps and clearly show the Cathode of the LED connected to the Negative lead of the Cap.
Am I missing something here?
good for pager and walkie talkie designs
Love the British accent ❤❤
To protect against over-discharge, could you get a zener diode driving the base of a simple transistor? So when the voltage isn't enough to overcome the zener, the transistor just cuts off? Stick a resistor inline with the diode, too. Would that simple solution work? If it's bipolar, I suppose you'd have to account for it's own base-emitter voltage drop too of 0.6V.
You've just described a linear regulator.
Excellent video. Very interesting products. 👍
Why are the leds blinking/flashing when connecting them to the caps? They should glow permanently, shouldn't they?
There's a chip inside the LED's molding, as well as a current limiter. Radio Shack used to sell them.
Not all LEDs are on/off. You can get many that are internally designed to blink, or cycle through several colors. Or blink two alternating colors. All done internally.
So I'm wondering whether they follow standard capacitor theory, when connecting in series or parallel? And if in series, would they need a BMS to balance the cap's voltages? I would imagine so, due to the 2.5v lower limit
I have a large selection of the supercaps and hybrid capacitors
You will need an auto shutoff in the circuit to use this if not it will discharge below 2.5V if left unattended
@0:59 they are half Capacitor, half Supercapacitor and half battery
...dude thats 3 halves...
Try to guess which half is the biggest! :)
Thanks Julian 👍
Often used in combination with a Bobbin-constructed lithium thionyl chloride primary battery, for a 10 year + battery supply.
imagine putting those through a wave soldering process lol 💥💥
Maybe these are useful in buffering windturbine power generation fluctuations. Quickly charging a bank of these and if wind drops it takes over the 12/24/48v output. 30.000 cycles might be just enough to last you a year if not longer. building might not as simple and costly, any ideas?
Bat Trees??? interesting. lol. just kidding. Love the video! Very informative!
Very interesting the bigger ones have about 600 milliamps they would very much replace RC airplane Lipo
My Joule Thief supercapacitor flashlight lasts 20 minutes on one charge of a five volt 4 Farad supercapacitor. At 1.1 kilo Farad it would last around 9 days one one change 😂.
I was thinking that this might be useful in a case where the minimum voltage is below the voltage drop of an LED, so it's sort of a passive protection thing.
The charge rate vs a battery would make this a nice use case...
So I could connect this directly to my 5v solar panel that is powering my little water pump. The water pump stops working around 3v and only works in direct sun but with the LSC between the two it would theoretically work during cloudy days.
I was sort of thinking of an application like that, where no extra protection circuits are needed because the charge and discharge completely fit within the range. 🤔
Thank you, Julian. I really enjoyed your video. Nice to know that capacitors are so close to having the same energy density as batteries (for example, a htc1450 LTO ). Mind blowing! Try the S9V11MACMA buck/boost regulator from Pololu with adjustable voltage cut-off. They are great and still tiny. All the best.
Only 30K cycles? Doesn't seem to last very long.
now we need a charging circuit that follows the rating of the Cap
Why use these? If you are holding out for the perfect supercap which also has capacity like a battery, you can use these while you are waiting.
They are 1/6th the capacity of an 18650, or 6x the size, allowing 30k cycles and freezing temp charging(?). 500mA good for unattended or remote installation; telephone pole cam wi/solar panel will last decades.
Set up an Eagle nest cam, climb the tree once, install and cheer on the internet eagle chick stream forever.
Regenerative breaking might also be a great use.
@@clockworkvanhellsing372 What is the point if it's broken though?
@@WhiteDieselShed I've got to stop , and do a spell check nex time....
*regen braking
"they don't shoot out flames"... color me skeptical, but this very much looks like adding a Li-ion cell to a design without a protection circuit... If you have a single component fault in your circuit (Vreg dies and applies 12V to one of these, or a downstream component fails shorted) will these become unsafe? Is your product now a "battery" if you design one of these in? Do you now have to meet UN3480 before shipping?
2mm Banana's are too easy to break in a working environment is why they use 4mm.
These might be perfect for animal tracking radios.
Was the bottom right image of the multiple capacitors mingling their leads together a warning against connecting them in series or parallel??
Yes
No. It just means don't store them loose in a component drawer with lots of other components.
Put in short, they are fairly useless compared with modern LFP cells. Modern LFP cells can do 20C easily, modern LFP cells can do 5k~10k cycles at 1C, modern power-type LFP cells have less than 1mR@10Ah, while those CDA cells have 2mR@10Ah. Other than low temperature and being available in really small capacity, I don't see any advantages. So maybe, those are great for EDLC replacements, but that's all. I can't see them challenging true batteries even for pulse power applications. What I can see usage of this thing is in embedded systems needing more than an RTC battery. Say, a multi-core SoC with rewritable storage subsystem where the system takes more than a few hundred milliwatts to finish its current job, flush the memory, and gracefully shutdown. You might want a small solderable component in the system to support all of these while taking minimal space and still be safe by not storing too much energy to piss the TSA/IATA off.
Lack of potential for explosion and fire would seem to be a good thing for uses where you don't need a huge energy density.
@@gcewing
LFP batteries don't go on fire like NMC can.
Maybe have a try DIYing some capacitors? out of anodised titanium sheet, submerged in water, and inside say a length of copper pipe.
The anodized layer has a high dielectric constant. Should self repair(with decreased capacitance) if over volted. Anodised layer is very thin, and has extremely high resistance...in comparasion the resistance of the water can be considered neglible. In effect separation between capacitor plate is tiny. Taken together very high capacitance for surface area. And without the usual voltage limitations of supercaps
*And* it can get even more interesting.. it's a wide range variable capacitor. Adjust the water level and capacitance value changes...If capacitor is charged, it'll hold a certain amount of energy. E=C*V*V/2
let some water out of a charged capacitor. Even as capacitance drops, energy wants to stay constant so. . the voltage across the plates has to increase.
the water bit is interesting as its related to coulombs, AND hydrostatics. "charge" versus "potential"... or, for the liquid itself... "volume" versus "pressure".
a litre of water, a coulumb of charge, can be in a shallow bowl/large surface area, with little to no pressure/potential.
that same litre in a thin vertical tube/charge concentrated on a small surface area, can reach incredible pressure/extreme potential.
anyway... the anodising will be on both sides. and that isnt how an electrolytic is constructed. theyre assembled, THEN "anodised".
and water is only "conductive" when it has an "electrolyte" in it, ionic flow...
@paradiselost9946
8mm copper pipe T with a short length of pipe. 4mm width Strip/rod of titanium fixed at one end by an epoxy plug Filled with "tap water" not distilled water. My local tap must be unusual in containing ions. current path length through water not much. Resistance across device measured before anodising of under 10kOhm. I'd agree far from a *perfect* conductor, and will contribute to ESR of cap, but it is small compared to resistance of above 10Mohm after anodising with diet Pepsi! Ie 0.1%
The titanium rod becomes the positive connection, the conductor to the + plate, support for the + plate, and where surface in contact with water the dielectric. The copper pipe t... the negative electrical terminal.
Great video, interested in the 2mm Clips too!
Thanks Anthony. I'll add some links for the 2mm banana stuff before I publish the video. Cheers.
@@JulianIlett Ordered, thanks!
I've often wondered how something like these (or regular supercapacitors) would work for regenerative braking. They'd very quickly soak up charge from braking, and trickle it back to the slower-charging main battery. Maybe they already do that. I dunno.
They don’t. Regen is being held back by going straight into the battery packs
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. In fact there should be a supercap bank on both sides of the battery bank. Help take that hit under acceleration, and during regen.
It’s almost like manufacturers just don’t care about battery life. Probably because they also sell replacement batteries at a huge profit
@@geauxracerx I recently read about some tiny electric car that used supercapacitors for acceleration due to it's small-size batteries. Cannot recall the source...
Why don't these flashing LEDs need no resistor? Is the current from the capacitor low enough?
Flashing LEDs have built in current limiting, so they can be used on up to 5.5V supply rails.
@@johnnodge4327 Thank you Sir!
The resistance is internal. You can find many "12 volt" LEDs designed for direct use on cars and other 12v sources.
I am curious how tolerant of overdischarge these are. The standard DW01 cell protection IC has an overdischarge threshold of 2.4V, which may be OK if that 2.5V min discharge voltage is a little conservative. Otherwise, most other cell protection ICs state their overdischarge threshold as 2.5V, so perhaps it would be better to go with one of those rather than a DW01.
You wouldn't want to use DW01 since it doesn't cutoff until 4.25V. Though there are variants that have higher/lower cutoffs that you could search for.
DW01 style ICs also require charge and discharge MOSFETS to turn off, so if you wanted to be able to charge or discharge one of these at high rates, you'd need some seriously high current MOSFETS. I guess if no high current is needed in the application, it wouldn't be bad.
Well they've survived discharge to about half a volt, but I may have shortened their life.
Don't cross the beams!😂
👻
Are you ever going to parallel those 25A bucks ?
First time I hear (and see it printed on your paper) that Anode negative and Cathode positive
Intresting.
What would be the Farads of a typical 18650? Does it even apply?
Farads don't really apply to batteries because their voltage rise is not linear over time at a constant current. But you can still use the Q=CV formula if you like.
At 2.4Ah ( 8640As) for a voltage difference of 1,2V, it would be ~ 8640C/1,2V = 7200 F.
Quite close to the caps.
Mind you, I have no clue how this works, but shouldn't a 1000 farads at 3v be about equal to 1 watt-hour? If so, this is getting into battery territory, an 18650 has about 8 watt-hours.
Ever had a capacitor explode? It's messy. Li-ion capacitors? Could take out your room or house.
Why diodes are flashing instead of solid brightness?
They are flashing LEDs , they have integrated flasher circuitry
@PaulG.x thanks!
Why LEDs are blinking??
Those are not capacitors.
They are merely Li-ion cells dressed up as capacitors.
Their minimum allowed voltage is what exposes them as a fraud.
My guess is that their working temperature range and the cycle life is not what they claim, and that they are not cheap.
I would say they've found a way to sell ultra-low capacity Li-ion cells (possibly old depleted ones) as "ultra-capacitors".
I hope I'm wrong.
Datasheets don't lie. Well, not generally.
Julian have you gone over to the dark side?? I know it's only a "convention" after all . .
Usually in your vids the Anode is +ve, and is the source of electrons to a circuit?
edit: insert discussion here . .
Are these used in the newer electronic vaping devices that are throw away?
No, they still use standard Li-Ion / LiPo.
These are more expensive for the same capacity so there'd be no point.
Well, the datasheet for the LIB series does list electronic cigarettes as a possible application :)
@@JulianIlett I'm sure it does, however energy density and cost are greater considerations in the context of disposable vapes, per OPs question.
I will welcome a ban of the disposables, and that's from someone who vapes.
Can't go wrong with a replaceable 21700, coils, and good quality liquid that comes in at
Soon to be taxed. But will the duty be on the vape liquid or the hardware (including the battery)?
@@JulianIlett I hadn't heard of that - just had a search.
Yeah it's the liquid - £2.20 *tax* per 10ml from 2026.
The UK is becoming death by 1000 cuts.
They couldn't exactly tax flat top cells.
If I still live here in 2026 (doubtful), I'll just mix my own by the litre, I guess.
Govt will doubtless have a surprised face when there are inevitable deaths from the general public getting even this simple task wrong.
Could be used in amplifires
Well, if you can't take them down to zero volts then they're not really capacitors.
How much acceleration could you get out of a car entirely powered by banks of these?
Plenty, but the range would be a bit iffy ;)
@@JulianIlett I mentioned elsewhere about an electric car that used supercapacitors to enhance acceleration, but darned if I can find the article! It might've been the Lamborghini Sian described in an "E-Mobility Engineering" website I found...
@@JulianIlett i only need a quarter mile
Lithium batteries are dangerous sometimes, they must be capacitors too.
Wow
They are NOT capacitors but batteries mislabeled as caps.
Офигенно придумали, как увеличить ёмкость суперконденсаторов - да просто обозвать аккумулятор суперконденсатором и продавать его по ещё более завышенной цене - профит.. Мда, какими только способами не дурят мозги не разбирающимся людям, лишь бы хапнуть бабки..
that is a LOT of "jars" of capacitance...
and even MORE "centimeters" of capacitance...
whereas "lithium ion" is not exactly a capacitor, is it?
Why would you do that???
Wel 2024 we are in 😂😂😂
Keep in mind your boost converter is not 100% efficient.
That is true
So.. inferior in every way to a 3$ 32650 7aH 3C lifepo cell which is just a little bit larger.
I still don't understand where to use these. They cant even help with spikes as they are, unlike normal caps, really poor at surge delivery.
Very strange product.
The 20c rating is the difference, it's like a small hybrid battery you can charge up quickly.
Fast charging without the degradation and increased charging cycle is pretty nice.
If a cellphone battery had a 20c rating, it would take a few minutes to fully charge.
$3 for a 32650? Is that one full of sand or flour and a sub 300mAh battery inside?
Would be perfect If you could run them flat.
I forgot to mention I'm looking forward to sodium ion supercapacitors. You might be able to run them flat.
@@JulianIlett 😅
th-cam.com/users/shorts7CPSU1ke9OU?si=VUn1TOMUvRSrKdOo
@@JulianIlett I'm surprised LTO chemistry isn't already being used like this too.
Great, a better three Volt capacitor. Ron W4BIN
UPS very need long cycle life Battery.
7:40 woah 60!? That's crazy high for a capacitor considering modern lithium batteries are at or sub 10 mili ohm
Even a low discharge modem cell would be half the resistance of that "super cap"!!!
That’s a nasty taser right there …
the two larger capacity ones, sound like a small LI-ion battery to me??
They aren't quite the same as a lithium ion battery, as has been briefly gone over at the start of the video. They are a hybrid technology that combines both electrochemical storage and electrostatic storage, which are properties of batteries and capacitors respectively.
@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse Are you some sort of AI bot, replying on behalf of Julian?
They have 50,000 charge discharge cycles instead of 800, for instance. Also a much wider operating or storage temp range. Plus 10C charge/discharge rates.
Typical super capacitors also have a high self discharge rate where these have very low. It's only the 'must not go below 2.5V'vthats a real problem, but that's no worse than batteries. Maybe they'll come out with a protected version?
These really scare me!
Do not flow solder!!
This thing confuses me...
I'm not going to watch all 29 minutes on the offhand chance that you explain why a cathode is 'positive' and an anode is 'negative'. Do these devices use positrons instead of electrons? Someone please explain this to 'dummy' who has been dabbling in electronics since 1967. Is this some sort of 'conventional current flow' nonsense?
From Wikipedia: A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device such as a battery. Cathode polarity with respect to the anode can be positive or negative depending on how the device is being operated.
Tf
I think you need to understand what anode and cathode mean. Your polarities are reversed
He said anode negative. This is correct.
"ana hodos" way up.
"kata hodos" way down.
greek. thats the literal meaning.
terms designated before electron theory established current flows from cathode to anode.
then we could delve into the concept of... are you talking about the circuit CONNECTED to the anode and cathode? or the OTHER HALF OF THE CIRCUIT, the movement of charge in the dielectric or electrolyte?
because one must bear in mind that what WE call polarity is in the CIRCUIT, not whats happening in the SOURCE of EMF.
Anode and cathode of a battery are not defined in terms of polarity. Rather, the anode is where an oxidation reaction occurs (loss of electrons), and the cathode is where a reduction reaction occurs (gain of electrons). For a battery that is being discharged, the negative terminal is the anode and the positive terminal is the cathode. When the battery is being charged, it's the other way around.
Zener diodes are ambiguous too. Current can flow from anode to cathode or from cathode to anode. It's just the volt drop that changes.
@julianilett
Anode == Positive (+)
Catode == Negative (-)
Only when charging.
Mini Explosive device 👀
expensive firecrackers