Experimenting with SuperCapacitors Connectors Forum - Recent Threads

Experimenting With Supercapacitors - Finisher Prize

dougw — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 03:42:40 GMT

This is a quick look at the finisher prize in the Experimenting with Supercapacitors Design Challenge.

Originally the prize was going to be an Adafruit Playground Express Advanced Pack, but due to lack of availability it was switched to a shopping cart.

This is what I chose:

2 x Arduino UNO R4 Minima
A color LCD
2 x stackable headers for Raspberry Pi hats
3 servo motors
1 kg of 3D printer filament

Thank you element14.

https://youtu.be/_VX6ZFTkwDU

Special Shoutout to Misaz

dougw — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 02:31:47 GMT

This is a special shoutout to Misaz who has very generously shared his prize with me that he won for his cool project in the " Experimenting with Supercapacitors Design Challenge ".

The prizes he won were a 4 channel oscilloscope and a GoPro camera. He actually gave me a choice of which prize I would like. I have a 4 channel scope, so I chose the camera.

This blog and video are a tribute to misaz and his generous gesture. Please join me in applauding his great and selfless act.

Thanks Misaz!

https://youtu.be/OpIkagu56xI

Incidentally, Misaz has already posted some great blogs about the oscilloscope he won and what can be done with it.....very interesting...

Seeking a judge to rate 6 final blogs for experimenting with supercapacitors

rscasny — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 20:06:57 GMT

Greetings.

I have wrapped up the Experimenting with Supercapacitors program.

It's time to judge the final blogs.

If you have not judged a competition on element14 before, this may be an opportunity to experience being a judge.

This is a fairly easy one to judge because there are only 6 final blogs.

The judge needs to read through the blogs and score each blog based on a scale of 0 to 300 points.

Judging criteria generally follows completeness, use of supercapacitors, creativity in testing, and quality of experiments.

The judge have a lot of leeway as far as how they judge them.

If you are interested please leave a comment or message me at @rscasny.Thanks

Randall

Element14 Community TEam

Final Blog Due on Sept 21st -- Dealing with Time Zones

rscasny — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:48:28 GMT

The schedule says Sept 21st is the due date for posting the final blog.

I realize most of the participants are in different time zones. I'm very flexible when it comes to posting with respect to time zones. Posting your final project with that 24 hour period is fine.

If you have any problems posting it (site hiccups do occur), please leave a post or put it in feedback and support so we can troubleshoot the problem.

I updated the forum participation today.

Randall

--element14 Community Team

What electrode chemistry CDE uses in their LIC supercapacitors?

JWx — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:36:10 GMT

Hello!

Thinking about possible uses of hybrid supercapacitors I have asked CDE support some specific questions about their parameter limits but didn't get answer to this time. I have started to read more about those parts and found that there are several types of electrodes in use, each giving different parameters to the cap. I have question if someone maybe encountered any information about internal structure of LICs maufactured by the CDE, especially electrode chemistry?

Is EDC and EDS family ESR really in ohm unit?

misaz — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 19:29:02 GMT

In EDC (and EDS) datasheets ESR @1kHz for all caps is specified in Ohm unit

but in most other supercap families it is specified in mili ohm unit, for example from DGH datasheet:

Is it correct or is it mistake in datasheet? I searched for methods for measuring ESR, but unluckily I do not have required vaweform generator and I did not find any way how to easily replace it. So, my only way is checking documentation. I originaly thought that it is mistake and Gough Lui in his comparison blog ( What’s Super about Supercapacitors? – Part 2: Types, Vendors, Safety & Specifications ) also "corected" it to miliuohm units, but in comparison sheet (https://www.cde.com/resources/downloads/Briefs/Supercap-compare.pdf) it is refered with the same unit and I do not think that CDE did the mistake twice.

So my question to all who can measure ESR is what is true? Is ESR of EDC and EDS capacitor families in range of ohms or miliohms?

Regenerating LICs - manufacurer's opinion (do not)

JWx — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 07:34:07 GMT

Hello!

For clarity I have asked manufacturer's support if there is something than end user can do to restore hybrid capacitors that have arrived short-curcuited and they stated that "altrough there may be methods to regenerate them, it is typically not advisable to do it for commercial or safety reasons" and risk of failure or reduced performance can be high and it is usually safer and more reliable to replace them.

So I understand that the case is not hopeless but the manufacturer is not advising it for serious use cases

Voltage of Your VMF/VPF LIC Supercapacitors?

Gough Lui — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 11:21:15 GMT

After doing some literature review and learning about hybrid lithium-ion (super)capacitors (LICs) which I detail in my most recent blog, it has come to my attention that such capacitors have a minimum voltage and this is actually the voltage that the capacitor should never go below or risk permanent damage, failure or even potential safety issues. Such capacitors are shipped charged to a certain level and should never be short circuited. This is similar to how lithium-ion batteries have a minimum discharge voltage below which you should never reach.

As part of our kit, we received two of each: VMF406M3R8, VMF256M3R8 and VPF406M3R8 supercapacitor which are LICs.

Unfortunately, it seems, that during shipping, the capacitor legs may have touched and likely shorted at some point . As a result, three of the six LICs I have are reading below minimum voltage at 0.003V, 0.008V and 0.911V. The other three are fine at 3.364V, 3.316V and 2.607V. This does mean that both of my VMF256M3R8 are in the below minimum voltage category.

As a result, I would advise all challengers to measure the voltage of their capacitors and see if they are still above the minimum voltage of 2.5V (VMF) or 2.2V (VPF). If so, then keep them separated in a way that would not be able to short circuit and use them well. If not, then perhaps those capacitors have been damaged by this and may not achieve the same level of performance as promised, or perhaps they could even be (slightly) dangerous as I found one datasheet that suggested removing from use immediately while another seemed to suggest that such LICs were immune to thermal runaway failure so a lithium-ion battery style "vent with flame" is not a possibility. I'll probably still use mine anyway with the note that they have been abused.

Nevertheless, do let me know whether your capacitors survived the trip or not ... and in future rscasny , srutledge and even the element14/Newark/Farnell shop to take note that hybrid LIC supercapacitors are shipped charged and cannot be short-circuited, thus "loosely" placing them into a compartment or even into a conductive bag or foam is likely to be a bad idea.

Reminder -- Supercapacitor Intro Blog is Due on August 11th

rscasny — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 14:45:21 GMT

Just a quick reminder.

In this program, we have you do various activities to earn points.

The first thing you could do is write an intro blog on what you are planning to do. It's worth up to 60 points.

It's an easy way to earn some points.

Post the blog in the experimenting with supercapacitors blog.

You points will be display in a status table on the About page.

I update the table (at least I try to) every other week.

Randall

--element14 Community Team

Notifying the Winners Today

rscasny — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:39:05 GMT

I had held back notifying the winners until we had ordered some missing parts to the kit. They've been ordered and are in stock. So, I'll be notifying the winners today after they have been approved by our Trade & Compliance department for shipping.

Randall

--element14 Team