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Old 06-25-2014, 09:29 PM   #78 (permalink)
Enki
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Hey folks.

Came across this thread while checking to see if there had been developments on other projects I'm following and decided I'd throw my $0.02 in.

I have a project car (1965 Ford Falcon Wagon) that I'm seriously considering running with a cap bank instead of batteries primarily for space and draw constraint requirements; cap banks are nice because they can take a whole bunch of different/odd shapes. I'm building my existing cap bank into a triangular log shape and will be using that as a jump pack for my pop's racecar on track days (it doesn't have an alternator and our current battery charger takes a long time to top off the battery) as an example.

I'm currently using what amounts to a motorcycle battery in my 2009 Mazdaspeed 3; unfortunately, the Mazda draws about a quarter amp under full shutdown (measured through voltmeter), so a single 500 farad bank (6x3000 farad caps in series) won't cut it for my usage of the vehicle (sometimes 5+ days without driving it). As it is, if I don't drive the car for more than a week, it may not start as a result of the passive drain.

Here's the video of my slowly dying battery kicking over my Mazda on a cold start:


That said, I have done testing with capacitor banks, and they are viable if you daily drive the car and/or have a solar cell for trickle charging to counteract any low amount of drawdown and/or have an older vehicle which has very little key off draw, like in the following video.

Here's a vid of my bank starting an older V8:
NSFW language (I was excited) https://vimeo.com/86949274

Also, if anyone is interested, I've included a screenshot of my capacitor math Google Sheet and I can provide any formulae requested.
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