Shoutbox

I was looking at some phreaking guides, and I got an idea for something to build.
It would just be a general pourpose electronics-fryer based on this.
I have done a little plan for it, but I am pretty sure my design has some flaws.
If anyone is good with that kind of stuff and could help me it would be appeciated.

Also, would inserting a LED after the last capacitor work as a charge indicator light?

looks too dodgy for here

and your plans won't work. HINT: you can't wire capacitors in series and have them work

Why does my stuff always have to be so dodgy

I was putting them in series because someone on IRC told me to do it that way.

The "Bottle-Nosed Dolphin Grey Box" is total nonsense and, consequently, so is yours.  It was clearly "designed" by someone with zero understanding of physics and electricity, and it will not work. 

The idea behind the multiple capacitors is stacking the charges to obtain higher voltage, but you don't get that by simply connecting the capacitors in series -- circuits that achieve that are called charge pumps and are considerably more complex.

I have already figured out that wiring in series won't work. what would happen if I wired them parralell.

quote:

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Originally posted by Baggins
I have already figured out that wiring in series won't work. what would happen if I wired them parralell.

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Then I don't think there would be a difference on if you have one or many wired. But at least there would be some current passing in the whole thing in that case, unlike the first model.

Would it work to just use a transformer after the capacitors?

no.....


just give up baggins

quote:

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Originally posted by Vilkku
Then I don't think there would be a difference on if you have one or many wired. But at least there would be some current passing in the whole thing in that case, unlike the first model.

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Connecting capacitors in series decreases the capacitance (so there is hardly ever a valid reason to do that).  The total voltage applied to the circuit is divided between the capacitor charges.

Connecting capacitors in parallel combines capacitance and leaves each capacitor charged to the total applied voltage.  Neither case leads to a voltage increase.

The charge pump works by employing some type of switching circuit to charge one capacitor per clock cycle, with the full input voltage -- then combine them in series to produce increased output voltage.  Charge pumps are fairly complicated compared to the simplistic series circuit in question.

If the input is AC and desired output DC, it is relatively easy to design a voltage multiplier circuit using only capacitors and diodes.