capacitor grounding car

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trentmeyer23

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Joined: August 26, 2006

Posted: March 03, 2007 at 11:41 PM / IP Logged

Hi guys, i dont want to start a debate over capacitors, but i am having a problem with my capacitor. When ever i disconnect the negative terminal on my battery, the entire car stays grounded and discharges the capacitor. I have two alpine amps hooked up to it via the distro-block on the cap. Both positive(fused) and ground wires go straight to the cap, the are split into two to go to the amps. I hope someone here can help me, Thanx in advance, Trent

trentmeyer23

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Joined: August 26, 2006

Posted: March 03, 2007 at 11:53 PM / IP Logged

^^^i forgot to mention the ground is separate from the battery

aznboi3644

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Location: United States

Posted: March 04, 2007 at 1:35 PM / IP Logged

In that whole post there is not even one question

master5

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Location: United States

Posted: March 04, 2007 at 3:01 PM / IP Logged

I do not really see a question here either...but if i take a wild stab it seems you are wondering why the cap discharges when you disconnect the ground from the battery.

This is because in a sense a cap is a battery..just a very fast charge and discharging one designed for a specific purpose..(won't get into that..can of worms..lol)...

But yes..if you do this the cap will discharge as that is what they do when the voltage drops..and it certainly will drop if you disconnect the battery.......solution......

Disconnect the cap BEFORE you disconnect the battery...or...don't disconnect the battery...lol kidding...just disconnect the cap first.

BTW...what does "the ground is seperate from the battery" mean? Did you ground something to another vehicles battery then yours?? I don't understand. But ..keep in mind...if the battery of the vehicle is connected properly...the vehicle is grounded. Anything else you ground to the vehicle...such as a cap..amp etc..is grounded as well..and therefore technically NOT seperate from the battery.

Hope I helped a bit.

haemphyst

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Posted: March 04, 2007 at 5:06 PM / IP Logged

trentmeyer23 wrote:

It would do the same thing if you only remeoved the positive cable as well... OR if you removed BOTH cables. The accessores in the car are just drawing all of their power from the capacitor. Pretend the cap is a battery (a SECOND battery in the system). If you disconnect the front batery, while leaving the back battery connected, all the accessories would still run, right? Same thing, just a different can, that's all.

It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

trentmeyer23

Member - Posts: 7

Joined: August 26, 2006

Posted: March 05, 2007 at 12:14 AM / IP Logged

Yeah sorry the question was supposed to be how can i stop this? I read somewhere that caps should not be discharged and recharged to quickly below about 6 volts but im not sure on the relaibility of that one...what i meant about the separate ground was that a friend told me that a way to stop this was run the negative back to the battery as a ground, but i want to be sure first.

"Disconnect the cap BEFORE you disconnect the battery...or...don't disconnect the battery...lol kidding...just disconnect the cap first."

Ok i tried that but it sparks pretty bad, is it supposed too? and when i reconnect which way would you say to do it?

Thanx for the help so far guys

master5

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Posted: March 05, 2007 at 9:05 AM / IP Logged

Forget everything your "friend" told you. Just stick to our reccomendations..this is what most of us do everyday as a profession.

As far as it "sparking" if you disconnect the cap before you disconnect the battery the cap should be charged. The cap will remain charged. If you reconnect the battery...then reconnect the cap..as long as the cap is still fully charged, it won't spark. If it is sparking that means the cap was fully or partially discharged or the battery of the car is still disconnected.

aznboi3644

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Posted: March 05, 2007 at 3:32 PM / IP Logged

a cap is a "battery"...with a 1-2 second reserve capacity lol

master5

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Joined: October 10, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: March 05, 2007 at 4:50 PM / IP Logged

ca·pac·i·tor [kuh-pas-i-ter] noun- A "cap" is an electronic device in which 99.9% of it's users are expecting it to cure a problem which it can not, or blaming it on a problem it does not cause.....even if your "friend" told you it can....

trentmeyer23

Member - Posts: 7

Joined: August 26, 2006

Posted: March 06, 2007 at 12:04 AM / IP Logged

As i said i dont wanna start a debate, my friend didnt recommend it, my brother actually gave it to me...for free...so i wasnt gunna say no i dont want it, but thanx for the recommendations guys. So there is no way to get around this without disconnecting it?

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