Capacitor Bank connection rules?

[skylinux]

I use a converted PC power supply to get my 12V, recently the power supply has started to shut down when the battery is connected after the power supply was turned on. So I decided to connect a capacitor bank I have to the power supply to see if the bank is large enough to compensate for the rush current of the charger - it works.

The problem is that the caps are 5x 4700uF 10V connected in parallel, here is the question: Can I simply take one more capacitor and connect it in series to make the entire bank 12V compatible?
Which should create a 20V 23500uF bank, correct?

[pmackenzie]

You would need to put a second set in series to get higher voltage handling.
What you have now is 23,500 uF 10 volts.
Put another parallel bank of 5 in series with this one and it will be 11,750 uF 20 volts.
You might need to put in some resistors to try to keep the two series banks at the same voltage.

Higher voltage capacitors would be a better solution.

Pat MacKenzie

[skylinux]

Adding another 5 Capacitors is going to be too big to fit inside the power supply and too expensive. I just checked digikey and found a 16V Panasonic 33,000uf for $5.8.
ECO-S1CA333EA (http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref=55586&Row=907920&Site=US)

Thanks for your help.

[Andrew0820]

PSU shutdown when a charger or battery is attached is a relatively common problem. Attach the device first, then turn the PSU on.

The PSU treats the attached load as a short and the overload circuitry kicks in. However, most PSU's are designed to manage fairly significant capacitive loads at powerup without latching off -- having a charger attached first usually takes care of the problem.

andrew

[skylinux]

PSU shutdown when a charger or battery is attached is a relatively common problem. Attach the device first, then turn the PSU on.

The PSU treats the attached load as a short and the overload circuitry kicks in. However, most PSU's are designed to manage fairly significant capacitive loads at powerup without latching off -- having a charger attached first usually takes care of the problem.

andrew
Except with my Apache charger, they only way I can make it work is by connecting the charger and battery before turning on the power to the supply. This creates a problem when multiple chargers run of the same power supply because connecting the next battery to charge will turn the PS off.

So far my capacitor bank has solved the shutdown problem 100% I just don't want the bank to blow up due to over voltage.

Not my video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8gFgIQl2HI

[gloops]

Providing the caps. are rated at 16Volts or more you should have no problem, why do you need to connect a bank together just one with enough capacity would do. I'm no modeller so I don't know the power packs you use or why they shut down but a re-design of the power packs is in order. If the charger is connected to the PSU when you switch on why isn't that providing enough current. The only reason i can see is weight.