[sdiy] Discharging electrolytics

[Bob Weigel]

PS a back up battery cap isn't quite the same kind of thing and is 
clearly out of the scope of what I was talking about.  There we are 
talking about a relatively long time frame where heat builds up and 
physically cooks things chemically altering them.  In the case of the 
smaller cap discharging...like I say almost all that energy is BAM right 
there in the arc.  It's done and over with so quick that the current 
isn't really a heat consideration on any of the parts because of the 
limited time frame.   And like I said before if you somehow get an 
incredibly efficient 'closure' and you don't get any arc...well then you 
might start thinking about it.  I never see that problem.  Even pushing 
it pretty fast to save the tool excessive damage I still get a great pop 
there usually with lots of heat localized to that contact point. -Bob

mcb, inc. wrote:

> On Sun, 3 Jul 2005, Bob Weigel wrote:
>
>>    So basically for those who want to employ disgression in this
>>
>> 1) ... 2) ... 3) ...
>
>
> 4)  Sometimes it's the capacitor that faces damage, not the tool
> (either the animate one or the inanimate).  Some of the large-value
> caps (> 1F) that do duty as backup batteries will not tolerate rapid
> discharge.
>
> -- 
> Monty Brandenberg
>
>