How to Make Capacitors - Low Voltage Homemade/DIY Capacitors

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11 жыл бұрын

A variety of info on how to make low voltage capacitors. I start with demonstrating making a temporary flat plate capacitor, then a spiral capacitor and then a salt water jar capacitor, sometimes called a salt water Leyden jar. Then I talk about capacitance and the unit farad and show the difference between microfarad, nanofarad and picofarad. Next, using the formula for a flat plate capacitor as a base I discuss the affect of capacitor area and distance between the plates on the capacitance. I also go over the dielectric constant, sometimes called the relative permittivity, and end with the formula for a cylindrical capacitor. All this is to help in designing capacitors. I then show how to use a meter, DMM, to measure capacitance. That's followed by two sample variable capacitors and then a discussion about breakdown voltage, or dielectric strength.
Watch the "How to Make High Voltage Capacitors - Homemade/DIY" video here:
• How to Make High Volta...
To make higher capacitance capacitors, for around 62 microfarads see my "How to Make an Electrolytic Capacitor" video here:
• How to Make Electrolyt...
And for even higher capacitance, 580 microfarads, see my "How to Make a High Capacitance Electrolytic Capacitor" video here:
• How to Make a High Cap...
For details about my work with Barium Titanate capacitors, see:
rimstar.org/materials/dielectr...
For examples of how I've figured out the dielectric constant of various materials, see my webpage here:
rimstar.org/materials/dielectr...
3D capacitor animation done using Blender 2.63.
To follow me on Twitter:
#!/RimStarz
rimstar.org

Пікірлер: 285

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I'm glad to hear it. Clarity is my primary goal I have in while working on the explanations. Thanks for letting me know. And thanks for sitting through it.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Oh, great! I love it when the information comes in handy, and just in time! Glad I could help.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome, and thanks! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Cool, I'm glad this helped out. Thanks for letting me know. And welcome to the channel.

@highschoolhypnosis1 11 жыл бұрын

You have no idea how helpful this video is. Im trying to grasp electrical concepts and your video is the first source that make sense.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. Happy to hear it helped.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

@wfla2285 6 жыл бұрын

You are simply the best. So many times I do a random search on a topic and the video that covers exactly what I need pops up and its you! This is why you are one if the few Patreon donations my husband and I make! THX!!

@RimstarOrg 6 жыл бұрын

I'm glad I could help. Thanks for your support!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a good, practical class.

@oddjobbob8742 2 жыл бұрын

I understand more about capacitors after this 8 minute KZfaq than all the others I have watched put together. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and expertise.

@neutronenstern. Жыл бұрын

but consider,that in SI System.the factor 4π for capacitance is wrong.

@johngilliam6934 2 жыл бұрын

This was great, I am making a capacitor for my physics 2 class and your video gave me so many great ideas. Thanks for the bonus points I'll get in physics 2!

@rchandraonline 10 жыл бұрын

One of the most spectacular instances of dielectric breakdown is lightning.

@Slider2732 11 жыл бұрын

Will have a look ! I'd built the tube type and mucked with flat plates, but hadn't thought to expand the thoughts to different shapes, constructions etc..much like we get used to the familiar shapes and sizes of commercial electronics components. Looking forward to the HV caps video.

@elmoreglidingclub3030 4 жыл бұрын

Excellent video! Many thanks for your clear and informative style. As I’m teaching myself about electricity I think I’ll make some capacitors. Very interesting.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Oh. Neat idea. I'll look into it. I looked into how to do a homemade ultracapacitor but so far the chemistry might be beyond me. But an electrolytic cap might be doable.

@ismalinkin 3 жыл бұрын

When you master something you can teach it very clearly like you in this video thank you

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Back when I was doing non-conventional propulsion research, almost everything I made was basically a capacitor... all sorts of dielectrics and shapes when the intent was to shape the electric field. Some of it's on my rimstar dot org website. Never got anywhere but learned a tonne. :)

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

A thin plastic would work. Better depends on what you want to do. If you want higher capacitance then youre going to need more surface area and may not have enough plastic. Do you need a certain capacitance. Is your voltage very high. For capacitance, have a look at the formula in this video. If your voltage is high then have a look at my "How to Make High Voltage Capacitors - Homemade/DIY" video. You can find a link to it in the description below this video.

@Spun0ne 11 жыл бұрын

I absolutely love your channel, I wish I found it a long time ago! Thank you so much for all this amazing info!!!!

@Slider2732 11 жыл бұрын

Enjoyed that, easy and simple to do stuff with useful results. Made me think of pyramid shaped capacitors and cubes, with dielectric meshes within...not sure why though lol.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I've heard of it before, and variations, but I don't have anything to add about it all. Sounds like you should do some experimenting!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Just reassembled and measured them. The salt water one is 0.64 nanofarads and the tube pen one is 3.66 nanofarads, so the tube one has a greater capacitance. This wrapping a spiral of parallel plates is a great way to get a decent capacitance with a small homemade capacitor.

@neutronenstern. Жыл бұрын

consider your formula for capacity is wrong by a factor 4π. I think you messed up with CGS system vs SI System.

@robbyproject7515 11 жыл бұрын

thank's for Uploading this ,.. it's really help me :)

@genghizalseitov3807 4 жыл бұрын

Very useful, thank you so much

@MongrelShark 11 жыл бұрын

The "magnet effect" also explains why the farads go up as the gap gets smaller. The closer the plates, the more opposite particles are attracted. I think (my theory, never seen it elsewhere) the particles start to "Stand" from the plate allowing more electrons to be stored. The electrons may even layer up if plates close enough. It also explains the corona effect....

@YouMockMe 2 жыл бұрын

Watched a few of these... pretty good

@EnixusShroud 11 жыл бұрын

i like how well detailed it is. I'm making a project right now in my senior year of high school and I'm wondering if its possible to use another electrolyte (like let's say liquefied bannanas) instead of salt water in the cylindrical capacitor?

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Oh, neat idea. I guess you can take it further and spray it on a metal plate, then spray the primer as dielectric as you suggest and then to make good, airless contact with the primer, spray a conductive paint as the second plate.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Have a look at my "How to Make Electrolytic Capacitors" video where I make a 62 microfarad electrolytic capacitor. There's a link to it in the description below this video and on my channel page. There's also a link to my "How to Make a High Capacitance Electrolytic Capacitor" video where I get 580 microfarads. Note that these homemade versions of these capacitors are stable when in use but need reforming if they sit on the shelf for a while. They're also polarized since they're elecrolytic.

@Stratbass 11 жыл бұрын

That's great. I'm actually studying about capacitors at school. You really helped me to have a better understanding about the breakdown voltage. Please keep doing these videos. I really appreciate it. Thanks!!

@dhruvshah7488 10 жыл бұрын

Amazing Video!

@fierrosoft 11 жыл бұрын

What a great video thank you so much :)

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I don't know how well it will work with either of those. It's also the first I've heard of using them as electrolytes, though a quick search turned up a toothpaste battery. If you try it, please let us know how it goes.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

HV cap vid will be this week's, but some form of Coulomb one will follow that. Meanwhile... magnetism is a result of the electron's spin property. A bunch of electrons with spins all aligned result in a macroscopic magnetic field - hence permanent magnets. A moving electron, in conjunction with its spin, also results in a macroscopic magnetic field. An electron has another property called charge, so does a proton, but their charges are opposite. Charge gives rise to the Coulomb force.

@RimstarOrg 10 жыл бұрын

I don't know how to make a homemade 1 Farad capacitor. The thickness of the dielectric would have to be much thinner than one sheet of paper, but it would still have to be able to handle the voltage. The highest capacitance I know how to make is around 580 microfarads (0.000580 Farads). I show that in my "How to Make a High Capacitance Electrolytic Capacitor" video. But even then, I did not test for how much voltage it can handle.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I just double checked and MF is microfarad, same as µF. mF would be millifarads. I don't know the origin of the capital 'M' for for microfarad. I remember when I first saw MF I was puzzled. I considered talking about Coulombs law but decided to leave that for an All About Capacitors video some day. As for the magnetic effect, that might be a little too deep even for that video. Is it ever made use of? What do you mean about 'short probes'? Anyway, I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I have no idea where to get them in the Philippines. Search around online and you might be able to find some. Art stores sometimes have them too for crafts. I get mine from scrap yards and hobby stores. If you're making a capacitor then any metal will do just as well: copper, aluminum, brass, steel, ... The only issue I find between them is how hard it is to solder to them, if I'm soldering to make connections. Aluminum is hard to solder too.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I waiting for some more information on how to make it and couldn't until summer anyway, since I'd need to do the chemistry outdoors. Even then, I'm not sure I'll be able to do it.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes. Wax paper will work, though it might be a good idea to use more than one layer of wax paper. I actually tried with wax paper first but I guess when I rolled it up there were cracks and the two aluminum layers came in contact with each other, multiple layers of wax paper would probably fix that.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Good catch. The 4*pi shouldn't be there. I must have made an error when converting the formula from one form to another. I put an annotation fixing it in the video. Thanks!

@hadikarim8214 7 жыл бұрын

that is very helpful thank you

@curemymind 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks now I know how to use a capacitor multimeter properly... I was wonder how the mF and uf are different. Also at the end of the multimeter there is pF and I wanted to know which side was which... My multimeter starts off with 20mF and then 2000uF and then all the way down to 2uf and then 200nf and then 2000pf and the last one is 200pf... Now that I know the direction of the multimeter I will be able to read data correctly... THANKS :D... OH and I subbed very useful information.

@kristianurstad5865 4 жыл бұрын

This i a really good video.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

It should be possible to make electrolytic capacitors that are 100uFs. I haven't done it yet but you just reminded me that I should try and if it works I should make a video about how I did it. Thank you! I forgot. :) However, electrolytic capacitors are good for AC parts of circuits, not DC.

@ChrisP-ni4lz 3 жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed this. The only question I have is how long to they store a charge. Thank you

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I tried cling film as a candidate back when I made this video but the resulting capacitor plates conducted through it when tested with my meter. I didn't look into it further after that.

@harry.x.m 11 жыл бұрын

Awesome video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

For what purpose? Parallel plate capacitors are find if all you need is something with a low capacitance.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

If the nut and bolt are metal then you probably electrically connected the two plates and no longer have a capacitor. There must be only insulating material between the two plates. It's be best if you hold the plates in place from the outer surfaces. Anything in between other than cooking oils will interfere with the capacitance and end up with a different dielectric constant. See the description below this video for a link to my webpage where I show how I've figured out dielectric constants.

@RK-em8gl 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent sir.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You could try a spiral one like in this video but I think it'll need an awful lot of turns to hold the needed charge. If you're looking for a homemade capacitor that'll light your for a second or so then have a look at my video "How to Make Electrolytic Capacitors".

@danu4886 9 жыл бұрын

thank u very much bro

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes, you can use another aluminum foil. The metal you use doesn't matter much. Just make sure you can make good electrical contact with it.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Ah, by "magnetic" effect you meant the Coulomb force, attraction of like charges and repulsion of opposites. That's different than the actual physics magnetic force. I thought you meant the magnetic field that exists in between the plates when the capacitor is being charged or discharged. The molecules in the dielectric line up and polarize, causing the charges in the molecules to move, resulting in a magnetic field. That's the one that I meant is obscure. Thanks for clarifying.

@MongrelShark 11 жыл бұрын

Whenever I write MF I am talking about milli farads µ is symbol for micro, M is the symbol for milli (or million if dealing with numbers larger than 1). There is a difference of 10^3 or one degree of magnitude...... Same as any other abbreviation of degree of magnitude. You could suggest people use short probes too... You don't mention the magnetic (Columbs law) effect caused by opposite charged particles attracting.. Lots of good info though. Nice video. A few good tips. Thanks for the upload.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

It's a Fluke 187. But there are plenty of multimeters that can measure capacitance.

@TEODOR006 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the speedy reply. If so, i should try making a capacitor bank, I have one capacitor of 3,3 milifarads, one capacitor of 1 milifarads, and two of 6 milifarads, but the voltage is low, will the resulting capacitance be 16,3 milifarads or 16 300 microfarads?

@karenanel4721 10 жыл бұрын

thanks !! you safe my life !! :D *

@MrMaestro14231 11 жыл бұрын

Did this with a cylindrical capacitor in my intro physics class. Shocked my finger pretty good- ｇｏｏ.ｇｌ/ｊｃｆＶｕ

@proarcher13 9 жыл бұрын

Hello I was wondering if you would be willing to do a video on the ebner effect, basically it has to do with putting seeds or small eggs in between the plates of a cap. Have been trying to devise a method to try this for myself but am having some trouble

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I'll PM you, though having the plates 1cm apart is also a bit far making the capacitance really low. Your meter may simply not be able to measure the low a capacitance.

@ThePmcquain 10 жыл бұрын

Great video! Is the copper clad you show double or single-sided, and how was the middle piece insulated from the rest of the "sandwich"? I'm referring to the one you made for one of your crystal radios, and I have a surplus if double-sided board. Wouldn't one piece be capacitive in it's own? Off to the lab!!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

No, as long as the glue doesn't damage the dielectric then it should be fine. The glue will probably be insulating so it will act as additional dielectric material and if the layer is thick compared to the overall dielectric thickness then it will decrease the capacitance. That's because the greater the distance between the conductive plates, the lower the capacitance.

@dinosaur0073 Жыл бұрын

Thank you Maaan for making my life simple. But my question is? Can we connect "starting" ac capacitor permanent on circuit with right range without getting overheating? Or it's good idea to disconnect the capacitors after starting...waiting for kindly reply...thanks

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Which capacitor?

@RimstarOrg 10 жыл бұрын

All the copper clad is double-sided. The middle piece makes electrical contact with the copper coating on the underside of the top stationary piece and with the copper coating on the upperside of the bottom stationary piece. No attempt at insulating is done there. The other "plate" of the capacitor is the copper coating on the upperside of the top stationary piece and the underside of the bottom stationary piece; those two coatings are connected together with a wire as shown in the video.

@ArasmusInc 11 жыл бұрын

and will using glue between the conductor-dielectric interface cause any problem or will it improve the performance

@JustinStaveley 11 жыл бұрын

So what gives you a greater capacitance, the salt water one or the tube pen one?

@Spun0ne 11 жыл бұрын

Also do you know and could you do a video showing a scaled down model of how some of the pyramids worked to ionize the air so rapidly and create wireless power? I know they work somewhat like capacitors or where supposed to. I understand there is running streams underground where they are built and apparently if the large block of gold is in place the bottom chamber and the top gold points are on they produce massive amounts of energy by rapidly ionizing the air as a voltage source from (cont)

@jolgiiis 11 жыл бұрын

You should try making some graphene and then making a capacitor out of that. I'd much appreciate seeing that done :D

@johnrobinson4445 7 жыл бұрын

Brilliant.

@samrgam6138 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks .. I will try to do it with Soda can, as far as I know it's already isolated with transparent isolation , idk , I will try and see.

@VASEA0000 11 жыл бұрын

@ 0:41 instead of the copper plate can i just use another aluminium foil? And btw, what is the best metal i should use to make a capacitor?

@liudas000 10 жыл бұрын

I'm interested in low voltage and high capacity capacitors, made from simple materials.. So my question is how much layers of A4 paper and aluminum folio I need for around 1 Farad at up to 15V? Maybe I should use different dielectric?

@engnsolsorganizationsales8025 6 ай бұрын

Thank you

@Spun0ne 11 жыл бұрын

the flowing water underneath the pyramid?? Does that sound even close to realistic?? Very interested in learning more about that topic if you have anything to share! thnx so much

@ArasmusInc 11 жыл бұрын

what kind of capacitor will be the best for storing enough charge to light up a LED for a second or so....I need to make sure that the capacitor is compact and yes safe...

@johnhopkins6260 5 жыл бұрын

grey ESD packaging for roll-your-own caps?

@ansonaroza 11 жыл бұрын

So we can use any metal which is conductive for the two conductive plates like aluminium

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I can't say how many volts it can take before the wall of the jar breaks down. You'd have to keep increasing the voltage until it breaks down to find out. Or find out exactly what material the jar is made of and do a search for its breakdown voltage. But if it's a plastic or glass jar, 220V isn't going to break through. I doubt even 1000V will break through.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Oh. Your capacitor may have too low a capacitance. You can get a store bought capacitor and see the same thing. If the capacitance is too low then you can't put enough energy into it to make the speaker make a click sound. So you capacitor likely works, just not for your application. Don't know what I was thinking when I said electrolytics are good for AC and not DC. It's the other way around. So an electrolytic may work in your case (I don't know how much energy a speaker needs.)

@emiliorojo5560 2 жыл бұрын

Hi, my name is Emilio and I live in Brussels Belgium, I am a luthier and in my quest to do as much as possible myself, I would like to manufacture my own 0.047uf and 0.022uf paper-in-oil capacitors professionally, make one it's easy but one that gets a professional finish isn't. I would like to know if you can help me, what kind of machine I can use, how to give the correct coating that is hard like bumblebees, or has an aluminum can. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this message.

@rizoable 11 жыл бұрын

OK sir, lets say that i made that jar capacitor and i want to charge it now to see if its going to work, how much V's can it take, should i charge with something like 3 V or can i go for 220 V , and either way how much would the capacitor hold

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

The one you're talking about isn't a magnetic effect. It's not magnetism at all. It's the Coulomb force. Perhaps that's why you're having trouble finding further reading on it. Search for "Coulomb's law". I don't have any specific links but you've got me thinking about making a video about it. And yes, that was a typo. Good catch!

@Sven_Hein 4 жыл бұрын

I've made one and it has a capacitance of around 2.5 uF. Can handle about 8000V.

@matthewsandor9210 Жыл бұрын

I have a 2mm thick and is 24mm or 1 1"3/8 circumference and 9"7/16 length copper pipe gonna put 2 wood end caps circumference 1"3/8 in drill hole 3/8" hole insert 3/8"×5x5/16" bolt grind bolt head to same circumference of bolt 3/8 INVERT Bolt insert into would plug one end of pipe double nuts to lock in place tab soldered on outside copper pipe and top of bolt head for leads what kind of ferret reading should I be expecting

@mustaphaalkhafaaf5512 3 жыл бұрын

mybe its also worth mentioning that the volt meter is also a voltage source which transmit electrons and hence it shows the capacitance , meaning a source of energy like a battery that charges the capacitor and measures the vlaue and potential difference hence display the effect as capacitance on the display ,

@paulasierra2409 11 жыл бұрын

Hey that's a really nice video. Can you help me with this: i have to make a 50 microfarad capacitor, so can you tell me how can i do one, because i've been trying a lot of things and i just got a 20 nanofarads capacitor. Thanks :)

@MongrelShark 11 жыл бұрын

Ahh. There are two magnetic effects... I was referring to the one that causes the plates to attract to each other. which is not the same as two magnets, as you say. If you have time. Could you send me some links to further reading on this topic? I've been looking at your website, but there is a lot to go through... Like particles attract and opposite repel? was that a typo? I was always taught opposites attract, like repels. Or is that not always true?...

@sobamani1244 11 ай бұрын

Very well

@TEODOR006 11 жыл бұрын

can you help me about this article? I want to make very high capacistance ( I'm not sure if it is spelled right) capacitor (around 50 milifarads and 5 to 9 volts.) Can you help me for the size of the aluminum sheet that i will be using? Thank you in reverse!

@proparshya100 6 жыл бұрын

hello , how can i make grain simple moisture meter by using capacitance method.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

16.3 millifarads is the same as 16,300 microfarads so maybe you meant something else by one of them. But if you connect the positives together and the negatives together then i.e in parallel, the yes, the capacitance will be 16.3 millifarads.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Maybe I should have phrased that better. If one side of your capacitor is connected to ground then that side should be the one that you move. If neither plate is connected to ground then make sure your hand won't get close enough to interfere it. I guess I was assuming that in the circuit, one plate of the capacitor would be connected to ground. Whether or not it is depends on your circuit.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes, any metal will do.

@briansmith9698 6 ай бұрын

RimstarOrg can you do a video of making old paper wax capacitor?

@GabBy-su9og 2 ай бұрын

Hello, can I use any kind of tape to tape the aluminum and paper together? Does it make difference or cause leakage?

@RimstarOrg 2 ай бұрын

Yes, other tapes work too, like clear tape or electrical tape (that's the tape made of vinyl and that's usually black). Of course, I can't vouch for every type of tape, as you say, some may cause leakage. Don't use aluminum tape though!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Hmmm... You shouldn't be having problems storing energy. How are you making your capacitors, how are you charging them and how are you measuring the energy stored? If you have your meter hooked up during charging, your meter might be discharging it just as fast as you charge it. If so, try charging it first and then attach the meter. I haven't found an easy way to make high capacitance DC capacitors yet without using lots of material.