I just got a cap off ebay. The person said it's charged and ready to go but I'd like to make sure. Can I test with a multimeter connecting to + - on the cap? Also, it says on the side 24 volt... I thought these were 12v? These things kinda freak me out...

 

And that makes absolutely no sense. Smoke another '

Why would a cap I buy from a local dealer make me less nervous than one I bought off ebay? Sorry, I just couldn't resist $20 incl. shipping... Maybe next time I'll pay $100 from a "local dealer" that way I'll be $80 in the hole and I'll have a super miracle cap that has NO chance of blowing up!

 

That was a bit harsh.... Sorry. I guess I deserve some flammage...

anyway, the cap is reading 2.6V does this mean it needs a pre-charge or can I just install it?

 

caps really do not do anything. u can charge it, u can leave it, u can install it as a part of your car stereo or as a part of your spare tire - it will work just as well in all instantces.

 

I'm curious, what cap did you get ?..

Anyways, I dont know why you would go and spend money or even think of buying a cap if you have no clue what they are meant/ or claim to do. Then you come on here asking probably the stupidest question," cap says 24 volts, i'm scared" hahahah.. U do deserve to get flamed, i'm sorry, but that was just priceless haha

 

Here we go, another capacitor debate. I bought the cap because it was $20 and saved me from being a d-block and fuses. I hardly consider that spending money.... AND it WILL help once I have both amps going... so whatever you say it won't help, it makes no difference, etc, etc...

liv2ride, my statement was it's 24v, I thought caps were 12v. Not, it's 24v... I'm scared. Unlike other newbies I like to know what I'm dealing with and play it safe. And to further that question, what I meant was... does it need to be charged to 24v or 12v.

Flame away... I've been on the net since it was born so I know what this is all about. This however, is my first experience installing car audio. There is a first for everything believe it or not..

 

24v just means that it can supply a voltage up to 24v, but this will never happen in your car because your car battery is probably only 12v.
Put a resistor or a little 12v bulb across the terminals and charge it up.
Remember don't connect it straight to your battery without any load, otherwise it will short the battery.

 

Then you must know about this nice search engine called google, one quick search on charging a cap and you would know all you have to do it put it parallel in your circuit, and it charges itself up to its voltage, and the 24v means surge, but it will never go up that high, its because some applications caps can be used for use that voltage, but it works in the range from 12-24 and your car would be a 13.4volts or whatever a car alt runs at !.. It's not hard, just find a simple diagram on the internet on how to wire it in, and the first time you start you plug it into your system, it will charge itself, guessing this is a digital cap, if it has no digital volt meter, then you prob have to charge it with the supplied 1 k ohm resistor. which is easy as pie. just read on or ask !

 

whether its digital or not, you need to have some sort of load while charging it up. the "digital" part just means it has a simple digital multimeter attached to its terminals.

EDIT: Time = Resistance * Capacitance, so if you use a 1kohm resistor with a 1 farad capacitor it will take 1000s to reach 1T. A full charge is about 4T, which means it would take 4000s to charge (1+hr )