Thread: Circuit Design
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Unread 22-01-2008, 13:07
SteveJanesch SteveJanesch is offline
hopes he has enough oomph
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Re: Circuit Design

By "current capability" I meant how much current the fuel cell will provide. No worries.

Judging by the website you provided, it looks like the fuel cell will provide up to half an amp at 2 Volts (depending on hydrogen flow, I imagine) and will electrolyze water into H2 and O2 when you apply 4 Volts, and draws about half an amp while doing so. Charging up the caps to 2 Volts and stacking them will put 4V on the fuel cell - no more than that. I'm not familiar with the cell, but it sounds like if you stack the caps the stored energy might to into hydrolyzing the water that built up while you were generating the electricity in the first place. Whether you wind up hydrolyzing more water or not, the motor will be running off the stored energy in the caps and not the fuel cell.

Since I don't know what the spirit of this competition is supposed to be, or what the rules are (particularly on stored energy), I don't know if what you're proposing is going to be legal.