[rescue] Big Caps

[Kris Kirby]

On Thu, 4 Jul 2002, Chad Fernandez wrote:
> Car audio.  They are used to stabilize power..... if that's the way to
> say it.  I'm don't know much about electrical systems.

Actually, they keep the hapless user from destroying his alternator and
battery. When an amp `hits', it pulls much more power to recarge the
amplifier's power rails. The durations of the `hits' are typically not
very long and the fluctutions are not good for the alternator. Many people
I know of who have run without capacitors usually go a month or two before
they have to get a new alternator. There's also offsetting the i^2 losses
in the wires to and from the battery as well.

--
Kris Kirby, KE4AHR          | TGIFreeBSD... 'Nuff said.
<kris at nospam.catonic.net>   | IM: KrisBSD | HSV, AL.
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"Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."