Seriese capacitors in power supply ?

[woody]

I need some 180v 10,000 uf caps in a power supply. I don`t have
any of them at present but have a slew of 15,000 uf 63v caps. If
I run 2 banks of 3 series connected in parrell I get my 10,000 at
180v rating but don`t I need some resistors to ensure that the caps are sharing the voltage equally? If so are there any rules
of thumb what value resistors to use.

Thanks

[AndrewT]

Hi,
when you series connect caps to get the extra voltage you half the capacitance for two, or one third the capacitance for three or one quarter the capacitance for four.

If you want 180Vdc and 10mF then you will need nine 63Vdc 10mF caps in a bank with the voltage equalising resistors to give your requirement.

It might be cheaper and smaller to find some 200V caps and parallel them instead.