High uF value 160v cap source

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#2
With such high voltages and wanting high capacitance too, you will struggle to find a capacitor of the rating that you require. If you need more than 3900uF, I'd recommend paralleling the capacitors to get the desired capacitance. The voltage rating will stay the same though, at 160V.
 
#4
By paralleling tha caps, I meant connecing all of the positive terminals together and connecting all of the negative terminals together. The total capacitance would then be capacitance mulitplied by the nunmber of caps. By connecting them in series you would only increase the working voltage of the capacitors, the capacitance would stay the same.

Jack
 
#6
You can have any number of capacitors in parallel but it depends on what you are using them for. If you have 20 capacitors in parallel, charged to near their maximum voltage, then that is a massive amount of power you are talking about there. If you were to bridge the positive and negative terminals with even a screwdriver, it would definitely scorch or possibly melt the screwdriver. Just think what would happen if you did this with you finger...😱
 
#8
What voltage will the amp be running on? Because if it is lower than 160V you could probably save a lot of money and space by going with lower voltage and higher capacitance capacitors. Have you ever made an amp before, because 1200W is a ridiculous amount of power and is extremely dangerous.
 
#9
Hi Jack,

This if for the HPA-nvx 1200 from Aussie Amplifiers. The rails are running at 110v so don't really need the 160v caps but 125v and 150v are even more rare and hard to find than 160v.

And yes it is a ton of power which is why I select these amp boards...I'm just building the power supplies.

Regards,
Theo
 
#11
Are you using a linear (i.e. mains frequency transformer and large filter capacitors) power supply for that amp? Because you will need a HUGE, 15.kVA transformer to provide the necessary amounts of power for the amp so that it does not go into clipping on peaks. On the aussie amps website, it does suggest using SMPS (switched mode power supplies) which are much more efficient and will produce more power for less size and weight, so if I were you, I would consider one of these instead.

Again, have you ever put together an amp of this size before. Even if you are buying the boards pre assembled, the power supplies are massive and could kill you easily. Also, you would need a soft start with that size of transformer running on 115V mains as the current drawn at power up and even when running will be immense.

Jack
 
#12
The best choice would probably be direct rectification from the line. You're dealing with high output voltage so you'll insulate them as such regardless of whether or not they're isolated.

If you could separate your application into two outputs, a pair of TI TAS5630s and a large surplus telecom power supply or two would give you 1.2kW with only low voltages.
 
#13
Direct rectification from the mains line for me would be a complete no-no. If something happened to go wrong on the power amp circuitry side, such as a blown capacitor or shorted rectifier or transistor, this would allow full mains voltage and the huge amounts of current that 115V supplies can provide to flow through the circuitry, probably arcing across tracks on the PCB and causing all sorts of damage. At this voltage and current, fuses will do very little to stop the damage as it has all happened before the fuse has a chance to blow.

If you were to use a transformer, this would provide isolation from the mains and also limit the current that the circuit would be able to draw in a fault situation (still high though) and possibly leave some parts of the circuit intact.

Even better would be a SMPS. These often have built in over-current or over-voltage protection which will trigger and shut down the power supply in the event of a failure.

Jack
 
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