Here is more info about new capacitor tech discussed in other blog. Murata has introduced lately interesting technology regarding lightweight energy storing- the super capacitors. The 5.5V double cell capacitors features a thin 20.5mm X 18.5mm X 3.0mm package and a 350mF value. Any applications in mind?At least the energy/weight ration should be interesting to flying electronics.Also one aspect is fast changing.
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They're certainly useless for long-term energy storage, so the intended goal would be for sub-second 'bursts' of very high current to or from the motors, in order to rapidly change the RPM. The question then becomes - are you holding off on pushing more short-term current through the motors because your battery won't cut it, or because your motor won't cut it, or merely because your BEC hasn't been programmed with rapid changes in mind?
What is the limiting factor preventing us from going 0rpm to 5000rpm in a millisecond?
with a reasonablde pricetag i dont see why not
Perhaps here.
So basically no.
UAV do not have a low-power profile marked by short spurts of high demand.
They tend to have relatively moderate (1-5hour) periods of sustained high demand.
I'd love to be wrong on this one.
These are great for smoothing the supply for peaky loads but no good as an energy source.
They are used alot for GSM modems powered from 500mA current limited USB ports. A GSM PA needs 2A peak with 0.5-2ms pulses at 217Hz. The 350mF would do this job very well.
It might help to smooth the supply for your telemetry modem depending on your system.
There has been talk of using these as buffers near servos to prevent motor start current from causing severe voltage dips in the system.
Don't get them too hot or over voltage, they blow up like little metallic balloons.
I believe super capacitors will be the future to energy storage, replacing batteries with much more efficiency and fast charging capabilities !
One of those capacitors stores about 0,5* 0,35F * (5,5V)^2 = 5.3 joules of energy or 0.00147 Wh. I couldn't find any info on the weight anywhere but lets say it weighs 5 grams: at that weight the energy density is 0.294 Wh/kg while that same number with LiPo batteries is more than 500 times better. So I don't think there's any realistic use for these in your average sUAS from the view point of energy storage atleast.
Could be nice in a tiny tank circuit, but at less than 0.5 mAh they're not going to store much energy for anything more than bailing out small lipos in phones when the circuitry requires a surge of current. Cute packages though and low ESR.
No.