{"id":1350,"date":"2018-03-15T16:35:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T20:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2018-12-18T14:17:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:17:30","slug":"overview-of-capacitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/overview-of-capacitors\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview of Capacitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are capacitors?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Capacitors are electrical devices designed to hold a potential difference, similar to a battery, except capacitors store their charge as electrostatic energy.\u00a0 They consist of two conductive plates separated by a dielectric medium in which the static charge is stored as the current creates a potential difference across the plates.<\/p>\n

Why do capacitors apply to powersport vehicles?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The acronym \u201cCDI\u201d stands for \u201cCapacitor Discharge Ignition\u201d.\u00a0 In these systems, the charge in the capacitor is built up either by the battery (DC-CDI) or a source coil on the stator (AC-CDI).\u00a0 When the trigger sends the correct signal, it closes a circuit so the C<\/u><\/strong>apacitor is D<\/u><\/strong>ischarged to the I<\/u><\/strong>gnition coil, where the voltage is stepped up to create a spark at the spark plug.\u00a0 Capacitors are also found on many older bikes with points-ignition systems (they are usually referred to as \u201ccondensers\u201d on these).<\/p>\n

How do capacitors get blown?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like many electrical concepts, it may be helpful to use a hydraulic analogy.\u00a0 Picture a container that can only handle 10 gallons of water.\u00a0 Now imagine what would happen if you attempted to force 15 gallons into this container.\u00a0 It would burst, right?\u00a0 A similar principle applies to the amount of electrical charge a capacitor can handle.\u00a0 In particular, if the rectifier\/regulator fails and begins overcharging in a battery-powered (DC-CDI) system, this will allow an excess of current into your vehicle’s system, and one of the first symptoms will be a \u201cbang\u201d from your CDI box as the capacitor blows out.\u00a0 One look at it is all you’ll need to diagnose the problem, as the CDI typically splits apart from the force.\u00a0 Below are two examples of CDIs that have experienced this condition.\u00a0 The top part is off a Honda 1999 TRX300, the bottom from a 2007 Polaris Phoenix 200.<\/p>\n

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Honda 1999 TRX300<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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2007 Polaris Phoenix 200<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

These photos are both examples of CDI boxes that have been returned to us on actual warranty claims in which the rectifier\/regulator created an overcharge condition, which in turn exceeded the capacitor\u2019s tolerances and the part failed.\u00a0 If your CDI box looks like this on a DC-CDI system, it is essential that the rectifier\/regulator be replaced as well or you will likely have a re-occurrence of the same problem!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We hope this post has been helpful, and as always if you have any questions please email us at info@ricksmotorsportelectrics.com<\/a> and we will do our best to assist!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are capacitors? Capacitors are electrical devices designed to hold a potential difference, similar to a battery, except capacitors store their charge as electrostatic energy.\u00a0 They consist of two conductive plates separated by a dielectric medium in which the static charge is stored as the current creates a potential difference across the plates. Why do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,37],"tags":[133,135,134,11,5,89,99,58,50,136,15],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-new-from-ricks","category-reviews-opinions","tag-atvs","tag-blown-cdi","tag-cdi-boxes","tag-honda","tag-how-to","tag-kawasaki","tag-motorcycles","tag-polaris","tag-suzuki","tag-tech-tip","tag-yamaha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricksmotorsportelectrics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}