TL=8 Batteries
- Thread starter Spinward Flow
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In human time scales, capacitors will hold the charge unless there is a path for the charge to move through, be that moist humid air or the hand of a careless technician (RIP). Dry non-ionized air, not so much, vaccuum, never. Spoken as an Electrical Engineering Technician of nearly 50 years of experiance. I never shorted a capacitor through my body, but I have had parts of screwdrivers vaporized as I checked that the capacitor was discharged before touching it. Unplugging the device does not discharge the capacitors.
Ok, then, explosion risk for the capacitors when charged?In human time scales, capacitors will hold the charge unless there is a path for the charge to move through, be that moist humid air or the hand of a careless technician (RIP). Dry non-ionized air, not so much, vaccuum, never. Spoken as an Electrical Engineering Technician of nearly 50 years of experiance. I never shorted a capacitor through my body, but I have had parts of screwdrivers vaporized as I checked that the capacitor was discharged before touching it. Unplugging the device does not discharge the capacitors.
Spinward Flow
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I believe that LBB5.80 mentions something along those lines when the jump capacitors get "more charge than they can handle" put into them ...
Ya the ship explodes, but that’s overcharging. I’m talking about leaving it in a charged state near the maximum.m for extended periods of time.I believe that LBB5.80 mentions something along those lines when the jump capacitors get "more charge than they can handle" put into them ...
Since I have the tonnage system, I can say the exploding 36 EPs is 360 tons of damage per dton- probably an internal explosion too.
Spinward Flow
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Apparently, it's not a problem ... or LBB5.80 (or some subsequent publication) would have mentioned it as a hazard (somewhere, somewhen).
A common fault with elyctrolytic capacitors is when the capictor short circuits from one plate to the other. in power supplies this is usually seen during the moment when the grid had a voltage spike so that the voltage exceeded the normal by enough to cause a zap across the plates, scale up to utility scale capacitors, and lightening bolts, and yes you get capacitors going boom. At PC and server power scales the short across the plates on a filter capacitor just causes the system to reboot right now as the (BAR above) RST signal is triggered. Each time this happens the capictor is damaged a bit and the next short needs less voltage to short, leading to a computer that cannot finish it's POST before the next short happens.
So in a static system where the capacitor has already been charged up and is holding the charge, there is only external factors that will make the capacitor go BOOM! That being among others kenetic penators physically shorting out the plates, (vaporizing the penatrator and likley the capacitor depending on energy density). So engaging a ship in combat that is holding the capacitors for jump in readiness for jump is a good way to get a kill.
That’s what I was thinking, might be an extra ship killed option like a magazine going up. But I was asking more about trickle/power loss.
IMTU the capacitor is metallic hydrogen so thinking a long term charge heats it and destabilizes the metal state.
I seem to recall Brilliant Lances as having a design based hit location chart that can be created for each design, make that chart up for your ships and then look at the chances that the jump capacitor gets hit on a fat trader then repeat the process for an X-boat. Might be informative.
Spinward Flow
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If a jump capacitor has 1+EPs stored in it, getting a Jump Drive Destroyed or a Jump Drive damaged to code: 0 will be sufficient to engage the "black globe rule" and vaporize the craft.
I don’t know that I would have it be any charge. That seems a bit harsh.
Spinward Flow
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Sandy Monro mentions up near the front that the 4680 is no longer his "favorite battery" engineering.
Spinward Flow
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* IF * the reporting is to be believed, a battery with an energy density of 820wh/kg has been developed in Japan, but it is nowhere near ready for mass production to be used in commercial products. There's apparently a goodly about of engineering work remaining to do around battery degradation/cycle life to improve longevity, etc. but that energy density is incredibly high.
820 * 3600 = 2.952 megawatt-seconds per kg
CT Striker Book 4, p10 Battery Table:
TL=8 ... 1.25 megawatt-seconds per kg
TL=9 ... 2.25 megawatt-seconds per kg
TL=10 ... 3 megawatt-seconds per kg
So that 820wh/kg number is just shy of TL=10 battery energy density, according to CT Striker.
Ya several of the Striker hard numbers have not aged well.
Spinward Flow
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To be fair, Striker was written in the late 70s/early 80s when computers were still mostly room sized installations, rather than desktop machines.
Still, the amount of "learning curve progression" in battery technology engineering since the release of the Tesla Roadster has been nothing short of astonishing. The simple fact of the matter is that "combustion technologies" are effectively "played out" as far as R&D goes. You can spend billions for a fractional percent increase in performance (as multiple automakers are finding to their financial detriment). By contrast, the "running room" for further advancements in battery and electric motor technology engineering spaces is incredibly vast and substantially unexplored. There's still PLENTY of performance returns to be had per R&D budget spent in these fields.
I wouldn't consider "the local star" to be a "portable fusion generator" per se ...
However, what far too many in the energy industries overlook is the fact that Solar Power IS NUCLEAR FUSION POWERed ... all you need is the "collectors" to harvest the "power" raining down on you from the sky.
You can either mine the ground (to put those atoms into the atmosphere, by combusting them for energy) ... or ... you can mine the sky (harvesting sunlight and wind for energy).
Choose wisely.
Condottiere
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Microfission generator.
Whether the Chinese can deliver this takeout, is another question.
Whether the Chinese can deliver this takeout, is another question.
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