can i charge 200v 470µF capacitors with a computer power supply?

See the link below on how to wire them into a voltage multiplier circuit. Just keep adding stages to obtain the desired voltage. These use AC input voltages.

http://www.coolcircuit.com/circuit/voltage/

Edit: OK, I thought you were trying to end up with higher voltage than your input voltage. If that is your goal, then the multiplier circuit is the answer.

Maybe you just don't understand what 200v rating on the cap is? That is the working voltage, the voltage that the cap can withstand before it shorts internally. In your case charging directly from a computer power supply will only charge to the 5 or 12 volts that the supply outputs and there is no danger of damaging them since they are rated for 200v. If you reverse polarity they will smoke at a much lower voltage.

The only way the voltages 'stack' your way is to charge them each separately and then connect them in series to increase the stored voltage. The multiplier circuit uses rectifiers to accomplish the same thing.

Oh and as for hooking the 470uf and 560uf together, those numbers just tell how many coulombs of charge they will hold when charged to a particular voltage, they have no effect on the voltage that the cap can withstand.

Edit Edit: Glad that makes sense! I don't think you can make that circuit much simpler than that. You need to learn how to read schematics to get very far, but it is a lot easier than it looks at first. The C1-C4 represents polarized capacitors, like what you have. In this schematic, the dark line is the negative plate in the cap, the pin with the stripe on the case usually. There are many other symbols used for caps though. D1-D4 are rectifiers (or diodes) which are like one-way valves for electricity. The line indicates the cathode end of the rectifier.

For this circuit all of your components need to be rated at twice your AC input voltage, so you could use up to 100 volts. It would not be a good idea to try to do this directly from the AC wall socket though! You need a transformer to isolate the voltage and limit the current! Not kidding on this!

A lot to explain here... capacitors basically store CHARGE by creating an electric field between two conducting layers The 200V is a MAXIMUM voltage rating to avoid shorting out the capacitor internally. A capacitor can be charged UP TO the maximum VOLTAGE put across the terminals. But it can be discharged quickly OR slowly, based on the resistance of what you want to discharge it into.

Think of water and a bucket. If empty, it can be filled slowly up to the top, but it can be emptied

quickly if you just dump it out, or slowly if you pour out a small stream. Either way, when it is empty, no charge remains inside.

"Charge" is like the water in a hose, "voltage" is like the hose pressure, and "current" is the rate of flow out of the hose. Power is the product of voltage times current (think fire-hose!)

You can't charge a capacitor with an AC voltage because every 120th of it second, it charges a little bit, then in the next 120th of a second, discharges back into the charging circuit.

AAA, AA, C, and D batteries all have an initial VOLTAGE of about 1.6 DC volts. The difference is the rate of maximum CURRENT each cell size can provide into a circuit.

You can charge multiple capacitors if you wire them in a PARALLEL circuit arrangement. Think of simultaneously filling two adjacent buckets with a hose having a sprayer on the end. They will each charge only up to the voltage level of the charging supply. Trying to charge capacitors by wiring them is series would result in much lower power into the capacitors.

560 uF and 460 uF capacitors are relatively small in that they only can each hold about 0.0005 Farads of charge. New ceramic capacitors can hold up to around a full Farad of charge, yet are smaller than a hockey puck.

Computer PS outputs are usually very well regulated DC voltages and usually supply +3.3VDC(orange), +5.0 VDC(red), +5VFPDC(purple), +12VDC(yellow) and -12VDC(blue), all referenced to the common (black) wires. VFP is the voltage to the video flat panel screen.

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Transformers work only with AC, and you cannot charge a cap with AC. Or rather, you will charge and discharge it 60 times a second. The negative swings will damage the cap.

"DC transformer"? no such thing.

A 12 volt DC supply will charge the caps to only 12 volts, a small fraction of the total charge they can hold. You need a DC supply of 200 volts to charge them fully.

Stack them? You can connect them in parallel to get a total of 470+200+200 = 870µF.

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