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Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716
AdamF wrote ... ... does that mean the cathode of the diode should be attached to the anode rail of the cap bank? That's mainly where I'm confused; in physics we talk about the flow of positive charge but then that screws me up when I think about diodes.
Yup. With its cathode on the positive bus bar and anode on the negative bus bar, the diode will be reverse biased and not conduct when the capacitors are charged. Then if your coil circuit is underdamped, and continues to suck current after the capacitor voltage reaches zero, the diode will begin to conduct and limit the reverse voltage.
The "arrow" in schematic symbol for a PN diode points from anode to cathode, in the direction that the diode allows positive current to flow.
I am an advocate of thinking in terms of conventional (positive) current flow when learning electronics. People were riding electric streetcars and powering their houses from the AC electric grid (not to mention talking on telephones), all engineered using international standard volts, amperes, and ohms, before electrons were discovered. (Too bad the most common electric charge carriers turned out to be negative). Conventional current is always sufficient to understand what electronic components, batteries, motors, wires, etc. DO (their behavior in circuits). Notwithstanding the fact that in some cases, the signs of charge carriers are crucial to understanding HOW they work.
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Capacitor Bank Charging Question