How would you go about charging a capacitor at higher voltages? Obviously, it would be impractical to charge a capacitor with a 500v battery... Cameras seem to be able to charge a 200+ volt cap with a 1.5v battery. I've looked up how this is done, but I only got a vague answer. If I wanted to make my own voltage "stepper upper", where would I begin?

 

Google: flyback transformer circuits

The back emf of an inductor is used to charge the capacitor.

 

How would you go about charging a capacitor at higher voltages? Obviously, it would be impractical to charge a capacitor with a 500v battery... Cameras seem to be able to charge a 200+ volt cap with a 1.5v battery. I've looked up how this is done, but I only got a vague answer. If I wanted to make my own voltage "stepper upper", where would I begin?

You would begin by studying the subject of electronics in general, with particular reference to safety. A capacitor charged to a high voltage can deliver lethal currents.

If you have to ask how this is done, you most likely do not yet know enough about the subject to do this safely. In any case, I can't advise you further as rules of this forum don't allow us to discuss this sort of thing.

 

Depending on the ultimate use, this might be a forbidden topic. What is the purpose of the capacitor?

 

Depending on the ultimate use, this might be a forbidden topic. What is the purpose of the capacitor?

I have no use for such a capacitor, I was just curious as to how it could be done. It would be ridiculous to make capacitors if you needed an extreme number of batteries to charge them. I figured there must be a way to step up voltage, which I was right. I don't need to step the voltage up to anything lethal, but it would be nice if I could figure out how this step-up/step-down thing worked.