I made a thread several days ago because I was working on a project where I was trying to charge devices with a generator and a micro USB (bare with me, I'm new at circuitry). I recently contacted the company to ask about the voltage of their generator, to which they replied it was ~3v. They had also said that the source had to have a higher voltage than the battery to be able to produce a charge, which I did not know. I researched capacitors as they increase voltage, however I'm not sure as to how much they increase voltage by. If i needed roughly 1-2 more volts would 1 capacitor be enough? (I also think the measurement for capacitors is mf, correct?)

Would 1mf (or whatever) be enough to increase voltage by 1-2 or would I need stronger? There isn't a lot of space on the board, but a very good friend of mine who worked as an electrical engineer told me that I could solder the capacitor to one of the diodes that are already soldered onto the board, is this possible?

Thank you guys again! I'm really learning a lot

 

Hello,

What kind of generator are you using?
It looks like a very small power one, if it is only giving 3 Volts at the output.
Is the output AC or DC?

Bertus

 

Start with a drawing of the circuit. Capacitors don't create voltage, they only store it. Where is this extra volt coming from? (I'll be able to see that on the drawing.)

 

Capacitors don't boost/generate voltage. In fact, their only real job is to reduce the CHANGE in voltage. Kind of like a buffer, it keeps voltage stable by releasing it's charge when the voltage drops, and storing charge when the voltage rises. If you like the whole water analogy, a capacitor would be a tank, it's pressure rating would be the voltage rating, and it's volume/size would be it's capacitance rating.

 

I actually can't get a hold of a drawing as the company doesn't offer one

The voltage is DC and yes, it is a very small generator. Roughly 10cm board in length.

 

Hello,

Do you have a link to the companies page for the generator?
Or can you post a foto of the generator?
How much current can the generator give at this 3 Volts?

Bertus

 

Power Output is 0.5mW @100KHz. Insulation resistance = 100 M?

Link to the page:http://www.steminc.com/PZT/en/piezo-ceramic-generator-40x11x17mm?gclid=CPfjp-CPor4CFWIF7AodrBgA9w

There are 2 dual diodes connected through a bridge rectifier I believe and one leads off into 2 through-holes which could be positive and negative terminals? I soldered them respectively.

 

It takes about 3400mW•hr to charge a single AA battery. At 0.5mW, you'll never get there. You'll need ~1yr.

Step back and tell us what you are hoping to do.

 

I'm trying to use said generator to power a small battery, I was testing out smartphone batteries as it seemed interesting and small enough, but I suppose not. I thought voltage was what dictated a charge, it says he output is 0.5mW but the voltage of it is around 3v as said earlier. How is there a difference in these things and what dictates how fast something will charge?

EDIT: Is there another component I can solder to the board to increase power output?

 

No. There is nothing besides a different generator that you can solder to the board to get more power.

It's like volts are pressure, current is mass flow, and those multiplied is wattage.
P=IE
Power = current times voltage
.0005 watts = .0001667 amps time 3 volts.

Just guessing, a smart phone might use from .01 amp to .1 amp.
That's going to require 100 to 1000 hours of charge per hour of use.
You need a bigger horse to get that horsepower.

 

Well thanks guys, I suppose that type of technology doesn't exist yet, however. I'll just use this generator to mess around with. Thanks again!

 

You cannot get extra energy from nothing. If the generator max output power is 0.5mW that is all you are going to get. You cannot boost that.