I have made a system that stops my trolley for about 12 seconds at a few places on the tracks. Is there a way to use a capacitor to power the interior light during the time it is stopped?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
For 12 seconds, I'd consider LED lighting and a SuperCap. You could have the SuperCap charge while it's running, and then power the lights when you stop.
Thanks. Could you help me with more specifics? I am a novice on electronics.
What would be the specs of the SuperCap?
How would you wire that?
I'd use a 5V SuperCap, a 5V regulator, and some white LED's.
LM2596 Power Supply
You'll need a simple bridge rectifier in front of the power supply to provide DC from track power. You need a diode in series with the power supply feeding the SuperCap and LED's. Each white LED has a 100 ohm resistor in series with it, and they're all wired in parallel in this application. Finally, you set the power supply output voltage to 5.5 volts. With the diode drop, this charges the SuperCap to 5V and also powers the LED's when track power is present. When track power is gone, the diode isolates the SuperCap and LED's and they're powered from the SuperCap until track power comes back.
