RE: MMC (Multi Maxwell Capacitors)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>

I don't think it makes any practical difference how you arrange them.
The differences are so small that voltage-division differences will be
negligible.

If you want to consider using bleeder resistors for safety (and you
should since any series-array won't self-discharge its elements), then
using the center bus bar is a good thing, as you'll then only have to
build a single bleeder for the left side, plus a single bleeder for the
right.  Since each bleeder sees half of your peak charging voltage, it
must be suitable constructed - much less trivial than the single 1/2W
10Meg unit most MMC's employ.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> I currently have ten Maxwell 37667 35 kV 30 nF caps.
> I'm currently running five strings of two with a
> busbar connecting the outsides and the middle:
>
> |         |
> |-||-|-||-|
> |    |    |
> |-||-|-||-|
> |    |    |
> |-||-|-||-|
> |    |    |
> |-||-|-||-|
> |    |    |
> |-||-|-||-|
> |         |
>
> Tolerances are pretty close, but not perfect. Should I
> try to place all lower capacitance caps on one side
> and all higher capacitance caps on the other, or
> eliminate the middle busbar and try to mix and match
> each string to get as close to 15 nF per string as
> possible.
>
> In other words for illustration:
>
> |         |
> |29.5|30.1|
> |29.4|30.0|
> |29.6|30.1|
> |29.3|30.2|
> |29.6|29.8|
> |         |
>
> or
>
> |         |
> |29.3-30.2|
> |29.4-30.1|
> |29.5-30.1|
> |29.6-30.0|
> |29.6-29.8|
> |         |
>
> thanks
> Adam
>