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When did supercapacitors start being used in consumer products?
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5U4GB:
I was debugging an embedded device a few years ago with an MSP430 on it that had hung and for some reason I can't remember it wasn't possible to reset it.  It's OK, we'll just pull the power and force a restart... why is it not shutting down... ah, that thing over there is an SMD supercap.  OK, we could be waiting awhile.

Given that it was pretty much instant-on I never figured out (other than assorted speculation) why they bothered to put a supercap in there.
Psi:
Yeah, you see them from time to time in old gear.

The main difference is their terrible internal resistance compared to any other capacitor type. It made them pretty much only usable for RTC or NVM battery backup.

You can only draw ~few mA from them if that, verses being able to pull out 50A for 100ms on a modern supercap of similar size.

Shonky:

--- Quote from: Andy Chee on January 05, 2024, 04:31:51 am ---
--- Quote from: Shonky on January 05, 2024, 03:37:33 am ---Don't need a supercap to store settings.

--- End quote ---
This VCR was built in an era when 4-bit microcontrollers were "a thing" (the chip in the image is a 4-bit micro).  In other words, flash and eeprom were an expensive luxury, they couldn't even afford 4 extra bits!

The supercap retaining power to the 4-bit micro was evidently a cheaper way to retain memory settings.

--- End quote ---
The question was why 21st century devices can't remember settings implying a supercap could do it.
andy2000:
They were common by about 1985.  Before that, they usually used a Ni-Cd cell if there was even a backup.  Super capacitors do sometimes fail, particularly the ones made by Panasonic.  The ones made by NEC were much more reliable, but were larger than the same value Panasonic. 
Andy Chee:

--- Quote from: Shonky on January 07, 2024, 06:15:09 am ---
--- Quote from: Andy Chee on January 05, 2024, 04:31:51 am ---
--- Quote from: Shonky on January 05, 2024, 03:37:33 am ---Don't need a supercap to store settings.

--- End quote ---
This VCR was built in an era when 4-bit microcontrollers were "a thing" (the chip in the image is a 4-bit micro).  In other words, flash and eeprom were an expensive luxury, they couldn't even afford 4 extra bits!

The supercap retaining power to the 4-bit micro was evidently a cheaper way to retain memory settings.

--- End quote ---
The question was why 21st century devices can't remember settings implying a supercap could do it.

--- End quote ---
The answer almost always comes down to cost, rather than any technological constraint.
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