Capacitor in my circuit..?

Dear forum,

I'm studying Mechanical Engineering in Australia, but I am interested in electronics.
I don't know too much about circuits at the moment, thus why I came here. I'm sort of into making use of every bit of energy, being a budding engineer, and I was wondering if anyone could help me build a small project.

Ok, so a general description of my project is a small Dc Motor-Generator (out of an old remote control car). I recently discovered that turning the motor manually produces electric current, so I dismantled and unsoldered all the wires. I attached a larger wheel onto the axle of the motor, and attached a voltmeter to the positive and negative terminals.

I got up to around 2.3V pretty consistantly with turning the wheel, but it wasn't really a useful power yet. I realise I could upsize my wheel to make it turn faster, and create more power, but I was wondering if I could set up a circuit to fix it.

I've heard Capacitors store electricity between two plates, but I don't know much more. Is it possible to load the capacitors with my 2.3V until the voltage becomes a more useful 10-12V?

Sorry if this is a inane question, but I really don't know.

Benja,

do you need greater voltage?

A capacitor can store a DC voltage (charge) but it can not, by itself, increase the voltage. For that you need something like a boost switching regulator. And, of course, if you increase the voltage, you reduce the available current by a proportional amount.

crutschow said:

A capacitor can store a DC voltage (charge) but it can not, by itself, increase the voltage. For that you need something like a boost switching regulator. And, of course, if you increase the voltage, you reduce the available current by a proportional amount.

Click to expand...

Thankyou so much, that really helps. That's a bit disappointing thought...
I think im going to need to go back to the drawing board.

DC motors are not used as generators because they have brushes that ware out.
Use bicycle dynamo instead, it will give you higher voltage but you need to use bridge/rectifier to get DC.

Try switching to a stepper motor instead of your DC motor as a generator. Steppers can be had for little or no money by taking apart a broken computer printer.