I'm building a simple circuit that uses a couple solar cells to charge a (huge) capacitor. I'm using four solar cells, rated at 3V/20mA, in parallel to charge a 22F capacitor (I am aware the capacitor is huge, but this is a purely educational exercise). I use a 1N5817 Schottky diode in series with the solar cell array to prevent the capacitor from discharging. In addition, I've included a Zener diode in parallel with the capacitor. I'm not too sure what the point of the Zener diode is. I've looked at some schematics and they've included the Zener diode in parallel with the capacitor, so I did as well. My guess was that the Zener prevented damage to the solar cells if the capacitor discharged suddenly.
Here's my problem, I want to find out how long it takes (theoretically) for the capacitor to charge, but I'm confused about how to do it. Since there is no resistor in series with the capacitor in this circuit, is the maximum possible voltage across the capacitor (3V - Schottky diode voltage drop)? If this is the case, do I use the relation, I = C dV/dt, to find out the time it takes to reach the maximum theoretical voltage across the capacitor?
Edit for clarification: I couldn't find the correct symbols in EAGLE, so I labeled the components explicitly in the schematic.
Here's my problem, I want to find out how long it takes (theoretically) for the capacitor to charge, but I'm confused about how to do it. Since there is no resistor in series with the capacitor in this circuit, is the maximum possible voltage across the capacitor (3V - Schottky diode voltage drop)? If this is the case, do I use the relation, I = C dV/dt, to find out the time it takes to reach the maximum theoretical voltage across the capacitor?
Edit for clarification: I couldn't find the correct symbols in EAGLE, so I labeled the components explicitly in the schematic.
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