Karl Townsend wrote:
On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:56:56 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:



You can't switch additional capacitors into an existing cap bank without
massive
explosions.


??? I'm doing it now. My existing converter starts a 15 with run
caps, drops the start caps, then engages a 25 and a second bank of run
caps. hard to believe its impossible to switch in say 500 MFD of
additional capacitance on a running converter. But, I'm not the expert
here.

If these caps are wired to the generated leg of each idler, that may be
different.
Generally, though, connecting banks of capacitors together, if the
voltage in them is not the same,
leads to HUGE currents, in the thousands of amps, and will severely
damage a beefy contactor
even the first first time it is switched on. Putting sufficient
resistance in the circuit will reduce
that peak current, so maybe that is why it works for you.

Jon