cthia wrote:Not inherently they don't. The circuit's design is resisting it. The design doesn't mind if the capacitors reach a fully charged state. The design fights against a fully discharged state. And entropy alone is discharging it. Holding capacitors at a fully charged state won't kill them. Holding them at a discharged state might kill you. Grasers firing at their maximum rate of fire against a hell storm of missiles and LACS might dangerously deplete your capacitors but the design of the system is fighting hard as possible trying to recharge them.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:We're talking past each other. No one is arguing that one should keep capacitors discharged when you need them.
Having them discharged -
at any time - risks that, since you can't ever know when something may suddenly decloak off your starboard bow ready to fire on you! If that happens you want to be able to give the order . . .
"Fire the grasers!"
not"Charge the main batteries THEN fire the grasers!"
I don't understand your reasoning. Since battle readiness will always trump component wear.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:The only thing I'm arguing is that keeping them charged reduces their lifespan or forces the engineering crew to tear it down and rebuild. Therefore, there may be some guidance as to when the capacitors should be charged, how many and to how much of their maximum rated charge, so as to extend their life without endangering the crew. The captain makes no call on this, the engineering crew knows what to do based on the battle readiness state of the ship.
You keep saying that and I keep disagreeing. Using capacitors are not going to significantly put maintenance time on the clock.
They.Are.Built.For.It. They are Energizer Bunnies. They keep going and going and going . . .
If you are championing instant charge capacitors, then maybe I can agree. Maybe. Though even then it is risky.
If a mole, spy, saboteur, conditioned crew member, or the Demon Murphy sabotages your reactors, you still want to be able to fire grasers. IOW, even if capacitors are an instant charge proposition you could suddenly lose main power erasing your ability to instant-charge them. It is a warship. You should never totally pull its teeth. Unless maybe while sitting in dry-dock.
ThinksMarkedly wrote:This may have all gone out the window the moment the war started, same as they began experimenting more and more with compensators at full instead of 80%.
I don't think the equation would change in time of peace or war unless the ship itself is sitting in dry-dock. Once the ship is released for her acceptance trials, her capacitors should be fully changed at all times.
You don't ever want to tell a family member that their loved ones died because when hell came home to roost their warship was in "energy-saving mode."
Now you seem to be adding stopping short of a full charge when you do charge them???