Switcing DC on an off repeatedly 'laymans question'

[Robin07]

I realize that this may be an unlearned question.

Is switching DC current, on and off, let's say 60x/sec, similar or exactly the same as AC. From a laymans point of view it is not. I may stand to be corrected but, AC indicates that the current flows, or is switched to flow, in opposite directions and DC, be it switched or not, will still flow only in one direction...

Thanks for your patients

 

[negitron]

Your understanding is correct. What you describe is often termed pulsed DC and it can also be thought of as AC with a DC bias--if you put this signal through a capacitor, the DC component is removed and you're left with an AC square wave.

 

[Robin07]

I read through Wikipedia's description in regards to 'capacitors and DC bias. Thanks negitron, not that I understand it all or even a small percentage, there is so much for me to learn.

OK, so I'm looking for a capacitor that will reach equilibrium with the source voltage, at that point the current through the entire circuit will decay. In essence discharging a charged capacitor, returning the entire circuit to zero, hence the square wave...yes?

Do you have a recomemdation to which type of capacitor I should be looking at?

 

[vk6kro]

Imagine a capacitor in series with a resistor to ground.

Apply a positive voltage to the open end of the capacitor. It will charge up via the resistor until there is no voltage across the resistor and all the voltage is across the capacitor.

Now briefly connect the open end of the capacitor to ground.
The capacitor doesn't have time to discharge, so the voltage across the resistor goes negative by the amount that the capacitor was charged to.

Now briefly connect the capacitor to double the previous voltage. Again, the capacitor doesn't get time to charge more and the voltage across the resistor plus the voltage across the capacitor equals the new voltage, so the resistor voltage equals the increase in voltage.

This is how capacitive coupling works.The capacitor stays charged to the DC voltage, but the changes in voltage are passed through to the other side.

In the case you describe, a pulsed wave of say 5 volts alternating with 0 volts would charge the series capacitor to 2.5 volts and give square wave output swinging from +2.5 volts to -2.5 volts