I have a capacitor rated at 5V, but I have a 9V solar cell that I want to connect to it.
First, I know charging with a voltage above the capacitor rating is bad, but what if I disconnect it when the charge gets to 5V on the capacitor? Or, is there a way to reduce the 9V to 5V and keep no higher than this voltage? The only thing I can think of is 7 diodes in a row (0.7 volt drop across each diode). This seems a little ridiculous.