Solar cell repair?
 

Anyone ever solder to the traces on these things?
Any good things to say about conductive epoxy?

I have a couple of broken panels and want to fix them if easily
possible. (To power my radios, of course...)

Any insights most welcome.


mike


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Solar cell repair?
 

In article , m II wrote:

Anyone ever solder to the traces on these things?
Any good things to say about conductive epoxy?

I have a couple of broken panels and want to fix them if easily
possible. (To power my radios, of course...)

Any insights most welcome.


Are they old panels? They do deteriorate with time. You might have
panels where the wafer cells stopped working.

If you can get it apart I suppose you could check around the panel with
a volt meter to find out which wafers have broken connections if that is
the problem.

If you find broken traces use a piece of wire over the break and solder
with high temperature solder.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Solar cell repair?
 

On 05/06/09 22:38, m II wrote:
Anyone ever solder to the traces on these things?
Any good things to say about conductive epoxy?

I have a couple of broken panels and want to fix them if easily
possible. (To power my radios, of course...)

Any insights most welcome.


mike




Soldering to them takes a light touch, and a low watt iron. I use
a Wahl rechargeable for that sort of thing.

The traces lift easily, so you have to have your iron clean, your
wires tinned and be able to make one smooth motion to get it done.

Conductive epoxy isn't for this kind of application. Usually
resistance is too high for practical power uses. However, once the
wires are back on the traces and the system appears to be working, a
little epoxy, conductive or otherwise, makes a fine strain relief.

Doing this kind of work is much like repairing the electrostatic
tweeters in european desk sets. In that case, tabs are held onto the
back of the foil element with a clear conductive lacquer. The kind
you find in auto parts sections of Walgreens, or at Auto Zone for
repairing the conductive strips on an automobile rear window
defogger. If your solar cell is similarly constructed, you may have
a couple of repairs to make. One is the wire to the trace. The
other...the trace to the element.

Inspect carefully before you begin.

Solar cell repair?
 

In article , m II wrote:

D. Peter Maus wrote:

Inspect carefully before you begin.



Thanks for both of the replies. I like the idea of epoxy as strain
relief after the soldering is done. I'll make sure the surfaces are
spotless before I begin.

Let us know what works for you.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California