Make Custom Sized Solar Panels
About: I love solar powered projects, electronics (µCs) and most recently 3D printing. About Razanur »
I only have 10x10cm sized 0.5Volts solar cells in my cellar. But I often need other Voltages and/or solar panels in other sizes, so I had to find a way how to cut them and put them into some nice waterproof housing. I think I found a nice way how to do both, and wanted to share it.
What you’ll need:- Raw solar cells at any size. Wires, soldering iron, solder. Transparent (Polyester-)Resin. Fibreglass mats. Sanding paper. Toothpaste. Thinner. Dremel or such. Diamond blade. Grinding-Head. A piece of wood. Hammer and chisel. Optional: Paint (Lacquer)
Gathered the stuff? Good, let’s start!
DISCLAIMER:As usual: You are responsible to what you do. If you damage any property, human or animal or get harmed in any other way, I can’t be held responsible, even if I told you to do so. Working with the Dremel, the soldering iron, the belt sander, resin or any other tool or material may be dangerous and happens on your own risk.
BTW: Any measurements are in the metric system. 1m=100cm 1cm=10mm
1 mm = 0.0393700787 inch 1 cm = 0.393700787 inch Please use Google-calculator or any other calculator if you want to know the sizes in inches (or any other system).
Anotation: The method to cut the cells is by far not perfect. If you have any other methods, please tell me 🙂
tudurache posted in the comment a very helpful link to his website. I have not tried the method he found, but I will soonish and tell you how it went.
Step 1: Custom Solar-panel: Cut ’em!
First: Get them to the right size! To do this, you have to plan what sizes you want to have in the end. (Watch out: Try to let the cells as big as possible, the smaller the cells the more work, the more loss etc you will have!)Think of following points:-What voltage do you need in the end?How many cells do you have?How big are they?What shape do they have?How many mA do you need in the end?-Where are the main strives? (The thicker solder-lines, it’s hard to impossible to solder the thin ones)-You will lose some cells (they are so fuin thin, they break so easily)
Every cell has normally 0.5V. How much mA per cm² they give you have to measure² (usually around 1A@0.5V=0.5W per 10cmx10cm cell = 0.005A@0.5V/cm² ). Now you always can either put them in:. series. parallel Series raises the voltage (three cells in series provide 3×0.5V=1.5V etc), but only the amperage of the smallest cell (so try to use cell of similar sizes)³. Parallel raises the amperage (three similar cells with 0.5A provide 1.5A etc). Size doesn’t matter here (you can put whatever you have).
Here is one Question from wasteinc. I think it clarifies it a little more:Q: [. ]my first solar panel [. ] is 12cells in series giving me 6.5 open circuit voltage, but when I try to charge something on USB power, the voltage drops to 4.7 even on the best light conditions. In overcast sky the voltage hovers around 3.8
so my conclusion is to put more 16-19cells on my new solare panel. did you experience similar behaviour?
A: Cells usually give around 0.6V open circuit and 0.5V with adequate load.
If the Voltage drops significantly below that, make sure that the cells are big enough (give enough current). Of course you will not be able to power a 1A 5V USB with a total cell surface of 10cmx10cm (One cell that size usually provides around 0.5V 1A. or 5V 100mA when perfectly cut into 10 pieces, so more likely 5V 80mA). So you would need a total of 1000cm² (e.g. 30cmx35cm) to have a full-powered USB-solar panel. [. ]
I guess more cells would do no good (the open cicuit voltage would rise and getting dangerous for anything connected if small/no load is there). I would use the same amount of cells with a bigger area each and/or to use an (eg old mobile) battery, so you can charge that for like 12hrs and then charge via USB for 1hrs. That is better anyways, because you should quite precisely provide 5.0V for USB, otherwise your charged device can break.
You can e.g. use a cheap powerbank (~5), replace the battery by several old phone batteries, load those with =4.7V (the bat needs 4.7V to fully charge, they usually have a circuit included to control the charge, so 5 or 6V are okay too) via solar and then use the circuit from the powerbank for providing the stable 5.0V for USB.
If that still doesn’t work, check every single cell for short-circuits!
Only if you have this plan ready, continue.
I tried several techniques to bring solar cell to the right size, but in the end only one worked: Cut ’em! I took the diamond-blade for my Dremel and build a little table on which I could precisely cut them.
Wear eye-protection and old clothes when working with the Dremel!
Instructable may follow. ² Think of the resistance of you device. Don’t take the shortage-voltage, but don’t take the open-circuit-voltage as well! ³ You can combine both techniques. Think of following example cell A and C are the same size, cell B1 and B2 are half that size. To get 1.5V and the full amperage put them together like this: plus.-cell A.-| cell B1.-| cell C.- minus. | cell B2.-|
Step 2: Custom Solar-panel: Solder
Now you have to solder the cut pieces together. Now carefully follow your plan. To put three cells in series. start with the first cell on top. Solder two wires to the main-strives. Continue with the next one but solder the same wires to the back. Cut the wires. Solder two new ones to the top of the second cell. Solder them to the back of the third. Now solder wires to the back of the first cell, bridge them with another wire and add a cable as plus. Do the same at the front of the third cell, that’s your minus. To conclude: Always solder back-to-top.
To put cells in parallel solder top-to-top and back-to-back.
Try to use as thin wires as possible.
But not too thin, the power should be able to pass thru’. Anyway that is VERY thin. One example: Two meter of wire, 500mA (Voltage doesn’t matter) and a loss of 0.1V would need a cable with a cross-section of 0.145mm². Formula: Q=IL0,018/ ΔU Q =required cross-section I = Amperes L = length of wire (Watch out: The power has to go two times through the cable: One time from the cell and one time to the cell) ΔU = acceptable Voltage-loss
Step 3: Custom Solar-panel: Prepare the Form
Next, we want these cells as a panel. I used often used plexiglass and wood to make it, but its kinda thick and it’s difficult to get it waterproof. So I decided to use another technique. I remembered that I had some resin in my cupboard. So I build a form for them. Follow the instruction in the pictures.
Step 4: Custom Solar-panel: Resin It!
Now the big showdown is there. Will it blend? Uhm, I mean will it work as I wanted? As usual follow instruction in the picture.
Additional annotations:. Before sealing the cells forever, you should carefully clean them with a lobe and the thinner. The cleaner, the more energy When the resin is hardening don’t let anything fall into it. Looks unnicly and stops the light (less energy). and don’t leave finger prints :). Do it outside (not under a tree or such) or in a very well ventilated room. Or it’ll smell like hell in your whole house! When you cut the fibreglass: It scratches like hell if you touch it. Don’t touch yourself with the gloves you touched the fibreglass with.
Step 5: Custom Solar-panel: Final Touches.
Now you have to grind/sand the edges nicely and polish the surface. A cheap method to do that is toothpaste. Gives quite good results, is always there and very cheap 🙂
When you sand the edges, be very careful with the cables. Once cut, you (almost) can throw away the panel-And wear (respiratory- and) eye-protection.
Have fun with your custom–sized and custom-dimensioned (electricity) solar panel. It should be 100% waterproof, resistant against most chemicals, very lightweight and very robust.
Please leave a comment if you have any question or correction. I would be happy if you post pictures, if you did it yourself.
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Комментарии и мнения владельцев
Hi, Very nice work, but cutting cells this way is a bit to risky. I have used a different approach when cutting solar cells. I have used an diamond glass cutter, a very cheap one. From a 15×15 cm cell I have managed to cut over 40 mini cells each one producing about 100mA of current. I have a video to show it on: http://www.schematics.ro/Howto/CutSolarCells_en.aspx
Thank you! You’re right, my method still gets many cells broken (guess at least 10%) and it requires quite a bit of work (preparing the cuting table etc) and not to forget. every cut takes about 1mm of the cell away. Your method seems better, I will test it for myself. if it works good for me, I’d like to link it in the Instructable 🙂
Hi. Just finish building my solar panel cutter. Although the base is high quality precision rail the dremill vibrations and low quality diamond blade did not enable me to robustly cut the panels.
Nice built!What did you use as rail?Maybe this can help you :Try to fix the whole dremel to the ground plate (less vibration) Use some thin but soft under the panel.Vary the speed and type of the cutter. Sandwich the panel (eg use some plexiglass or wood) with each a layer of the soft and thin material. If you check out the video on YouTube you’ll find some similar but slightly different ideas how to cut ’em.
Is the diamond blade round? It should be.
diamond blade is round but low quality. very few on the outer radius of the blade.I used a micro precision rail and removed the defective motor which was on it (scrap material).I think I may need a dedicated motor with low vibrations and a better blade.May be some day.
You’re right, my method still gets many cells broken (guess at least 10%) and it requires quite a bit of work (preparing the cuting table etc) and not to forget. every cut takes about 1mm of the cell away. There is another method (pointed out by tudurache): http://www.schematics.ro/Howto/CutSolarCells_en.aspx I’ve not tried it, but it sound promising. If you find any new method or improvement of one of the methods, please let me / us know!
This looks great! I just purchased a cutter of ebay for 2. can’t wait to try it out. Thanks!
Yeah, I finally tried as well. Did not work very well for me either. Still sticking with the Dremel.
Ah, one thing I just see now in your setup: The blade seems to be very low, mine stands over by a few mm over the plane.
Well done! I bought several and wanted to cut them to inc V and Reduce current and tried a standard round class cutter which shattered them. then I tried the dremil with diamond but didn’t build the moving table to properly hold it in place. I will make one and post pics.
mini solar panels Square shape polycrystalline 70mm x 70mm 6V 100mAh
Solar plate | solar kit | solar panel
Description
This is a mini solar panel. It consumes sun rays to produce electricity directly. It does not need any special equipment. Just put this device in sun ray’s and the board is ready to produce electricity. This is light in weight and also can be a place where space is an issue because it does not take much space either. This Mini device produces 6V of electricity. Because of its excellent design and high electricity production, it is very popular in solar DIY projects. So, if you want an unlimited source of electricity, then this might be the right choice for you.
Package includes
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Package includes:
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reviews for mini solar panels Square shape polycrystalline 70mm x 70mm 6V 100mAh
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Q A
Does this panel actually produces 100ma current? if no, then how much output i can expect from it? SaadMaqsood asked on 15/02/2023
yes in full sun its give 80-100mah
Rytronics.in answered on 04/03/2023
Yes Nilesh this can be used for mini water pump also depend on how much current DC motor required. This Solar module provides 100ma so you may have to use multiple solar panel altogether to get desire output current.
Rytronics.in answered on 26/02/2022
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