Well.. I know my dad would make fun of me right about now. He would always say "Measure twice, cut once" But me being me, and my mothers child, just did what ever I always do.
Quick specs:
35 3x6 solar cells wired up in series.. cells purchased off ebay
1/4 in glass
2qt plastic epoxy (UV resistant)
Misc screws for power posts
I'm going to let the pictures do the talking...
Solar cells all soldered up and placed on tempered glass sheet 1/4 in thick. I used 1/4 brass bolts to bring the leads out (3 since I will use one to bridge a diode)
Close up of the power leads
Some blue painters tape I had laying around the house, makes an excellent dam for the to be poured plastic. I only plan to cover the cells in the pouring, I will use cheaper epoxy behind the UV resistant stuff to give it some volume and strength.
The pourable plastic and scale to get mix ratio right. (yea.. its about to turn ugly)
One last shot after getting the panel leveled up...
Got milk... no use crying over it now. I can already see the plastic seeping in under the cells. I had anticipated a thicker viscosity, but was clearly mistaken. 4 hours before I will know the true extend of the damage.
Another close up of the terminals
The aftermath... majority of the cells are covered. When I woke up this morning and saw this, I felt pretty miserable. I didn't expect this panel to put out any voltage let alone be able to charge a battery. I placed it in the sun for some testing.
Some times you just get lucky. I really didn't expect this much. I think I will have learned my lesson and get the more expensive clear epoxy next time. It will look better and I bet that the panel would produce better as well. I will be doing some testing on this panel since I now consider it to be a learning tool.
Things I am going to try to do:
See how well the plastic seals the cells to the glass. I had thought about etching the outer edge of the glass to give the plastic something to hold on to. I tried to pry the plastic off the glass with a knife and it was do-able but tough. I still plan to put a metal frame around the entire thing.
According to the manufacturer the plastic will get harder if you can bake it at 150 degrees for at least 6 hrs. Since this is a little big for my oven, I will try to erect a solar cooker of sorts, and see what kind of curing I can gain.
Hose the whole thing down.. Yea you heard me.. I want to see if this thing is actually waterproof, and how well the plastic holds up to moisture. Basically stress the hell out of this thing, to see if its worth my while.
If anyone has any tests/suggestions what I should look out for let me know. At least I had fun working on this project... I will see if the power stays constant over the next few weeks of testing.
Editors Note:
You really need to figure out how to use the width tag on these pictures, especially if you post an entire herd of photos from an outside source.
Editor.
|
|
|
Total Views
|
|
97 Scoop users have viewed this posting.
|
|
