Ebay Solar Cell Ribbon

[andyman5002]

Hi all, I bought some cells a while back and have cleaned the wax off quite a lot of them, broke a few on the way. But the project has come to a halt due to the ribbon. I have searched everywhere for this stuff. Not sure what its called, ive searched for tinned copper ribbon, tinned copper interconnect, tinned flat wire, tinned copper strip. I just cant find it. Where can I find a few reels of this stuff in the UK? I may have to import some if I cant find it. Any help for a supplier would be great.

As regards with the project so far I have built a wooden frame with a removable board which will have the cells mounted on, this will be mounted off the surface of the frame allowing for the ribbons to be connected and any other wiring. I hope that this modularity will allow for a cell to be switched out encase of failure and shouldn't cause too many problems with the wiring.

The frame will be crossed braced with steel angle to try and prevent warping of the frame.

Regards Andy

[Darren73]

Andy,

does the tinned copper have to be a flat strip, if not try tinned copper wire, RS components in the uk stock it, you can always lay a few strands side by side if you need to.

Darren

[disaray1]

  While I've never tried it, I would think that the copper foil in the stained glass supply store may work (I could be very wrong!)...some are adhesive backed and solder well.. many widths and cheeeeep err, you won't get fleeced.

 David

 

[ZooT]

www.texasolar.com has the stuff for sale.

I don't work for those folks nor do I plan on ever making any money promoting their products......I just bought a few cells from them a while back and noticed that they offer it there.......

Me? I just used cheap speaker wire because I have a spool of it here, and I'm just tinkering around anyways

[andyman5002]

I tried tinned copper wire, bought 3 reels hoping it would be ok but it would cause pressure points on the cell as it lifts off the board. I would have use a router to make a groove so it would lie flat. More work really.

Andy

[DingBat]

If you are confident in tinning something yourself, you could try desoldering braid.

Good luck.

-- DingBat

[pyrocasto]

That texas store looks like a rip off. You just have to know what to search for on Ebay.

Try this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/25-Feet-Solar-Cell-Inerconnect-Ribbon_W0QQitemZ130002588789QQihZ003QQcategoryZ32
40QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[andyman5002]

Thanks everyone for your help. I too thought it was a bit expensive, thanks for that link pyrocasto, I just couldn't seem to find any??. Anyway i've ordered a roll of it now that should be enough for what I need. Once again thanks everyone.

For future reference encase others need some the seller ID is: jamrat2000

Andy

[pepa]

andyman, try putting an inch of the speaker wire on an anvil and flatten it with a hammer then tin it. make sure you leave a little hump in the wire between cells to keep the pressure off the connection if the cells move. i run out of ribbon on a project and it worked fine for me. pepa