If you yourself are a scientist or just an inquisitive person, and you often watch or read the latest news in the field of science or technology. It is for you that we have created such a section, which covers the latest world news in the field of new scientific discoveries, achievements, as well as in the field of technology. Only the latest events and only trusted sources.

In our progressive time, science is moving at a fast pace, so it is not always possible to keep up with them. Some old dogmas are crumbling, some new ones are being put forward. Mankind does not stand still and should not stand still, but the engine of mankind is scientists, scientists. And at any moment a discovery can occur that can not only amaze the minds of the entire population of the globe, but also radically change our lives.

A special role in science is allocated to medicine, since a person, unfortunately, is not immortal, fragile and very vulnerable to all kinds of diseases. Many people know that in the Middle Ages people lived on average 30 years, and now 60-80 years. That is, at least doubled life expectancy. This was influenced, of course, by a combination of factors, but it was medicine that played a big role. And, for sure, 60-80 years for a person is not the limit of average life. It is possible that someday people will cross the mark of 100 years. Scientists from all over the world are fighting for it.

In the field of other sciences, developments are constantly underway. Every year, scientists from all over the world make small discoveries, slowly moving humanity forward and improving our lives. Places untouched by man are being explored, first of all, of course, on our home planet. However, work is constantly taking place in space.

Among technology, robotics is especially rushing forward. An ideal intelligent robot is being created. Once upon a time, robots were an element of fantasy and nothing more. But already at the moment, some corporations have real robots in their staff, which perform various functions and help optimize labor, save resources and perform dangerous activities for a person.

I would also like to pay special attention to electronic computers, which even 50 years ago occupied a huge amount of space, were slow and required a whole team of employees for their care. And now such a machine, in almost every home, is already called more simply and briefly - a computer. Now they are not only compact, but also many times faster than their predecessors, and anyone can figure it out. With the advent of the computer, mankind has opened a new era, which many call "technological" or "information".

Remembering the computer, do not forget about the creation of the Internet. It also gave a huge result for humanity. This is an inexhaustible source of information, which is now available to almost everyone. It connects people from different continents and transmits information with lightning speed, it was impossible to even dream of such a thing 100 years ago.

In this section, you will certainly find something interesting, exciting and informative for yourself. Perhaps even someday you will be one of the first to know about a discovery that will not only change the world, but will turn your mind upside down.

Unfortunately, solar panels are not cheap, so you can build a homemade solar panel yourself. For

To make a solar battery, we use simple tools and inexpensive improvised materials to make a powerful and most importantly cheap solar battery.

What is a solar battery? and with what it is eaten.

A solar battery is a container made up of solar cells.

Solar cells do all the work of converting solar energy into electricity. Unfortunately, to obtain power sufficient for practical use, solar cells need quite a lot.
In addition, solar cells are very fragile. Therefore, they are combined into a solar battery.
The solar cell contains enough solar cells to produce high power and protects the cells from damage.

Difficulties encountered in the independent manufacture of a solar battery:

The main obstacle in the manufacture of a solar cell is the purchase of solar cells at a reasonable price.

New solar cells are very expensive and hard to find in normal quantities at any price.

Defective and damaged solar cells are available on eBay and other places for much less.

Solar cells of the "second grade" could possibly be used to make a solar battery.

In order to make the solar battery as cheap as possible, we use defective elements and buy them, for example, on eBay.

To make a solar panel, I bought several blocks of monocrystalline solar cells measuring 3x6 inches.
To make a solar battery, you need to connect 36 of these elements in series.
Each element generates about 0.5V. 36 cells connected in series will give us about 18V, which will be enough to charge 12V batteries. (Yes, such a high voltage is indeed necessary for efficient charging of 12V batteries).

Solar cells of this type are thin as paper, fragile and brittle like glass. They are very easy to damage. The seller of these items dipped sets of 18 pcs. in wax for stabilization and delivery without damage. Wax is a headache when removing it. If you have the opportunity, look for items that are not covered with wax. But remember that they can get more damage in transit.

Note that my elements already have wires soldered on. Look for elements with already soldered conductors. Even with such elements, you need to be prepared to do a lot of work with a soldering iron. If you buy elements without conductors, get ready to work with a soldering iron 2-3 times more. In short, it is better to overpay for already soldered wires.

I also bought a couple of sets of elements without wax filling from another seller. These items came packaged in a plastic box. They dangled in the box and chipped a little on the sides and corners. Minor chips don't really matter. They will not be able to reduce the power of the element enough to worry about it. The elements I bought should be enough to assemble two solar panels. Knowing that I might break a couple during assembly, I bought a little more.

Solar cells are sold in a wide range of shapes and sizes. You can use larger ones or smaller ones than my 3" x 6". Just remember:

Cells of the same type produce the same voltage regardless of their size. Therefore, to obtain a given voltage, the same number of elements will always be required.
- Larger elements can generate more current, and smaller ones, respectively, less current.
- The total power of your battery is defined as its voltage multiplied by the generated current.

Using larger cells will allow you to get more power at the same voltage, but the battery will be larger and heavier. Using smaller cells will make the battery smaller and lighter, but will not deliver the same amount of power.

It is also worth noting that using cells of different sizes in the same battery is a bad idea. The reason is that the maximum current generated by your battery will be limited by the current of the smallest cell, and larger cells will not work at full capacity.

The solar cells I chose are 3x6 inches and are capable of generating about 3 amps of current. I plan to connect 36 of these elements in series to get a voltage of just over 18 volts. The result should be a battery capable of delivering about 60 watts of power in bright sunlight.

Doesn't sound very impressive, but it's still better than nothing. Moreover, this is 60W every day when the sun is shining. This energy will be used to charge the battery, which will be used to power lamps and small equipment just a few hours after dark.

The solar array housing is a shallow plywood box to keep the sides from obscuring the solar cells when the sun shines at an angle. It can be made from 3/8" plywood with 3/4" battens. The sides are glued and screwed into place.

The battery will contain 36 3x6 inch cells.
We divide them into two groups of 18 pieces. just to make it easier to solder them in the future. Hence the central bar in the middle of the box.

A small sketch showing the dimensions of the solar array.

All dimensions are in inches. The 3/4" thick beading goes around the entire plywood sheet. The same side goes in the center and divides the battery into two parts.

View of one of the halves of my future battery.

This half will house the first group of 18 elements. Notice the small holes in the sides. This will be the bottom of the battery (the top is at the bottom in the photo). These are vents designed to equalize the air pressure inside and outside the solar array and serve to remove moisture. These holes should only be at the bottom of the battery, otherwise rain and dew will get inside. The same ventilation holes must be made in the central dividing bar.

It is not necessary to use exactly perforated fiberboard sheets, I just had these on hand. Any thin, rigid, and non-conductive material will do.

To protect the battery from weather troubles, we close the front side with plexiglass.

In the photo, two sheets of plexiglass are connected on the central partition. We drill holes around the edge to put the plexiglass on the screws. Be careful when drilling holes near the plexiglass edge. Do not press hard - otherwise it will break, and if you break it, then glue the broken off piece and drill a new hole not far from it.

We paint all the wooden parts of the solar panel in 2-3 layers to protect them from environmental influences. We paint the box and substrates from 2 sides inside and outside.

The basis for the solar battery is ready, and it's time to prepare the solar cells.

As mentioned above, removing wax from solar cells is a real headache.

To effectively remove wax from solar cells, use the following method:

1) Bathe the solar cells in hot water to melt the wax and separate the cells from each other. Do not let the water boil, otherwise the steam bubbles will strongly hit the elements one against the other. Boiling water may also be too hot, electrical contacts may be broken in the elements.

I recommend immersing the elements in cold water and then heating them slowly to avoid uneven heating. Plastic tongs and a spatula will help separate the elements once the wax has melted. Try not to pull hard on the metal conductors - they can break.

The photo shows the final version of the "installation" that I used.
The first "hot bath" for melting the wax is in the background on the right. In the foreground on the left is hot soapy water and on the right is clean hot water. Temperatures in all pots are below the boiling point of water. First, melt the wax in a distant pan, transfer the elements one by one to soapy water to remove wax residues, and then rinse in clean water.

2) We lay out the elements to dry on a towel. You can change the soapy water and rinse water more often. Just do not drain the used water into the sewer, because. the wax will harden and clog the drain. This process removed virtually all of the wax from the solar cells. Only a few left thin films, but this will not interfere with the soldering and operation of the elements. Washing with solvent will probably remove the wax residue, but it can be dangerous and smelly.

Several separated and cleaned solar cells are dried on a towel. After separating and removing the protective wax, they become surprisingly difficult to handle and store due to their brittleness, leave them in the wax until you are ready to install them in a solar array.

We make the basis for the solar battery. It's time for me to install them.

We draw a grid on each base to simplify the process of installing each element.
We lay out the elements on this grid with the reverse side up, so they can be soldered together. All 18 cells for each half of the battery must be connected in series, after which both halves must also be connected in series to obtain the required voltage.

Soldering elements together is difficult at first. Start with just two items. Place the connecting wires of one of them so that they cross the solder points on the back of the other. Be sure to make sure that the spacing between the elements matches the markup.

For soldering, we use a low-power soldering iron and solder bar with a core of rosin.

I had to repeat soldering until a chain of 6 elements was obtained. I soldered the connecting busbars from the broken elements to the back of the last element of the chain. I made three such chains, repeating the procedure twice more. There are 18 cells in total for the first half of the battery.

Three chains of elements must be connected in series. Therefore, we rotate the middle chain by 180 degrees with respect to the other two. The orientation of the chains turned out to be correct (the elements are still lying upside down on the substrate). The next step is to glue the elements into place.

Gluing the elements will require some skill. We apply a small drop of silicone sealant in the center of each of the six elements of one chain. After that, turn the chain face up and place the elements according to the markup that was applied earlier. Lightly press down on the elements, pressing in the center to stick them to the base. Difficulties arise mainly when flipping a flexible chain of elements. A second pair of hands won't hurt.

Do not apply too much glue and do not glue the elements anywhere but the center. The elements and the substrate on which they are mounted will expand, contract, bend and deform with changes in temperature and humidity. If you glue the element over the entire area, it will break over time. Gluing only in the center allows the elements to freely deform separately from the base. The elements and the base can be deformed in different ways and the elements will not break.

Here is the fully assembled half of the battery. A copper braid from the cable was used to connect the first and second chain of elements.

You can use special tires or even ordinary wires. I just had a copper braid from the cable at hand. We make the same connection on the reverse side between the second and third chain of elements. With a drop of sealant, I attached the wire to the base so that it would not “walk” or bend.

Test the first half of the solar battery in the sun.

With a weak sun in a haze, this half generates 9.31V. Hooray! Working! Now I need to make another half of the same battery.

After both bases with elements are ready, they can be installed in place in the prepared box and connected.
Each of the halves is placed in its place. To fix the base with the elements inside the battery, we use 4 small screws.

We pass the wire for connecting the halves of the battery through one of the ventilation holes in the central side. Here, too, a couple of drops of sealant will help secure the wire in one place and prevent it from dangling inside the battery.

Each solar array in the system must be provided with a blocking diode connected in series with the array.

The diode is needed to prevent the discharge of batteries through the battery at night and in cloudy weather. I used a 3.3A Schottky diode. Schottky diodes have a much lower voltage drop than conventional diodes. Accordingly, there will be less power loss on the diode. A set of 25 31DQ03 diodes can be found on eBay for just a couple of bucks.

We connect the diodes to the solar cells inside the battery.

We drill a hole in the bottom of the battery closer to the top to bring the wires out. The wires are tied into a knot to prevent them from being pulled out of the battery, and secured with the same sealant.

It is important to let the sealant dry before we put the plexiglass in place. I recommend based on previous experience. Vapors from silicone can form a film on the inside surfaces of plexiglass and elements if you do not allow the silicone to air dry.

Solar battery at work. We move it a couple of times a day to maintain orientation to the sun, but this is not such a big deal.

Let's calculate the cost of manufacturing a solar battery:

We consider only the cost of basic materials, improvised (pieces of wood, wires

1) Solar cells bought on eBay $74.00 (~ 2300 RUB)
2) Pieces of wood - $15 (~ 460 rubles)
3) Plexiglas 15$ (~ 460 rubles)
4) Screws and self-tapping screws - $ 2 (~ 60 rubles)
5) Silicone sealant - $ 3.95 (~ 150 rubles)
6) Wires 10 $ (~ 300 rubles)
7) Diodes 2 $ (~ 60 rubles)
8) Paint 5 $ (~ 150 rubles)

Total $126.95

For comparison, an industrial-scale solar battery of the same power costs about $300-600 (~ 9,000-18,000 rubles.

Book to help

Wind generators, solar panels and other useful structures.

Alternative energy sources - wind and sun are constantly renewable, almost eternal types of energy.
In this book, the author reveals the features of modern solar and wind energy converters, their choice, structure and installation. A whole chapter of the book is devoted to non-traditional electronic designs.
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Getting electricity from alternative power sources is very costly. For example, the use of solar energy when buying ready-made equipment will have to spend a significant amount of money. But nowadays it is possible to assemble solar panels with your own hands for a summer residence or a private house from ready-made photovoltaic cells or other improvised materials. And before you start buying the necessary components and designing the structure, you need to understand what a solar battery is and how it works.

Solar battery: what is it and how does it work

People who are faced with this task for the first time immediately have questions: “How to assemble a solar battery?” or "How to make a solar battery?". But having studied the device and the principle of its operation, the problems with the implementation of this project disappear by themselves. After all, the design and principle of operation are simple and should not cause difficulties when creating a power source at home.

Solar battery (SB)- These are photoelectric converters of energy emitted by the sun into electrical energy, which are connected in the form of an array of elements and enclosed in a protective structure. Converters- silicon semiconductor elements for direct current generation. They are produced in three types:

• Monocrystalline;
• polycrystalline;
• Amorphous (thin film).

The principle of operation of the device is based on the photoelectric effect. Sunlight, falling on photocells, knocks out free electrons from the last orbits of each atom of the silicon wafer. The movement of a large number of free electrons between the electrodes of a battery generates a direct current. Further, it is converted into alternating current to electrify the house.

Choice of photocells

Before starting the design work to create a panel at home, you need to choose one of three types of solar energy converters. To select the appropriate elements, you need to know their technical characteristics:

• Monocrystalline. The efficiency of these plates is 12–14%. However, they are sensitive to the amount of light entering. Slight cloudiness significantly reduces the amount of electricity generated. Service life up to 30 years.
• Polycrystalline. These elements are capable of producing an efficiency of 7–9%. But they are not affected by the quality of illumination and they are able to deliver the same amount of current in cloudy and even cloudy weather. Operational period - 20 years.
• amorphous. Manufactured from flexible silicon. They produce an efficiency of about 10%. The amount of electricity produced does not decrease due to the quality of the weather. But expensive and complex production makes them difficult to obtain.

For the manufacture of SBs on their own, you can purchase type B converters (second grade). These include cells with small defects, even if you replace some components, the cost of batteries will be 2-3 times less than the market price, thanks to this, save your money.

To provide a private house with electricity from an alternative energy source, the first two types of plates are best suited.

Site selection and design

Batteries are best placed according to the principle: the higher the better. A great place would be the roof of the house, it does not get a shadow from trees or other buildings. If the structure of the ceilings does not allow to support the weight of the installation, then the place should be chosen in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe cottage, which most of all perceives radiation from the sun.

The assembled panels must be placed at such an angle that the sun's rays fall as perpendicularly as possible on the silicon elements. The ideal option would be the ability to correct the entire installation in the direction of the sun.

Making a battery with your own hands

You will not be able to provide a house or cottage with electricity at 220 V from a solar battery, because. the size of such a battery will be huge. One plate generates an electric current with a voltage of 0.5 V. The best option is a SB with a nominal voltage of 18 V. Based on this, the required number of photocells for the device is calculated.

Frame assembly

First of all, a homemade solar battery needs a protective frame (case). It can be made from aluminum corners 30x30 mm or from wooden bars at home. When using a metal profile on one of the shelves, a chamfer is removed with a file at an angle of 45 degrees, and the second shelf is cut off at the same angle. Frame parts cut to the required dimensions with machined ends are twisted using squares made of the same material. A protective glass is glued to the finished frame on silicone.

Plate soldering

When soldering elements at home, you need to know that to increase the voltage it is necessary to connect in series, and to increase the current strength - in parallel. The flint wafers are laid out on the glass, leaving a gap of 5 mm between them on each side. This gap is necessary to compensate for the possible thermal expansion of the elements during heating. The converters have two tracks: on the one hand "plus", on the other - "minus". All parts are connected in series in a single circuit. Then the conductors from the last components of the circuit are output to a common bus.

To avoid self-discharge of the device at night or cloudy weather, experts recommend installing a 31DQ03 Schottky diode or equivalent on a contact from the “middle” point.

After finishing soldering work with a multimeter, you need to check the output voltage, which should be 18-19 V to fully provide a private house with electricity.

Panel Assembly

Soldered transducers are placed in the finished case, then silicone is applied to the center of each silicon element, and the top is covered with a fiberboard substrate to fix them. After that, the structure is closed with a lid, and all joints are sealed with sealant or silicone. The finished panel is mounted on a holder or frame.

Solar panels from improvised materials

In addition to assembling SBs from purchased photocells, they can be assembled from improvised materials that any radio amateur has: transistors, diodes and foil.

transistor battery

For these purposes, the most suitable parts are transistors of the KT or P type. Inside them is a fairly large silicon semiconductor element necessary for the production of electricity. Having picked up the required number of radio components, it is necessary to cut off the metal cover from them. To do this, you need to clamp it in a tesk and carefully cut off the upper part with a hacksaw for metal. Inside you can see a plate that will serve as a photocell.

Transistor for a battery with a sawn-off cap

All these parts have three contacts: base, emitter and collector. When assembling the SB, you need to choose a collector junction due to the largest potential difference.

Assembly is carried out on a flat plane from any dielectric material. You need to solder transistors in separate series chains, and these chains, in turn, are connected in parallel.

The calculation of the finished current source can be made from the characteristics of radio components. One transistor produces a voltage of 0.35 V and a short-circuit current of 0.25 μA.

Diode battery

A solar battery made of D223B diodes can indeed become a source of electric current. These diodes have the highest voltage and are made in a glass case coated with paint. The voltage at the output of the finished product can be determined from the calculation that one diode in the sun generates 350 mV.

1. We put the required number of radio components in a container and fill it with acetone or another solvent and leave it for several hours.
2. Then, you need to take a plate of the right size from a non-metallic material and mark up for soldering the power supply components.
3. Once wet, the paint can be easily scraped off.
4. Armed with a multimeter, in the sun or under a light bulb, we determine the positive contact and bend it. Diodes are soldered vertically, since in this position the crystal generates electricity best from the energy of the sun. Therefore, at the output we get the maximum voltage that the solar battery will generate.

In addition to the two methods described above, the power supply can be assembled from foil. A homemade solar battery, made according to the step-by-step instructions described below, will be able to produce electricity, albeit of very low power:

1. For homemade, you will need copper foil with an area of ​​\u200b\u200b45 square meters. see. The cut piece is processed in a soapy solution to remove fat from the surface. It is also advisable to wash your hands so as not to leave grease stains.
2. It is necessary to remove the protective oxide film and any other type of corrosion from the cut plane with emery.
3. A sheet of foil is placed on the burner of an electric stove with a power of at least 1.1 kW and heated until red-orange spots form. Upon further heating, the resulting oxides are converted into copper oxide. This is evidenced by the black color of the surface of the piece.
4. After the formation of oxide, heating must be continued for 30 minutes in order to form an oxide film of sufficient thickness.
5. The frying process stops and the sheet cools down along with the oven. With slow cooling, copper and oxide cool at different rates, which makes it easy for the latter to peel off.
6. Oxide residues are removed under running water. In this case, it is impossible to bend the sheet and mechanically tear off small pieces so as not to damage the thin layer of oxide.
7. The second sheet is cut according to the size of the first.
8. In a plastic bottle with a volume of 2–5 liters with a cut neck, two pieces of foil should be placed. Secure them with crocodile clips. They need to be positioned so that they do not connect.
9. A negative terminal is connected to the processed piece, and a positive terminal is connected to the second one.
10. Salt solution is poured into the jar. Its level should be 2.5 cm below the upper edge of the electrodes. To prepare the mixture, 2-4 tablespoons of salt (depending on the volume of the bottle) are dissolved in a small amount of water.

All solar panels are not suitable for providing a summer house or a private house with electricity due to their low power. But they can serve as a power source for radios or charge small electrical appliances.

Related videos

It all started with a walk on the eBay site - I saw solar panels and got sick.

Arguing with friends about payback was ridiculous…. When buying a car, no one thinks about payback. Auto as a mistress, prepare the amount for pleasure in advance. And here it’s quite the opposite, I spent money so they are also trying to pay off ... In addition, I connected an incubator to solar panels so they still justify their purpose, protecting your future economy from death. In general, having an incubator, you depend on many factors, here it’s either pan or layman. When I have time, I will write about a homemade incubator. Well, why argue, everyone has the right to choose ... ..!

After a long wait, the cherished box with thin fragile plates finally warms the hands and heart.

First of all, of course, the Internet ... well, it's not the gods who burn the pots. Someone else's experience is always helpful. And then disappointment set in ..... As it turned out, five people made the panels with their own hands, the rest were simply copied to their sites, and some, in order to be more original, were copied from different developments. Well, God bless them, let it remain on the conscience of the owners of the pages.

I decided to read the forums, the long arguments of the theorists "how to milk a cow" led to complete discouragement. Reasoning about how the plates break from heating, sealing difficulties, etc. I read and spat on the whole thing. We will go our own way, by trial and error, relying on the experience of "colleagues", why reinvent the wheel?

We set the task:

1) The panel must be made from improvised materials, so as not to pull the wallet, because the result is unknown.

2) The manufacturing process should be easy.

We start manufacturing a solar panel:

First of all, 2 glasses 86x66 cm were purchased for the future two panels.

The glass is simple, purchased from plastic window manufacturers. Or maybe not simple...

A long search for aluminum corners, according to the experience already tested by "colleagues", ended in nothing.

Therefore, the manufacturing process began sluggishly, with a sense of long-term construction.

I will not describe the process of soldering panels, since there is a lot of information about this on the network and even a video. I'll just leave my notes and comments.

The devil is not as scary as he is painted.

Despite the difficulties that are described on the forums, the element plates are soldered easily, both the front side and the back. Also, our Soviet solder POS-40 is quite suitable, in any case, I did not experience any difficulties. And of course, our native rosin, where without it ... During the soldering, I didn’t break a single element, I think you have to be a complete idiot to break them on even glass.

The conductors that come with the panels are very convenient, firstly, they are flat, and secondly, they are tin-plated, which significantly reduces soldering time. Although it is quite possible to use a regular wire, I conducted an experiment on spare plates, I did not experience any difficulties in soldering. (pictured is the remains of a flat wire)

It took me about 2 hours to solder 36 plates. Although I read on the forum that people solder for 2 days.

It is desirable to use a soldering iron at 40 watts. Since the plates easily remove heat, and this makes soldering difficult. The first attempts to solder 25 with a cotton soldering iron were tedious and sad.

Also, when soldering, it is desirable to optimally select the amount of flux (rosin). For a large excess of it does not allow the tin to stick to the plate. And therefore it was necessary to practically tin the plate, in general, it's okay, everything is fixable. (Look at the photo you can see.)

Tin consumption is quite large.

Well, in the photo there are soldered elements, in the second row there is a jamb, one conclusion is not soldered, but I noticed and corrected nothing important.

The glass edging is made with double-sided tape, then a plastic film will be glued to this tape.

tapes that I used.

After soldering, sealing begins (adhesive tape will help you).

Well, glued plates with adhesive tape and a fixed jamb.

Next, remove the protective layer of double-sided tape from the panel edging and glue a plastic film on it with a margin for the edges. (I forgot to take a picture) Oh, yes, we make slots in the adhesive tape for outgoing wires. Well, not stupid, you will understand what and when ... Along the edge of the glass, as well as wire leads, corners, we coat with silicone sealants.

And we bend the film to the outside.

The frame was made of plastic. When I installed plastic windows in the house, a plastic profile for the window sill is attached to the window with screws. I thought this part was too thin. Therefore, he removed and made the window sill in his own way. Therefore, plastic profiles remained from 12 windows. That is to say, the material is in abundance.

I glued the frame with an ordinary, old, Soviet iron. It’s a pity I didn’t film the process, but I think there’s nothing beyond incomprehensible here. I cut off 2 sides at 45 degrees, heated it on the sole of the iron and glued it after setting it at an even angle. In the photo there is a frame for the second panel.

We install glass with elements and a protective film in the frame

We cut off the excess film, and glue the edges with silicone sealants.

We get such a panel.

Yes, I forgot to write that, in addition to the film, I glued guides to the frame, which prevent the elements from falling if the adhesive tape comes off. The space between the elements and guides is filled with mounting foam. This made it possible to press the elements closer to the glass.

Well, let's start testing.

Since I made one panel in advance, the result of one is known to me. The voltage is 21 Volts. Short circuit current 3.4 Amps. The current of the battery charge is 40A. h 2.1 Ampere.

Unfortunately didn't take a picture. It must be said that the current strength depends sharply on the illumination.

Now 2 batteries connected in parallel.

The weather at the time of production was cloudy, it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

At first it upset me, and then even cheered. After all, these are the most average conditions for a battery, which means the result is more plausible than in bright sunshine. The sun shone through the clouds not so brightly. I must say that the sun was shining a little from the side.

With such lighting, the short-circuit current was 7.12 Amperes. What I consider to be an excellent result.

Voltage without load 20.6 volts. Well, it's stable around 21 volts.

The battery charge current is 2.78 Amps. That under such lighting guarantees a battery charge.

Measurements showed that with a good sunny day, the result will be better.

By that time, the weather was getting worse, the clouds were closed, the sun was full and I was wondering what it would show in this situation. It's almost evening twilight...

The sky looked like this, specially removed the horizon line. Yes, by the way, on the glass of the battery you can see the sky as in a mirror.

The voltage in this scenario is 20.2 volts. As already mentioned, the 21st century it's practically a constant.

Short circuit current 2.48A. In general, then, for such lighting is wonderful! Almost equal to one battery in good sun.

The battery charge current is 1.85 Amperes. What can I say ... Even at dusk, the battery will be charged.

Conclusion A solar battery has been built that is not inferior in performance to industrial designs. Well, durability ... .., we'll see, time will tell.

Oh yes, the battery is charged through 40 A Schottky diodes. Well, what was found.

I want to say the same about controllers. All this looks nice, but not worth the money spent on the controller.

If you are friends with a soldering iron, the circuits are very simple. Do it and enjoy making it.

Well, the wind came up and the remaining spare 5 elements fell into an uncontrolled flight ... .. the result was fragments. Well, what to do, carelessness should be punished. And on the other hand…. Where are they?

We decided to make another socket out of the fragments, 5 volts. It took 2 hours to make. The rest of the materials just came at the right time. Here's what happened.

The measurements were taken in the evening.

I must say that with good lighting, the short circuit current is more than 1 ampere.

The pieces are soldered in parallel and in series. The goal is to provide approximately the same area. After all, the current strength is equal to the smallest element. Therefore, in the manufacture, select elements according to the area of ​​\u200b\u200blighting.

It's time to talk about the practical application of the solar panels I made.

In the spring, he installed two manufactured panels on the roof, 8 meters high at an angle of 35 degrees, oriented to the southeast. Such an orientation was not chosen by chance, because it was noticed that in this latitude, in summer, the sun rises at 4 am and by 6-7 o'clock quite tolerably charges the batteries with a current of 5-6 amperes, and also applies to the evening. Each panel must have its own diode. In order to exclude burnout of elements with different power panels. And as a result, an unjustified decrease in the power of the panels.
The descent from a height was made with a stranded wire with a cross section of 6mm2 each core. Thus, it was possible to achieve minimal losses in the wires.

Old barely-living batteries 150A.h, 75A.h, 55A.h, 60A.h. were used as energy storage devices. All batteries are connected in parallel and taking into account the loss of capacity, the total amount is about 100 Ah.
There is no battery charge controller. Although I think the installation of the controller is necessary. I am currently working on the controller circuit. Since during the day the batteries begin to boil. Therefore, you have to dump excess energy daily by turning on an unnecessary load. In my case, I turn on the lighting of the bath. 100 W. Also, during the day, an LCD TV of about 105W, a 40W fan, and an energy-saving light bulb of 20W are added in the evening.

I will say to those who like to carry out calculations: THEORY AND PRACTICE are not the same thing. Since such a "sandwich" works quite well for more than 12 hours. at the same time, we sometimes charge phones from it. I have not yet reached a full discharge of batteries. Which, accordingly, crosses out the calculations.

A computer uninterruptible power supply (inverter) 600VA, which approximately corresponds to a load of 300W, was used as a converter.
I also want to note that the batteries are charged even with a bright moon. At the same time, the current is 0.5-1 Ampere, I think this is not bad at all for the night.

Of course, I would like to increase the load, but this requires a powerful inverter. I plan to make an inverter myself according to the diagram below. Since buying an inverter for crazy money is UNREASONABLE!

So, before the vacation, once again the task arose to ensure marching power supply for a variety of electronic devices that I carry with me. For instance - GPS-navigator, player, phone. Last year I got a so-called. "vampire" (I want to solder my own, better) - a device that is an MK with a body kit, the task of which is - "draw" energy from batteries and apply to the output to recharge the recipient device. But again I didn’t have much desire to carry a supply of AA batteries with me, so I decided to feed the “vampire” batteries, charged, in turn, from the energy of the Sun.

The initial idea is very simple and easy to implement. not to look for solar panels through various radio shops - we go to the nearest hypermarket and buy the simplest solar-powered garden lights. In my case, the battery donors were Cosmos brand lights - the cheapest I could find. Manufacturing solar powered mobile chargers of such lanterns is a simple and quick matter. With two lanterns, I managed in an hour.

The raw material looks like a solar panel connected to an LED power circuit and a battery box for one AA battery. The kit comes with a 400 mAh battery - complete rubbish, it is better to immediately replace it with a more capacious one.

The first step is to carefully solder the leads of the solar battery (hereinafter - "SB") from the battery compartment (hereinafter - "battery compartment"). Further, the conclusions of the SB must be stripped of insulation by about 5-7 mm and irradiated. The main element of the device is ready!

Step two - with no less care, we solder the LED power supply circuit (printed circuit board with a body kit and the LED itself) from the battery compartment. We no longer need the circuit (unless you want to later make something useful out of this “recyclable”, for example - LED table lamp, I decided to use them for this). So at the moment we have SB panel with conclusions and battery compartment without them. The point is small - to collect all this goodness together!

However, before the final assembly, it would be nice to make sure that the solution we applied works. Then it will be too late to redo something! So, literally “on the snot” we connect the SB leads to the corresponding contacts of the battery compartment (the black wire is “ — ", Red - " + “, you need to connect, respectively, to the “spring” and “pimpochka” on the battery compartment). We take in hand tester(he - multimeter) and check the presence on the power circuit, as well as the voltage at the entrance to the battery compartment. The tester shows 1.98 V in fairly weak natural light (I have windows to the west, direct sunlight does not pass), while battery operating voltage is 1.2 V. From which it can be concluded that 1.98V charging current is sufficient to charge an AA battery. In the future, this conclusion was confirmed by practice - the batteries were successfully charged and no less successfully gave energy to my mobile gadgets.

Now that the performance of the selected circuit is confirmed by the results of measurements, we can proceed to the final assembly! It is necessary to carefully solder the SB leads to the corresponding inputs of the battery compartment (for convenience, I used extension conductors). I insulated and protected the soldering points with a thermal gun(filled with molten polyethylene in other words). You can also use a heat shrink sleeve (cambric) for this.