Soldering Sunpower Maxeon Solar Cells

mikesinvention... mikesinventions...
I show you how to solder Sunpower's Maxeon solar cells. These cells are very flexible, attractive, and supposedly efficient. All the solder points are on the back of the cell, which makes the connections very easy. The price per watt of these cells is higher than some. The time saved is HUGE! That alone, might be worth the purchase price. There is no need to solder tabs on the front of the cells. I am not a paid spokesperson, but I gladly would be.

[@ckjain79]

Sir, can you please tell about the encapsulation process of these flexible cells, like what material is used for back sheet, what for top sheet, etc.

[@Andertheil]

ONly video that shows this process. Mine will be the second. Awesome Job!

[@brendankeough7552]

thank you Mike I really appreciate you taking the time!

[@vahagnmelikyan2906]

Thanks a lot man. I was searching all over Google not much info. Are these cells supposed to be so fragile? I took it out of the box my finger nail touched the edge of the cells that were packed on top of each other and chipped off from their edge. So pissed,that thing costed me like 50$ several years ago. I can't believe how fragile they are. Do they become expired, drying out in years? Because I bought them several years ago and never had a time to play around.

[@MasboyRC]

Your solar cell project really amazing, thanks for sharing. Appreciate it I would like to apply it on my rc plane 😁

[@RenaesHomestead]

This was a huge help for me. Thank you!

[@MikesInventions]

You're welcome Renae. Glad it helped.

[@user-nc6oi2uf8c]

Hello everyone, I see you are soldering each solar cell, to the next one, using the provided dogbone. This dogbone interconnects all three tabs of the one cell as it has a vertical stripe in the middle. I would like to ask what would happen if instead of using the dogbone, someone will use 3 (three) independed nickel strips from the one (negative) tab of the cell A to the positive tab of the opposite cell B. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using each approach? Thank you.

[@vahagnmelikyan2906]

I see your is slightly different looking than mine. I bought several cells, but when I put a dogbone on it it won't give me any space for soldering. Yours has enough space around it to prevent crossing the line. So after ruining 15 of them I finally just cut small strips and solder them without dogbone. I had to use 20X jewelers loops to see if it made a short circuit

[@greatlordsatan572]

super great video, Mike Thompson

[@MikesInventions]

Thanks!

[@David-Angeles]

Great video.

[@Dduerto]

How about some detail on connecting them on the ends. Do you just tab them across or does it really matter?

[@MikesInventions]

I ran some bus wire right across the ends, connecting at all 3 points along each of the two edges. Sorry I neglected to include that little tidbit in the video, but thanks for watching.

[@Dduerto]

Mike Thompson so you don't have to run the bus bar across the tbone connectors? You can just run it directly across the top of the cells right? That wont affect the output?

[@MikesInventions]

Right. You can just run it across the top of the cells. I dropped the solder bead on top of each connection point, just like I did with the dogbones, but I didn't install them, because they would stick out beyond the edges of the cells. However, you can put the dogbones on and have the tab stick out from the sides of the cells.

[@pavgup]

This is great content. Nice work!

[@ninja66dez]

Thanks for the awesome content! Do you have any advice for putting a protective cover over the panels after soldering them? Also is it possible to clean them if there are finger print on the?

[@MikesInventions]

I've covered them with acrylic sheets and caulked the edges. As long as they're supported, it's fine, but acrylic warps in the heat if it's unsupported. I've cleaned them with a microfiber cloth too! Thanks for watching!

[@adriangabrielgramada1016]

Hi ! Could you tell me please what is the recommended spacing between two cells and what are the dimensional tolerances for these cells (+/- how much from the 125 mm) ? Thank-you very much and I'm looking forward to your reply ;)

[@MikesInventions]

Yo Adrian! I'm not sure what the dimensional tolerances are. I never bothered to measure them, because it didn't really matter. I space them about 2mm apart and that works just fine. I hope that helps.

[@adriangabrielgramada1016]

Thank-you ! I'll keep that in mind ;) All best !

[@adriangabrielgramada1016]

Thank-you for your response / info. Would it be possible to mount them with almost zero space between them (1mm maximum for minimum dilation / contraction - given I've implement a cooling system) ? Thank-you for your time and I'm looking forward to your reply ;) Keep up the good work ;)

[@MikesInventions]

I'm really not sure, so I won't even try and guess. I'm not sure how much these expand in the heat, because I've never had a reason to measure them. I'd say the risk of cells colliding is not worth saving 1-2mm per cell gap, unless you're building a string of 1000 cells. ;-)

[@adriangabrielgramada1016]

Thanks ! I'll let you know what will work for me in the end (once the full hybrid solar panel > 95% efficiency will be ready) ;) All best !

[@maxim25o2]

you make cells to close each other. They will brake in colder weather.

[@calloutman]

Where did you buy these? Maxeon only seem to sell boxes of thousands of cells, and I'm not sure if the ebay sellers are legitimate.

[@MikeTrieu]

What a difference three years makes. SunPower now sells raw cells in bulk on Amazon. What a time to be alive!

[@maxwellhampton3029]

What kind of flux and solder wire are you using. Also what temperature do you use to keep solder wire in liquid form before you put the tab down?

[@MikesInventions]

I recommend using a flux pen now. A Kester one is what I use, because it's easier to keep a pen's flux under control compared to a squeeze bottle. I just keep it upright to keep the tip fairly dry then only dab it about 6 times before letting it sit a few seconds so the flux can drain away from the tip. You can see the backs of first several of my cells had very messy flux. (Poor flux control on my part) The solder I used here was AlphaFry 60/40. The temperature I typically used was 250c or very close to it. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@gpcm9226]

Is it possible/available to just use a single strip of extra wide solar tabbing instead of the dogbones? The dogbones are much more expensive than a roll of tabbing.

[@MikesInventions]

I'm not sure if you can use an extra wide tab wire. I haven't seen a tab wire or bus wire that wide, and I'm not sure if it would short out somewhere or not. Maybe someone else on here will see this and have your answer. You can just cut 3 bits of bus wire if you're concerned about cost. It does take much longer though, but I've done it, just to try it out. I think the dogbones are totally worth the time and frustration saved.

[@davestennes305]

In rough numbers a cell costs about $5 and 3 dogbones adds about 10c.

[@evanl734]

Does the cells efficiency warrant a $5 price per cell?

[@FreedomAirguns]

Shouldn't you connect diodes to avoid reverse voltages?

[@aflyingchapati4395]

So if i want to use the current from these, I just connect my appliance to the middle two to get electricity?

[@movax20h]

I am bit confused by Maxeon cell models. What is difference between C60 and Gen II/III ? They look super similar, but use different binning scheme, and I am not sure what C60 is exactly.

[@movax20h]

Awesome. I am preparing to make a small PV lab, and decided to go with Sunpower Maxeon cells, because of the metal back, that makes them less fragile, and ease of soldering, fill factor and ageing characteristic. Any idea where I can trusted distributor in Europe for these cells, that don't lie about grade / bin, and are packaged well for shipping? I need about 10 cells for start. Because the system is really a prototype, and for testing DC/DC converters, I would like to find the best possible grade and reasonably matched cells. I want Gen III, preferably Me1 or Le1, due to their superior temperature coefficient. The ones on alibaba, or some shops, are very shady, and data they provide don't match Sunpower official datasheets.

[@usastrong8088]

Just want to point out that ... might want to take the leather off and don't need the rubber serial killer gloves 😂😂😂

Hi Mike, I'm from Brazil, I have these flexible cells, how do I make the connection, I mean, how to connect the negative is positive? thank you

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

How are these cells for handling? I know some solar cells are semi-flexible, and others are incredibly brittle and fragile.

[@MikesInventions]

Mike, I would call them semi-flexible, but hardly. I don't treat them as anything other than flat cells. It's more like they are just tolerant of bending, but then they snap. They still work when snapped though, but it's not like you can fold these up or place them on something with a lot of curvature. Thanks for watching.

[@Tore_Lund]

@@MikesInventions On the hood of a car? More precisely a vacuum formed acrylic copy of the hood with the cells stuck on the underside. The curvature is around R=1.5M so not terrible curved, but is it ill advised to mount these cells curved, additional heat stress and vibrations considering? Alternatively I could encapsulate them in Silicone, so they don't have to be pushed to the acrylic, when vacuuming the backing foil, but this is a heavier and more expensive, not the least, a less elegant way to make a panel?

[@cforlong]

This was a good DIY tutorial . I am wanting to fabricate a solar Bimini top for my sailboat. Using 120 cells firmly adhered to Sunbrella® canvas -----Can you recommend a supplier for the cells? Prices on eBay are all over the map? Thanks again!

[@MikesInventions]

Thanks Cameron. The ones I was given came from ebay by a supplier named DirectVoltage out of Pratt KS. Great overall service and price I think. Hope that helps. Good luck on the project. Sounds fun!

[@maxim25o2]

I was doing this same method, and wafers are placed to close each other, and on my solar panel they are starting braking. It's because of temperature difference. And now I try figure out how to fixt that issue. And how remake my panel.

[@madisonorr5877]

How did you prevent the panels from breaking?

[@shishirhebbar7485]

Can you please mention its cost?

[@fromjesse]

To somebody who has handled these cells, (I haven't) -- are they flexible like rubber, or like really really thin glass? Are they flexible like the plastic film ones, or are these just really thin so less likely to break? Thanks!

[@MikesInventions]

Hey there! These are like really thin glass. They will bend a bit, but snap if bent too far. They could be installed on something with a slight curve, but flat is best.

[@N1ghtR1der666]

Hi Mike can you advise where we can buy these cells for DIY as a search of ebay is producing results but they all look untrustworthy and a close inspection of the pictures shows they are slightly different on the back to the cells you used

[@MikesInventions]

Hey Zim. They came from an ebay seller named DirectVoltage.com. I just checked for you and they can be purchased from the website, but they're on backorder at the moment. Hopefully you can find some. Thanks for watching!

[@N1ghtR1der666]

thanks for the reply I did see a seller by that name I think, do you have any stats on the dead cell rates as I have seen some horror videos on this since. I have ordered 5 to run some tests on efficiency to see if they are the real deal before ordering more but definitely scared about failed cell ratio out of the box.

[@sidmessaoud4389]

hi! i hope you are fine What type of material did you use to connect the two cells?

[@MikesInventions]

Sid, it's called a Dogbone connector, and it's made specifically for these cells. It appears to be a silver coated copper strip. You could just use regular tabbing wire, but it'd take 3 times as long.

[@saifsiouf7684]

Have you ever measured the Isc on these cells using a regular multimeter? If yes do you get values near the rated values from the data sheet ?

[@bobhilder1469]

Are you still interested in answers to your questions? If you don't already know, it's generally not a good idea to use the direct current measuring function of a "regular multimeter" to try to measure Isc of relatively high current and low voltage solar cells. Just reply and I'll try to explain why and also give you an alternative way.

[@williamfraser]

@@bobhilder1469 I would like to hear your explanation. Does the same apply to a clamp-type dc multimeter?

[@bobhilder1469]

@@williamfraser First, because I've never used one, I don't know if the same would apply to clamp-type dc multimeters. It's a great question! If you have one, you might be able to determine for yourself and I'd be happy to offer some ideas on exactly how it might be done. With respect to the "regular multimeter" problem, it's somewhat difficult to explain and I'm currently in a mad dash to get a bunch of work done. Please give me some time to write something up and I'll get back to you very soon!

[@elpetr2738]

Thanks Mike .-))

[@MikesInventions]

You're Welcome! Glad it helped.

[@bobododoo3925]

I prefer oldschool wire cells. I don't like this connectors. But interesting cells. Anyone know cells like this, but for wire?

[@davestennes305]

The all black/no wire appearance creates possibilities for better aesthetics. I'm with Elon Musk on trying to get away from that "thing" that's on your roof and incorporating solar panels in such a way that it's not so visually intrusive.

[@DanielWPrado]

Hi Mike. I saw another video that the guy is saying that the solar cells are defective after him made a solder job. Do you had any issue like short circuit because of too much solder?

[@MikesInventions]

I did have that happen a couple of times actually. This is why I try to use as little solder and flux as possible, and only right where I need it. I did find a few that went "bad" only after I had soldered them, and I'm assuming that there was a short somewhere due to a soldering error, but there was no way to tell exactly what went wrong, but I suspect that's what happened.

[@DanielWPrado]

Thank you for the answer! I just ordered 64 cells for a project and your video was really helpfull!

[@MikesInventions]

Thanks Daniel. Good luck on your project! I'm sure you'll have fun.

[@tacetan]

hi, may i know how do you short them? as in the solder touches the lines?

[@MikesInventions]

Hey Daniel, how did you project turn out?

[@jonpaul4935]

where do you buy these cells ?

[@madisonorr5877]

Amazon

[@117Burn]

Hello can someone tell me how many volts output one cell has?

[@MikesInventions]

Hey I know the Muffinman. I also know these cells put out about .6 volts. I consider anything above .48 to be good with these. If they're "dead", they'll only give several mV.

[@andre-lg5gc]

nice look olso my film

[@aetheonpro396]

where can I buy the cells?

[@MikesInventions]

They're available on Ebay. The only seller I've had any experience with was DirectVoltage. And it's good.

[@aetheonpro396]

thanks

[@aetheonpro396]

How many amp per cell

[@MikesInventions]

They are 3.5W @ .6V, so they are 5.8A. Figure on .5v per cell is you're going to spec a system though, because as they heat up, the voltage drops, but usually not all the way to .5. I just always overdesign a bit, because you don't want a situation where you don't have enough voltage to charge your batteries. Voltage only goes downhill. ;-)

[@jiezhang6728]

dude, this type of video are not commonly seen...

[@VRISHANKPANCHALBEE]

Sir, can you please tell about the encapsulation process of these flexible cells, like what material is used for back sheet, what for top sheet, etc.

[@user-nc6oi2uf8c]

Hello everyone, I see you are soldering each solar cell, to the next one, using the provided dogbone. This dogbone interconnects all three tabs of the one cell as it has a vertical stripe in the middle. I would like to ask what would happen if instead of using the dogbone, someone will use 3 (three) independed nickel strips from the one (negative) tab of the cell A to the positive tab of the opposite cell B. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using each approach? Thank you.

[@MikesInventions]

Using 3 small strips works too. I’ve had to do that when dogbane’s run out