Solar Panels

helpful to keep everything steady while you are soldering. Tin the iron lightly, and apply the iron to each tab solder point – eight soldering points on each side of each bus. This makes a .5 volt 20 amp string with a negative bus on one side and a positive bus on the other side. Test the short circuit current under sun light by putting the multimeter probes on the ends of the negative and positive bus leads, then test the voltage. If you are not getting the reading you should be getting, check the solder joints and resolder if necessary. Solder the other strings in the same manner on the guidelines of the fiberboard and you will then be ready to connect each of these tested parallel connected strings of cells in series to each other.

Solder the tabs to the bus wire to connect the cells in a string. Note that this is a positive bus wire, connecting to the PV cell backs.

Trim the tab ends that extend beyond the bus wire. Note that this is a negative bus wire, connected to the PV cell faces.