Low cost panel

So I built those cells I got from Electronics Goldmine into a panel. Well, half a panel, they didn't ship enough tabbing wire. The good news is that I tested the half I built and it was pushing 9.75 watts during the weak winter sun we had today. So when I put the other 4 cells in it will be about 19 watts for about $55. Which is a great price for a small panel. I got a $7 picture frame from Michaels and used that. I'm thinking that picture frames from the second had store, with the chipped cells you can get off of eBay would make for super cheap panels.





Here's my other idea. Build the electronics to do the MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) into the panel. So you make low wattage panels using the cheap .5 volt cells then step the voltage up with the MCU/inductor circuit to whatever the load your running needs to see while also trying to maximize the power output by monitoring the current.

Video here on youtube if Blogspot is still having video playback issues.