soldering solar cells (RS 276-124)

hi all, i've no training whatsoever in soldering, so forgive me for sounding ignorant... i picked up a couple of these solar cells:

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-buy-the-silicon-solar-cell-on-http-wwwradioshackcom--pi-2062564.html

from radio shack just for a bit of experimenting... however, to my horror, i discovered what an absolute pain these things are to solder... is there a specific type of solder that should be used?... i was able to solder, but it doesn't adhere well to the cell...

thanks!
isaac

i'm no expert. but my cells all came with ~5 cm of special [solar-cell] aluminum solder wire. and even using that it wasn't easy.

kuk

The problem is getting the joints hot enough, there is a lot of substrate that just wicks away the heat in a system like that. Also if you get it too hot or get too much of a thermal gradient across it then it might crack. I think this type of cell was designed to be used in a clip mounting system to allow easy low tech replacements to be made in the field, rather than as a prototyping component. You could make a frame with contact clips but that is probably more difficult than soldering it.

i was considering some sort of clip, but now i'm realizing that the five bucks for each maybe should just be a reminder to research better in the future... others are more expensive, but are usually housed and probably much easier to use...

I read your question and I know I have seen stuff on the web for this but i could not find the exact site.

Try this though...

Oaxacamatt1