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Customers most agreed on the following attributes:
from the moon on 5/3/2008
It worked fine and all but after 2nd time using it it cracked in half from me pressing down on it with some wires.
from Troy, NY on 5/2/2008
The instructions are wrong. Solder one lead to the front, one to the back. In full sun or a strong flashlight, you'll get 0.55 VDC just as they state. Soldering is a little tough with these, after 4 or 5 it got easier... but for a school project that's a lot of money to burn through to get it right! But I think they are good for fun projects.
First recognize what you are buying, a piece of silicon. If you where to see silicon wafers used in many electronic devices (op-amps, transistors, etc.), before it gets singulated into chips, you would see that large pieces of silicon are very fragile (as I have experienced). This device dates back to the beginning of solar cell technology. It performs pretty much as stated. Ah, never read the instructions, knew how to wire it up to begin with. I have been involved in the electronics industry for many years. I recommend that this is a device for those whom collect historical electronic devices, as I do. I bought 2 or 3 to have around for show and tell. It is an excellent device for science projects, if you know what you are doing. It is very simple, easy to understand, and is best for demonstration purposes.
I'm an electrician at a Nuclear power plant. My son was in need of a demonstration for a science project at school. Last minute of course. I was going to put three in series to power a 1.5V light bulb. After the painful task of soldering 28 awg wire to the "Front" as the instructions state at the points listed, I'm out [$]and it's 2 AM with no science project. I'm ashamed that these say "custom made in the USA"
I got this for my science project it held up good except it took me a while to solder the wire to it. I would only recommend this to someone if they were doing a school project because of its lack of power.
i bought 3 and they are hard to solder and break way to easy.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Minneapolis, MN on 1/6/2008
There are no leads or solder points you have to connect your #25 wire to the face. I bought two and couldn't get current from either of them.
I ended up pulling old cells off a previous project.
Complete waste of money and time.
It broke as soon as i touched it!
Tried using this solar cell for a science fair project and it would break in half trying to pick it up out of the case. We bought 2 and broke 2 instantly - waste of money.
I got this because I have some very nice flexable panels that [...] used to carry and I need more power now...boy am I dissapointed!First, the directions are wrong. It says to solder both wires to front -- in reality it's to the front and back at the edge.After I finally figured out where the contacts were, I put a meter on it...it produces 0.6v@30mA outdoors in full sun BUT in a window it only produced 0.3v@14mA; not worth anything...
from Simi Valley, CA on 8/8/2007
[...] I found this solar cell produced some voltage with indoor fluorescent light, so it works. Watch out though, because it's delicate.It needs the leads prewired for most customers.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
My only complaint is that the instructions are inaccurate. If you soder the cathode on the front and anode on the back however, the cell does what it is supposed to. Some people may not have known that and assumed it was no good. I generally get 200-250 mA at .50 volts per cell. If you wire them in an array you can get your money's worth. I bought them in bulk so I also had a discount.
[1 of 3 customers found this review helpful]
not too strong.
First off, the soldering instructions on the package are wrong. They state to solder both leads to the front of the panel. If you try this you'll get very low V, if anything. Instead solder one lead to the front and the other to the back and the panels will perform as intended. Second, the panels are very fragile: bending the lead once attachd can snap the panel in half. Otherwise the panels work well, but they are a bit pricey.
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
For more output power, place the cells in a "series" (increased voltage) and "parallel" (increased current) configuration. A recent design coupled an "array" of these solar cells with a 1.6MHz DC-DC switching converter IC to make an 80% efficient 6.0V DC solar power supply; current output was rated at 6.0V and 550mA.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
for what you get, it's REALLY overpriced. I was planning on building 12v power supply for stuff but these are only about .45-.5 volts in my window. it's a good idea but way too expensive. they used to sell other ones like a 3v 50ma one I got one time. wish they still did.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
powerful cell... big price...