Tabbed some solar cells and they dont seem to be working.

[Thierry05]

Hi,

I'm quite new to this stuff so its probably an unusual question. Simply I've been tabbing some of my 6x6 monocrystaline solar cells using this bare conductive paint, which is supposed to be used like solder for any projects, which is pretty cool, BUT, I got the tabbed solar cell I had and I connected a small LED from the negative end which is the tabbed bit, and the positive end (where I used the paint to 'solder' the led to see if when I put it up to the light, power comes out) and no matter what, it would not light up, I tested the same with a similar 1 watt solar cell that came with a product and it worked much better. So I am pretty much not sure what to do, luckily the paint is water soluble so if I made a mistake I can hopefully just brush it off without damaging the cell.

[Amy@altE]

Rather than using an LED, measure it with a volt meter. You should see about 1/2V coming out of a solar cell. It is probably too low to power the LED.

[Thierry05]

ah, ok thanks I was hoping to actually use a voltimeter but I don't have one at the moment. Also, is bare conductive okay for soldering solar cells?

[Amy@altE]

I don't know about the conductive, but you should not be working on any electrical project without a volt meter.

[inetdog]

If the "paint" gives off solvent over time it could contaminate the cell surfaces in the finished panel.

[Thierry05]

Apparently it's solvent free, so that's good.

[Thierry05]

Atm I'm getting a voltmeter, which is good, I've also 'soldered' the panels together using the paint, a bit messy, but may work, I'll get some images hopefully.