Help with a Little Project & Understanding the Materials Involved

[daz]

How durable is tabbing wire? By that I mean; would it be able to withstand bending and unbending? I want to be able to fold up my solar panel but I am concerned that the tabbing wire will break after folding and unfolding a number of times.

Metals suffer from metal fatigue, so eventually it will break.

Is there a specific reason you want to fold the panel on the tabbing wire? Why not have two cells connected via multi-strand ribbon cable, or something similar to that?

Second option, as Sunking mentioned, would be to just buy a small flexible solar panel. You could still design and build the charger side of things, but at least your panel would work without problems.

If you insist on building the cell yourself, you will need to come up with a better alternative to connecting the cells, as eventually any metal will break after continuous bending. Try find a flat ribbon cable, or a similar flat cable that you could use to join the cells, as multi-strand cable is more forgiving at bending than metal tabs/straps/etc.

[KrazyK3nn3dy]

I could buy a pre-made charger but...

I don't want the cells to be foldable. and I COULD buy a pre-made one, but I want to make this myself. Just because I can. Just for the fun of it (trying to expand my knowledge and experience). As far as connecting the phone, it has a male usb end on the preexisting charger (like almost every other portable device today?) and the power bank has the female usb to which I would plug the original charging cord. All I need to know is the durability of these materials. Input would be nice, but since I have the materials on the way, I guess I will be the first to figure it out (I'm just guessing that no-one else has bent and unbent the tabbing wire more than needed to mount the cells to a solid structure).

[Sunking]

**What if the panel is encased in EVA Film? Like wire encased in rubber insulation.

Short answer to your challenge is you are trying to reinvent the wheel. Flexible and folding panels are for sale but not something a DIY can really make because they are using Thin Film substrate that is printed on a substrate like a thin peice of plastic which is flexible and pliable. You are looking for something like 20 watt Thin Film if building from scratch, or just buy you a Solar USB Charger is what you are looking for. Just convert the plug to Apple's Queer Input. Everybody use standard USB topology except Apple. Exact same voltage and current requirements, only difference is the pin-out. They do that intentionally to force consumers to buy higher price toys for their gadgets.

[KrazyK3nn3dy]

Another Set of Questions

I'm planning on using 10 1"x6" Mono solar cells rated at 0.5V, 2Amp, and 0.96+Watts in a series to charge a 2600mAh power bank rated at DC 5V 1.5Amp max input and DC 5V 1Amp output max, which may or may not be charging the phone while recharging via the solar panel. My phones AC charger says Input: 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 0.15Amp and output 5V ----- 1Amp. I would like to add bypass diodes and a blocking diode.

My other questions are: **will this supply sufficient voltage or would I be better off adding another cell or more (due to bypass and blocking diodes and/or clouds, imperfect conditions, etc.)? **Should I run a parallel series to up the Amperage or should I make it a longer series (due to lost energy through bypass diodes)? **How many cells should I bypass (I realize the more I have that I can bypass more and worry less about lost voltage)?**I know that Schottky diodes are best for less wasted voltage, but what rating would be best for minimal heating? **Good heat-sink for diode? **Is a diode safe to be encased in Eva Film due to the heat it generates? **To add to my previous post, how durable are the diodes (can their wires withstand folding and unfolding [What if they are also encased in the Eva Film])? Thank you for your help.

[KrazyK3nn3dy]

This is going to be long because I have questions for which I can't find answers and they could be hard to describe or understand. Please be paitent with me because I am new to this technology and want to learn and help others as well. I am going to attempt to make a portable solar charging system for my iphone. I have used google and the search engine here and I can't seem to find the answers for at least this question: **How durable is tabbing wire? By that I mean; would it be able to withstand bending and unbending? I want to be able to fold up my solar panel but I am concerned that the tabbing wire will break after folding and unfolding a number of times. The reason I think this way is because I know that if you bend a piece of metal over and over again, it will eventually break. **What if the panel is encased in EVA Film? Like wire encased in rubber insulation.