Hi, first time poster.

A number of years ago a guy at work came across a great deal on individual solor cells. They were factory seconds,(chips, half cells, etc). I bought $40 worth @ a buck a Watt. I should have bought a whole bunch more when they were available, but it was a sight unseen deal.

The problem is the actual physical attachment to each other. By looking at panels I see they use a security foil tape, But what do they use at the contact? I've tried soldering with 60/40 and silver. However the conductive paint they use on the cells doesn't hold up to high temp very well and Ive had about a 40% success rate trying to solder. I looked around for the security foil, but I'm having a hard time finding it.

I'm thinking about using copper foil tape and painting over the contacts with nickle print. I'm concerned about thermal cycling opening up the connections over time with just the adhesive and the paint.

Anyone had a factory panel apart or done what I'm trying?

Thanks, Scott