ITT: We figure out a way to create a solar panel from scratch with, hopefully, enough power to start a small RC chopper.
I dont even know how to start, any takers?
Starting and flying are 2 very different things...
I'm not familiar enough with current solar tech, let alone trying to Jew it from scratch. But just looking at the designs for solar planes.... I'm not sure a solar powered helicopter is pheasable. This does have me curious though, I'll stick around and watch the shenanigans ensue.
No way in hell would you be able to do this.
a solar plane might be kinda doable...maybe... with high quality cells
No way are you going to be able to diy a panel that will have enough juice to power anything other than a calculator
>>992955
Are you that fool who wanted to make his own fucking cement a while back? Have you even looked at how solar cells are made?
>>992955
>I dont even know how to start, any takers?
a solar cell is a translucent silicon semiconductor junction--so it is basically sand (greatly purified, and then specifically un-purified)
I am not an expert, but the easiest way to do this (that I am aware of) would be to use a sputtering chamber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputter_deposition
this isn't how commercial cells are made since using a sputtering chamber to make once cell at a time is very expensive and slow-
---BUT---
you *can* build a sputtering chamber yourself pretty easily, and making one cell at a time is easy because it's only 2 or 3 layers IIRC. Using sputtering is just [relatively] expensive, and slow.
>>993020
It may help to point out that with a sputtering chamber, you can both purify one material, as well as produce coated layers of different (solid) materials.
First lemme explain--the source material is on the bottom of the machine and gets heated, the target is a plate on the top of the machine. Plus (in what I am familiar with) there is a high voltage (thousands of volts) applied to the source and target plates.
To purify a desired material:
1. First you place it on the source plate and heat it to just under the boiling point of your target material. Then everything with a lower boiling point will boil out.
2. Next you start with another clean target, and heat the source to just over the boiling point of the target material. Now all your target material boils up and out, and (some/hopefully most) of it sticks to the target plate. Everything with a higher boiling temperature stays in the bottom, stuck to the source plate.
3. Then you move the target plate to the source position, put a clean plate in the target position, and now when you heat the source plate you will deposit a layer of *nearly* pure desired material.
Doing this all in a vacuum is often the best way, but some materials work okay in a low-pressure purged/inert gas environment. I dunno the particulars for silicon, but the temperatures, plate spacing and voltage all factor into things.
It's not the best way (to get the purest material) and it sure isn't the fastest way, but it is adaptable to a small scale, the process is pretty simple and it does work. There are lab-size sputtering machines that easily fit on a normal desk top.
>>993003
Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one that remembers that dude. This seems like a staple of /diy/ people who think that everything should be possible to make, just because they want it to be.
>>992955
I wish we had a mod to ban these fucking trolls that shit up /diy/.
>>993148
Everything *is* possible to make though, and most of it is pretty easy.
ive been thinking about this couldn't you make a solar generator by using one of those large projection tv screens to shine alot of light on a small steam engine and then use the steam engine to make electricity. Do you think it would work?
>>993193
Yeah it would work. The hard part would be making the lens track the sun, though. Otherwise the focal point would drift off of the boiler.
>>993148
haha
that fucken guy man
>>992955
You might want to look up how solar panels work anon. I don't know everything about solar panels, but i'm pretty sure you'll have a difficult time. Look up refining silicon.
>>993182
It's possible to make your own gravel by breaking up boulders with a pickaxe. Doesn't make it a good idea.
>>993221
Right, but this is /diy/ not /justbuyit/. Doing most things yourself isn't cost effective, but that's not the point.
>>993225
It's called practicality. If I wanted to look into birth control a /diy/ option could be to cut off my dick.... Or I could just buy a damn condom.
>>993215
>>993225
>Doing most things yourself isn't cost effective
Doing custom work and maintenance for yourself IS cost-effective, and is the traditional domain of DIY activities. Making copies of mass-produced goods or procuring raw materials typically is not, because it's generally not cost-effective.
OhPee here.
I found a solar panel that has rotors on each corner, I think thats the way to go.
All you need is an ultra light solar panel, with a very powerful, energy efficient rotor on each corner. Done and done.
Solar panels are a bitch to build, but that doesnt mean its impossible.
>>993404
>Solar panels are a bitch to build
Ok, so when you said "from scratch" you meant building them from ready-made solar cells, instead of something ridiculous like was suggested by >>993020?
>>993261
Now we need
>>/mfg/ - Manufacturing Engineering?
/diy/ is retarded as usual.
>>993123
Why is it said that 99.9999999% purity silicon is needed for doping with whatever? And sputtering is not doping, so... I am confused if the difference is not in the energy cost difference between two mfg processes.
And I am also confused about the physics behind solar cells.
>>993419
>Why is it said that 99.9999999% purity silicon is needed for doping with whatever?
Because otherwise the other filth in your silicon determines its properties instead of doping.
That said, you can use somewhat less pure (less nines) silicon for solar cells.
