if i understand you correctly, you are saying that the amperage of a series of these cells can be shot to hell by using a small cell?

would it be possible to wire them all in parrallel then use some kind of step-up transformer to bring it up to 12 volts to charge somthing like a battery?

the other thing is: would it be possible to build or modify a computer ups to use two batteries - with usage priority batter<ac<battery (one for backup, one used whenever charged)? what i am trying to say is something like:
1. you plug in the device.
2. it charges the first battery from a.c. (wall)
3. you plug your computer in.
4. it powers the computer off of a.c., reverting to that battery when a.c. goes out (traditional ups so far)
5. the second battery charges from this solar panel.
6. the ups notices that the battery is over x% full, and switches from a.c. usage to the "solar" battery,
7 once "solar" battery drops below y% of capacity, return to a.c. power. return to 5, rinse and repeat

would help becoming "green", hardcore computers can use over 10 times the power a single lightbulb does

First off...
When using a transformer, whether it be step-up or step-down, you should realize that Power can not simply be created. If you increase Voltage, your Current will decrease and vice-versa. With enough power coming from the solar cells, you could quite easily create a charging circuit. However, keep in mind that if the battery receives too much current (or voltage, I think), you put the battery in the dangerous position of bursting. Tho, when working with solar cells, and excess of power is hardly something to worry about, simply due to their nature.

As for your second question...
What I'm getting from our second question is that you want to add a charging circuit, incorporating the solar panels as the second circuit, and have the UPS sense when the battery is charged to a certain %, switch from AC to battery until battery level drops to a certain %, and continuously repeat.
It's not a bad idea, and it's a feasible one, to a certain extent. First off, you should realize that most high end gaming computers love sucking down energy, and as such, I don't think switching from AC to Battery for exclusive use is such a good idea. The way I imagine it, once the modified UPS reached the given %, the switch would occur, and the computer would use the battery for a maximum of 10, 15, maybe 30 minutes. Now, unless said solar panel was quite large, and given the weather presented favorable conditions, then things would be different.
But, you merely asked if the idea was feasible, and the answer is yes, it is. There is still one thing that I'd be worried about. Computers might not appreciate the constant switching of power sources, but then again, I've never had to use a backup battery, let alone, own a UPS. Just something to keep in mind.

yeah, but that is thirty minutes 10, 15, maybe 30 minutes that electricity is not being pulled from the grid, (the first stats i found from the magic google machine said) every kilowatt hour produces about a pound of co2. the battery need not be an exclusive source, it is really just a buffer for the solar power, to make it useable.

as far as power switching, ups's are just that - they switch seamlessly from ac to battery when ac dies.

your idea sounds great, but unfortunately its way over my head

Wow I didn't know that there was something sold for tabbing these solar cells. I've been thinking of the same project but with all complications of using a conductive marker and some sort of conductive glue to create the bus ribs.

Can you apply those "solar tabbing pre tinned ribbing" on cells with no ribs at all? I mean, consider that you have a piece broken in such a bad pattern that you have bus rib passing through half of it. Can you add a second rib?

Thanks for this very nice instructable.

Koray

If their is even a small busbar to solder the tabbing to, thats all you need. It does not have to go across the whole cell (not going across the whole cell will increase resistance but in such a small amount that it's not worth worrying about). Also for cells with no busbar I use conductive copper tape, you can get it on ebay and it works great, and it can easily be soldered to.

Wow, that's easy: thanks!
How do you know positive from negative?

With all mono and poly crystalline cells the bottom is positive and the top is negative. Or you could just use a multimeter.

But, how do you tell bottom from top wo/ a multimeter?

When I say bottom I mean underneath or the back, the grey side, sorry about that

How many volts to amps can you expect from such an arrangement thanks Dave'

I have built a few of these - one problem can be the solder refusing to wet and the solution is to dip the solder in some solder flux (zinc chloride) then put the drop at the end of the solder on the busbar, wait 10 seconds and then solder.

Broken solar cells are much cheaper than whole ones and work just as well! Nice Instructable :)

Wow, that looks kind of hard, and looks like you have to be concentrating a lot not to mess up. Nice job!

Yeah, what makes it hard is how thin and fragile the cells are. The first batch I got, I couldn't believe how thin they were.