I took out a solar power strip from my calculator, how do i use it for a mini fan?

Question

I took out a solar power strip from my calculator, how do i use it for a mini fan? its just the strip alone, do i just stick wire onto it and plug it to my HOMEMADE fan?

Answer 1

Previous answer is correct, you probably won't have enough power to run the fan. Make sure you know what the polarity of the strip is, hook it up to a supercap in parallel, that is plus to plus, then use a switch to connect the supercap to the fan. That'll let you save up an hour's charge from the pv strip to run the fan for probably several minutes if the fan's small enough. The supercap has to be rated for the open-circuit voltage of the pv strip. There may be one in the dead calculator. You can use the pv strip as a battery charger, too, but you need to pay more attention to voltages ratings and the possibility of overcharge/self-discharge.

Answer 2

There should have been terminals connecting the the power strip to the calculator- attach these to your fan. If it was simply in contact with calculator bits, you might need to soldier some wires on.
But it is unlikely that this will power your homemade fan... it probably won't generate much electricity... perhaps a couple volts. Check it against a voltimeter if you want to know exactly how much.

You might need to string quite a few of them together, or just go buy a higher-output solar panel. The "Information Unlimited" site carries such panels... or did when I bought a few from them about 10 years ago. I notice that the price has gone up quite a bit. Still, they are cheaper than the giant ones you can put on a house.

Answer 3

Use the solar power strip to charge a capacitor then use the capacitor as a battery, should work for short time on each charge :)

Edit:*never mind other guy already said this

Answer 4

Guide To Solar Power - http://SolarPower.duebq.com/?ScV

Answer 5

You probably won't have enough power to turn the fan.

Answer 6

yep