Can I fix a flexible panel myself?

I have two 100watt flexible solar panels from fleabay that stopped working and of course the seller is MIA and unresponsive. Hate to throw them away. Both panels have fried diodes ... can these be replaced by someone with limited soldering skills. Thanks for your ideas/recommendations.

Swamplizard said:

I have two 100watt flexible solar panels from fleabay that stopped working and of course the seller is MIA and unresponsive. Hate to throw them away. Both panels have fried diodes ... can these be replaced by someone with limited soldering skills. Thanks for your ideas/recommendations.

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Fleabay... lol... in a situation like this.. I’d imagine YouTube may have the answer...

Swamplizard said:

can these be replaced by someone with limited soldering skills.

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I would say yes it's doable. It's not difficult to replace the diodes. Find an instruction online or get an engineer.

Diodes are pretty easy to replace if you can get to them. A soldering pen and a pair of needle nose pliers and they swap right out.

Isn’t diodes going bad on panels highly unusual? Out of curiosity how did you test them? Dredging from tech school decades ago, diodes are open one way and-nearly closed the other when ohmed out.

If you replace the diodes, you may want to look at the diodes used on simarly rated panels for voltage and amperage. If diodes are fried, most likely one of these was exceeded and my guess is out of spec diodes came with the panels.

I cant solder to save my life....I think they are junk from ebay to begin with so time to replace them.