New to electronics

[sartony]

Ok Im fairly new to all this so please be patient and descriptive with me. I have 8 small motors that will be used as generators and giving off power. I would like to know how i can hook them up together to charge a battery. I am looking for two methods, one which connects them in two groups of 4 connected in series then parallel so i get double the amps of 4 combined motors and second, all 8 connected in series so i can get the maximum voltage. I'm pretty sure i need to use diodes but not completely sure how they work and how to arrange everything..

also, is there a way to find out which wire comming out of a generator is positive and negative??

thanks in advance for any help