Convert Your Solar Garden Lights to 5v Power!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2020
- Are you disappointed with your solar lights only staying on for a few hours before running out of juice? Follow along with my project to convert my solar lights to 5v power to charge the batteries. This will keep them all going all night! You will need to have a good understanding of electronics and electrical knowledge to complete this project. You will also have to know how to adapt this to whatever lights you have available as the ones I have are not available online everywhere.
Appreciate what I do on my channel? Found this video helpful?
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Items used:
Garden Lights: Whatever you choose to buy in your hardware store or online. As recommended in my video, look for ones with Lithium based batteries, not Nicad.
2-wire Pigtails: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dV7...
5v Power Supply: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dYP...
Electrical Box: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dWH...
Fuse Holder: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dVU...
Fuse: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d7i...
12v Garden Cable: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d8G...
Connectors: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_d6P...
WARNING!!!!
If you are going to install an outdoor waterproof power point, I recommend buying and using high quality electrical cable and outdoor rated power socket from your hardware store or electrical store which is approved in your country. Buying such things from AliExpress or Banggood is risky as you don't know what the quality is and you may risk an electrical fire. If you are unsure of this procedure, or if your local laws prohibit DIY on your house electrical system, please consult a registered electrician! Please be safe with high voltage!
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I’m glad someone did a video on this, thank you. I purchased some extraordinarily beautiful artsy glass and metal fire/flame shaped solar lights that look sculptural (read “expensive”) and half of the dang things aren’t lighting correctly even after switching rechargeable batteries. Only half of them light even though they have sun most of the day. I have them around my pond and I really really love them, they even have an upwards flickering light sequence action. I need them to be switched to power. I’ll show this to my husband and see if it can be done. Appreciate the video 👍
You're welcome, glad it helped!
OUTSTANDING VIDEO!!! You’ve made it clear, concise and succinct - three qualities that most people that “try” to post stuff on TH-cam have no concept of. Thank you for posting this - it helps TREMENDOUSLY !!!
Glad it was helpful! Cheers!
Great video! I love my solar lights in my backyard!
Thanks for the video. You read my mind - this is exactly what I wanted to do! The dark path beside my house needed lighting, but unfortunately it is also too dark during the day for the solar panels to charge the batteries properly. After getting everything wired up, I discovered a fatal flaw. The lights do not come on when receiving power. I can only assume that they think that if the solar panels are receiving daylight energy then it's not night! At the moment, the only solution is to find a way of only mains charging the batteries for a few hours during the day. To be continued...
I went a different route. I have 8 pole mounted lanterns. I replaced the LED with several 12v flicker LEDs. Each lamp have 6 x 20mA LEDs capable of 14.4v. The power is supplied down the garden from the garage at 12v.
I used a 230v to 13.6v 2A project PSU that has a 7Ah battery backup on it, then I use a timer to switch them on at around dusk until 11pm then the battery takes over for a few hours.
The next stage is to fit a dusk to dawn sensor and a solar panel to charge the battery to make it more efficient.
Nice work!
Great video. Thanks.
well done lad .
Very clear and easy to follow, thank you. Subbed from nz
Cheers!
If you want to stop voltage drop for long runs of cable use AC volts, then at each outlet add a diode and cap to turn it back to DC.
I had poorly soldered solar led lights like this but much more powerfull so i planed making them into battery operated lights to use them as flashlights but main reason for filming my vids:)
Nice work
Thank you! Cheers!
If the solar panel is 2v with 100 ma what dc should I use?
I can’t thank you enough! This gets me pumped up to do mine. The one thing I haven’t figured out is the power supply. I have about 25 lights that I want to string together as one set... or at most two sets. Any suggestions? I.e. an old laptop computer power converter?
Everything I used is in the description
I ripped all of the solar circuitry and replaced the guts with a 3 wat LED high power and 4 resisters to give 27 lights a new makeover. The lights cost $13 US Dollars for 6 at 4 boxes and I used 16-gauge wires to wire both sides of my driveway and along the front of my house including 1 that bugs had built a nest inside the battery compartment. I made it so it would be worthless to anyone because I want my lights... I use a 16 V lithium battery and a buck boost to reduce voltage to 4.95 at 12 amps that covers more than 600 feet of wire with no power loss. Just to note - I put in quick disconnects on each light so I could remove them so I could cut the grass...
Can I just bypass the circuit board and wire the lights to a transformer that has the dusk to dawn feature? That's what I plan on doing.
Not if they're LED lights. LEDs need specific 3.3v voltage and resistors in line with them and if you just bang 5v power into them they will go very bright for half a second then not work at all.
Don't solar lights stop working because their batteries need to changed or charged? Do they really only last 2 months and then need to be thrown away?
Can you do one for the big solar lights like street lights IP65
Maybe if I need them one day
do you still need to turn off the power supply during day time?
I don't, and it works fine, but you can if you want
My solar lights only have 2 wires from the panel to the board and show 2.25V not 5V. What do you think I should do? Can I just wire 5V to the board or will that fry everything?
2 wires from the solar panel have 2.25V? Did you test it in bright direct sunlight? It makes a difference how much sun is on it and that it hits the panel directly, not on an angle, to get the most voltage.
If it really is 2.25V, then you probably cannot put 5v into the board.
@@TheFlyingKiwiNZ Yes, 2.25V in direct sunlight. Covered the panel with battery inserted and I get less than 1V.
In your opinion can I use a 3V power supply without affecting the bulbs longevity?
@@krushmoto1 I think 3v SHOULD be ok. The LED will have resistors and such protecting it anyway
@@TheFlyingKiwiNZ thanks!
How are these lights holding up?
Still going strong and haven't skipped a beat to date! The garden has grown up nicely around them too so they are now part of the buxus hedge
so does solar still charges the battery
No, it's been converted
Please correct me if I was wrong... during testing, how did the light came on if the solar cell was disconnected. Also, if the power supply is on all the time then the circuit would take it as the sun is out all the time, therefore the circuit won’t trigger the LED... This only apples (as you stated) for replacing the solar cell with power supply... I recommend adding the power supply to the battery through an additional charging circuit... Overall the video is well made...
I’m still learning, but there should be no change in the function of the light sensor. He bypassed power coming from the solar panel. Power is now coming from power cord. Light sensor will still trigger LED light. His solar lights had 4 wires coming from the solar panel. 2 for power from the solar panel. 2 from the light sensor. Some solar lights have 2 wires coming from the solar panel.
This is an example of lights I have with 2 wires from the solar panel instead of 4. th-cam.com/video/VyZM4pEWG3o/w-d-xo.html
Yes @C More is correct. I replaced the solar panel input with the power supply. The light sensor remains intact and continues its job of controlling the LED.
Could you just remove the board and power the light via the power supply?
I'd like to be able to control when the lights go on and off via a timer or switch.
You might be able to bypass the lux sensor, then put a timer on the power supply? But you'll still need the board to power the LED as straight 5v would blow it.
Sir, do you still need to install the battery on the device ?
I guess you don't have to, but perhaps useful if your power often goes out, or maybe the light won't work without it.
@@TheFlyingKiwiNZ Thanks for the reply. I leave the battery on the device. I purchased an AC adaptor, selected an output of 7.5 volts and connected it to the circuit with the correct polarity. Just like charging a celphone, an 8 hours plugged in to the AC adaptor gave me almost 8 hrs of light.