Just found this video...Great work. I bought a 6 pack of these lights from China 2 years ago with a promise in the ebay advert of 4 hrs run time! I put the 18650 cells through my testers and they came out at 850mah! I complained that they wouldn't run for 1 hr continuously let alone 4 hrs and they gave me 50% refund on the whole order. I swapped them out for some good 2500mah cells I'd recovered from an old laptop battery and these lights have worked really well with only 1 dying from corrosion. Great video and keep up the good work.
Clive, I just love how you always teach me something on every one of your videos. They're so informative and interesting. Thanks so much for making them! :-)
Thank you for displaying the inner workings of this light. I have 8 of them and they are indeed bright when on full mode but when set to the 3rd mid on mode, it doesn't last for more than a couple of hours. I now set it to the 2nd dim/full mode and it stays on for most of the light.
Thank you for the education. You have an interesting and clear explanation . Some people make so many ums , ahs and I guess , that you realize it's only guesses spoken with confusion . You rock Clive !
I have one of these and it works surprisingly well, even now in winter with quite cold temperatures for here (-10 degr.). I only used it "turned on" by motion so see little point in modding the LED resistors....it's only on every now and then and for a short time. It hangs on the side of my house...with another house at about 3,5 meters from it and even so the solar cell seems to charge it good enough.
Got one of these 1 year ago and a solar LED floodlight from Amazon, over the winter the floodlight died completely same circuitry as this device but with 2 18650 cells, so I transplanted the dual 18650 cells into this device and wired the LED array of the floodlight to the output of this device and both are now married together covering my back yard, I covered the panel with rhino shatterproof film and sealed the whole thing with black wurth RTV automotive silicone hahahaha, worthy of your approval? 😎
@@VILL4IN-1 13662615035@163.com, please send message to us via this email, or you can add my whatsapp: 8613662615035, looking forward to cooperate with you, we need you to make vedio for our product
I bought some of these out of China last year for about $12 CAN$ each. First pair I bought, one arrived DOA. Company sent a replacement. In the mean time, I ordered another pair from a second company, also in China (both through AliExpress. Second pair arrived, and while both worked, one of them had the PIR cover broken. So, out of 5, I've got 2 that work fine, and one that works when it wants to, and one that does nothing. I took the DOA one apart, and it has the 18650 cell soldered in. I could not see any obvious point of failure - no burnt components or loose connections. Instead of screwing them into position, I used a 2 inch square of Velcro to attach them to the wall. This is handy in that it allows me to move them into full sunlight on occasion, as two of them are not in the best location for charging.
From the pcb photo it seems that the button is connected to battery positive, not to the 3v3... you fixed it on the schematic unconsciously :) Greetings from Italy!
These cheap lights are wonderful for sticking an esp8266 on them, disabling the lights and using it as an outdoors motion detector. I integrate mines to Home Assistant and alarmo to get a cheap and simple alarm system. I also use it to trigger the main lights from movement outside when I'm at home.
There have been a couple of comments about the 3.3v regulator so I did a bit of analysis of the components to see if it needs to be that high. The dropout voltage is probably about 250mV, the lowest I could find was 178mV and they were starting to get too expensive for such a cheap device. That means the battery voltage needs to be over 3.5V under load in order to maintain a stable voltage and avoid retriggering. The PIR is intended to be battery operated and most of that type have a minimum voltage of 2V so no problem there. I've checked the MOSFET too, it should be fully turned on at 2.5V and although the on resistance would be slightly higher it shouldn't be significant at the current involved here. That really only leaves the voltage of the microprocessor to consider. A lot of those will run at voltages down to about 2V or even less. If that's the case I really can't figure out why they picked a 3.3V regulator other than cost. It would be interesting to swap it out for a 2.5V regulator (with suitably low dropout) and see what happens. I don't see any other voltage sensitive components or dividers except possibly the 47k pull down resistor between the PIR and the MCU, but a 33k would resolve that.
These lights are great. I use them when camping to ward off bears and the like. I place about 10 of them around the perimeter of the camp and on a couple of occasions I have woken to hear a bear running away and one of lights turned on...
Great video & tear down of this solar light, they have revised them recently as others have said. Don't think it has full battery protection on these cheaper boards, with only one resistor & less chips, so will see if the unit or 18650 blows out... However, very grateful to Clive for the tear down & listing the 3 power modes... Mode #1 - 0/1100 mA with PIR Mode #2 - 30/1100 mA with PIR Mode #3 - 350 mA no PIR, (simply dusk to dawn operation) Mode #2 is perhaps where most will use these lights with a run time of aprox 5hrs (Depending how often the PIR triggers the main 1100mA flood/beam Though as Clive suggests this may be pushing the LED's a bit too much) As Clive suggested using small value resistor(s) on the positive wire from PCB to LED board... I bought a few 10r value resistors to tone down the brightness a little too, plus one light was too sensitive, despite even taping the PIR sensor, some gas from a boiler flue was at times false triggering the PIR... The black tape did dial down the sensitivity a bit but was still slightly prone to false triggering from the flue exhaust close by (poor choice of location I know but wanted a subtle light there to begin with) On Mode #3 - 350mA, where the light operates dusk~dawn @ 350 mA Battery life will be shortened from the Mode #2 30 mA (5hrs) So I was looking to effectively operate the light on Mode #3 but at reduced power like Mode #2 offered in its 30 mA standby setting The 10 Ohm resistor, fitted in line seems to offer something near 30 mA power on dusk~dawn in Mode #3 like I was looking for to offer ambient lighting but without false triggering from other PIR modes... Other lights will be mounted elsewhere using the Mode #2 setting (but wanted a light kept in that location for subtle lighting) So a 10 ohm resistor worked perfectly in this instance as Clive suggested (I tried a range of resistors, but 10 Ohm was perfect for what i needed) A 10 Ohm dials down the main "flood" considerably but if using a number of lights on your property it avoids illuminating the area too much & shortening the lifespan of some cheap Chinese LED floodlights. If a 10 Ohm resistor dulls the flood too much for your own situation, then you could use two resistors to make a 5 Ohm resistance & dial down the flood slightly less without being too blindingly bright when say putting the rubbish bins out for example. So yeah, many thanks to Clive for the insight into these cheap lights, now about £14 for 4 of them on ebay, or £3:50, even with an odd dud/spare parts, say a fiver... With a 10 ohm, or 2x10 ohm to make a 5 ohm resistor, to dial down the floodlight & extend the lifespan of the LED's. Maybe a small spread of silicone mastic to seal/water proof the unit, perhaps paint the components with something. Borrowing say the wife's clear nail varnish will offer some protection to the components - though will not offer you protection if she finds you have used it all up on silly LED lights. Thanks once again to Clive, great video, amusing fun clips, a down to earth tear down wonderfully narrated too. The only thing puzzling me is wtf is there to dislike about this clip ??? How can people down vote such an informative video on these units, hmmm me thinks it might be the manufacturers disliking Clive informing others how to engineer them to extend the life of these LED's perhaps ??? Cheers again Clive & others taking the time to share & educate us more on these cheapo Chinese electronic devices
I purchased these from Amazon. The first used to light whole night but later on this became faulty during summer and now waiting for some repairs. One gotten stolen. One of these is similar to the first one. Whose solar panel seems to have faded but it’s still working. The last pair is new and at home for emergencies use in case of light failure during night. Thus I have two pieces of these 100 LED lights to work with to improve their performance. Which is why I searched and read this video with comments. I appreciate your advice to take out one resistor so this can work longer than expected. About 12 Hours during winter. I have tried to install better quality and capacity battery but it’s not accepting so I needed to reinstall the same capacity battery. Now both lights are charging from Solar but their working time is greatly reduced. Maybe an hour or two maximum. Living in farm with such rubbishy lights is never good. Hence I have some other type of lighting arrangements as well for my needs but I still have to look into these two lights. Some of the LED don’t want to glow, doesn’t matter how hard I want. Any help on what to do to those non lighting LEDs? I am thankful to you for providing a great help in this regard.
It's worth mentioning that these lights can damage the lithium cells in winter by attempting to charge them while below zero celsius, when cells should not be charged.
Hmmmm. This seems to have been copied from some other nicely designed device, for trying to make and sell it cheaper. Though initially they seem very exciting but they are not long time companions. However with some modifications these can be worth spending. There’s another light available about which I am very excited. I am giving you link to give it a look. Thanks for your message and thanks for great help in this regard.
Symbol for a Schottky diode is a diode with the bar replaced with an elongated S made of lines that meet at right angles. If it matters. Then again in the USA, resistors are zigzag lines...
Of course, they’re zig-zag lines; that’s how they slow down the electrons! Doubt me? Try driving on a road that looks like that and see how fast you go without crashing or ending up going off the road! 🤣😆 There’s a reason behind the madness. 😏
I've had a couple smaller versions of these. After a few months they'd fail to turn on but have a charged 18650 still. Not really sure if the sensor is failing or the switching transistor.
@@bigclivedotcom I have 2 very expensive battery chargers that have both failed in the same way, I would love to send them to you from Australia for you to have a look at if your interested? No one can figure out what’s wrong with them. Would make a great video even if you find out it’s not repairable. I will be more than happy to pay you if you can repair them also.. let me know if your interested
@@bigclivedotcom They are cummins standby generator battery chargers, they do 12 and 24v, it’s going into fault and saying overload when it’s not connected to anything I opened it up and there’s nothing obvious that has blown etc? Google part number 0300-5878-01. Thanks
Yes it is, sourcing the parts off of Ebay prepare to spend $4 for the solar cell, 2 dollars for the battery, $3 for an array of LEDs $5 for 5 battery protection circuits so thats $1 per cell, $0.10 for a diode.
I just got one of these that looks the same, but the board, marked YF-SF, only has the sensor, the switch, an unmarked 8-pin chip and a ? mosfet marked J3Y - no resistors or diodes or anything else that I can see. It was nice and bright for 2 days, now it only lights dimly for a few minutes, but it is only getting light from my kitchen windowsill. Am going to try and figure out if I can put a TP4056 in with it and add some extra solar
Try having a look on Ebay for electronic kits. Simple ones with half a dozen or fewer components are good places to start working out what happens - and cost about £2 including carriage. Most will have a little circuit diagram with them. Also worth looking for are free online electronic "intro and basic" courses. they will give you an understanding of the basics quite quickly and then you start to work out how and why the circuits work. www.instructables.com/class/Electronics-Class/ www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=electronics+kit&_sacat=0
Thank you so much for this guide! Is it possible to replace the solat panel with the same 5.5v solar panel but with higher current to charge the battery?
@@Luc_Skywalker interesting, I bought a couple more a few weeks back and I'm experiencing the same issue you described. I'm thinking they might not be receiving enough light, I have not tried repositioning them yet, might get round to some time this week, I'll report back.
If the case allowed it (due to space limitations), I'd personally use a 26650 cell in there instead of an 18650 - that would give much longer run time and better current capability, especially if you used a decent cell. The cheapy 18650s like those don't really like more than 1A current. Doing upgrades to the lithium cell (even a rectangular Li-Po might be able to go in) would result in the solar cell being the weak link, and needing an upgrade as well - otherwise the cells wouldn't ever get charged...
Thank you for your nice video!! I have a dumb question: would it be possible to modify mode #3 from dim to full light? I have these lights in my terrace and they are set by default in mode #1 (ON only in case of movement). However, I also would like to have a good light source at night in the few occasions we stay outside for a longer time. Current dim mode #3 is too weak to read, for example. I also don't care much about the runtime, we don't expend the entire night outside anyway. Thanks for you suggestions 😊
well, I finally gave up and installed an interruptor to bypass the MCU. Don't know how long it will take to blow the leds or the battery, but at least I have a steady "mode #1" to light up my terrace when we are staying outside during summer.
Nice video mate. Quick question. My solar security lights have three modes. When it comes on. 30 seconds when it detects motion. Ithe second mode is 20% all night and the third mode which I use which is 10% and if motion is detected it has 100% light but only for 30 seconds. My question to you is how can you increase the time the light comes on for? 30 seconds is way too short. I'd like two minutes. Cheers Graham
Unfortunately these units tend to have the delay implemented in software, which makes it hard to change without rewriting the whole system from scratch.
Hello Clive, I have same issue with my 4 lights that are exactly the same on the outside. On the inside, the chip is slightly different and I have difficulties finding the resistor to remove. I can see I only have one Resistor (R750) if I am correct. Could I please send a picture? I do not want to throw them if there is a chance to fix them. They used to work though. Let me know, thank you very much!
I'm interested in solar charging. I don't see how this protection device can disconnect the battery from the solar panel without also disconnecting it from the rest of the circuit, since it's in series with the battery. Am I missing something?
Question: Could a light like this be upgraded with a bigger cell and some additional components for a longer running life in case of a busy night? Also wondering if anyone has considered powering such lights of the 24volt circuit used for doorbells?
I added a big solar cell on top of mine and lowered the current of all the LEDs. It normally still runs in the morning and it's facing north. I need to charge them 2 times during winter if it's really dark outside. For that, I added external charging terminals. Worked fine for several years now, because the batteries never run totally flat. I don't want to run cables across the wall.
I have the same one. Any ideas how to add a button to leave the leds permanently on? Seems that the pir sends a digital signal and i can not simulate the signal to keep it on. Some help would br appreciatrd. Great video thx
My problem with these solar lights like the simpler ones, have a problem. I put one out over the summer and it got so hot it cooked the lion battery the Cip went, one knackered battery , a great idea but how do you keep the inside cool and water proof??
I have a similar light which I was tampering with to add a manual switch so it is always turned on but had no success. The pir sensor maintains its voltage and probably sends a digital signal to the ic. Any ideas how to simulate the signal or where to add a switch (on your board for example)? Btw, thx for the video.
add a TP4056 and you can manually charge the battery if ever needed, i modified all of my solar lights to make that easier to do in times that sunlight is limited. Works like a charm.
@@javiercalero9596 from the TP4056's positive and negative battery pads connect a long enough positive and ground wire to the battery holders terminals of the solar light,, about 20AWG should do, for the power in of the TP4056 have a long enough wire to suit your needs, then solder a USB A cable's positive and ground wire to it. Then all u would need is a USB power source to charge the battery when needed. The TP4056 Should be in the unit itself then just drill a hole in the backplate of the light for the wiring to go through. You can use 18 gauge wire if you want to lessen the voltage drop when charging, but 20 should do just fine, depending on how long the wire will be. Hope this helps Also, doing it as u assumed would not be good for it because the power out of the TP4056 can only provide battery level voltage, so 3.7-4.20, so its best to just have it the way i described so that the power/voltage the light itself uses isnt affected by the TP4056. Oh also, connecting it that way the battery wouldnt have protection so it would be possible to overcharge it, which is why u want the TP4056 to handle charge and protect. As an additional idea for you, i have the porch solar light connected to a USB charger that is plugged into a smart socket that i can turn on/off with Alexa. I currently have it set on a schedule so the charger turns on for an hour and a half every day then turns off.. The light is under an overhang so it never gets much sun.
@@javiercalero9596 lol, its very easy to do.. Just remove the battery from the holder before you do any soldering to be safe. Any solar light that uses 18650's can be modified this way. You can even modify the light to be a small USB power bank for one use or another.
Non techie here. When replacing the battery is it as simple as finding any 18650 or should it be the purple covered one. There are a wide range of 18650s with different specs and I would like to be ready with replacement batteries for when the time comes. Thanks for this video and any help.
You need to get one of the old halogen style worklights to use for testing solar panels. LED just does not work. I find placing a small 250w unit at appropriate distance simulates sunlight quite well. My Maxeon cells (wide spectrum solar cells) generates their rated current in such a situation matching good full sunlight while even my 200w led at point blank only gives me a fraction. Otherwise, keep the videos coming! Enjoying them a lot!
Really? That's weird. Most bench LEDs can put out ~6500K light (tho I know Clive prefers the warm-white). Do you know what temp your LEDs were? I'd think the warn-white ones (~2500-3500K) would be shit for solar cells but I'd expect ~5500-6500K ones to fare much better.
Looked inside one today, and it only had 2 x NPN Tranistors and a Resistor (100 Ohm) + MCU + PIR + 100 LED + Solar Panel + Switch + Battery. Pin on MCU (7) powers PIR. One transistor switches the LEDs, the other controls battery charging. White Plastic case.
Opened another today, different again. 1 Mosfet (A2SHB) 2 resistors (1 for mosfet gate discharge, 1 to limit LED current, 1 capacitor (smoothing) and 1 diode (to prevent discharge through solar panel). Also the PIR sensor in these units is just a regular re200b type. They must use on board ADC to read the 20mV pulse (peak to peak). Black Plastic case , elongated mounting slots.
Přesně tento typ se mi porouchal - nereaguje na pohyb ani přepínač, baterie je dobitá a solární panel dodává cca 5V. Na opravu potřebuji znát označení MCU a PIR - poradíte?
@@karlvonbanhof2723 PIR = re200b MCU = Chinese ASIC (e.g. mx8098h). Suggest hacking in an ATTiny85 + AM312 (e.g. See: th-cam.com/video/pMx2BsaKWUA/w-d-xo.html)
Moc děkuji, součástky objednám, a až mi tyto součástky doručí, včetně tranzistorů SS8050-J3Y, tak se pokusím světlo opravit. Pak dám vědět. Přeji pěkný den.
for a while i've noticed that although they say items come from china, i've been receiving them from places like malaysia, laos, kyrgyzstan, and other random places. im guessing its somehow even cheaper to send from those places then it is from china, as dirt cheap as it already is. it usually takes longer from those places, too, which is annoying.
I've mostly given up on Ebay for these sorts of things. Instead, I order from places like Banggood, pay a bit more for Canada direct shipping, and I get most everything in 10 days to 2 weeks. Ebay? 2 *months*+. Prices are slightly higher on commerce sites like Bang, but I can't stand waiting for 2-3 months.
@@TheJohn8765 Order from Aliexpress and you will get them cheaper and with free shipping. Banggood is just a dropshipping site for Aliexpress. Even on Aliexpress there are the manufacturers and then export companies so by the time it is listed on banggood 3-4 companies are taking a cut. I spent close to 2k on Aliexpress a few months ago but it would have cost me 4-5k buying the same stuff on amazon or ebay.
I bought 5 of these outdoor solar lights. I did set all of them on the "shut off/full power light if movement is detected", but one of these lights, after about 1 hour, turn itself to the "constant medium power light, no matter if movement is detected". What could I do to make this "rascal" light work like her sisters? Thank you in advance.
Only if it would move. Those PIR sensors only detect moving changes in temperature. Or else, every PIR sensor would get triggered by sunlight, radiators, incandescent lights, ...
@@phonotical Trust me, I had a PIR sensor installed in my bathroom. Quite frankly, it's terribly inconvenient. If you just have to take a leak, the lights stay on for 5 minutes after, needlessly consuming power. But if you have a little more pressing business to attend to, after 5 minutes the lights go out and you have to wave your arms like a maniac to get the lights back on. Even worse, if you take a shower, all the PIR sensor "sees" is the "warm block" of the shower curtain. Bouncing up and down in the shower doesn't help. So when the lights go out, you actually have to stick your arm out of the shower curtain and wave frantically at the sensor. Needless to say: I changed it back to a regular light switch after a couple of months. Way too much hassle...
@@kpanic23 I was thinking of getting exactly that, then I thought about microwave sensors, but my lights randomly going on at night would probably be freaky
Is it possible to swap it's small solar panel with a 5v large panel with extended wires. I am planning to put the panels in the roof and run the wires to the circuit inside the garage. Will this type of swapping of solar panels be suitable for such circuit? Thanks in advance...
Disregard, mine was using a signal to the controller straight from the positive side of the panel across a single resistor. Removed the resistor and Bingo! Works day or night now😜
Hm, so, the protection circuit just shunts the positive (via the sense resistor) to the ground when there's overvoltage? I reckon that works great as long as the solar cell is weak enough not to overcome that.
Oh, no, actually, nope, now I get it, it passes the current only in one direction when in overcharge condition and the other way when in overdischarge condition. I've never looked into these.
Does it seem odd to you that these little lights never include any kind of temperature sensor to prevent charging when the temperature is below freezing? I have a few of these, and if the protection chip is based off of the TP4056, pin 1 is literally there to enable temperature controlled charging cutoff, but it's almost always just connected to ground instead of a thermistor.
@@bigclivedotcom yeah, probably. Still not great though.where I live, we get sunny days in the winter where it doesn't get above freezing.I know these are cheap gadgets, but I'm tempted to try to desolder that pin, and insert a thermistor lead.
My brother put 2 of these up today for my birthday. When we took it out of the box, put our hands on top and pressed the tiny power button it did not turn on. Did I get a dud? How long does it need to charge before it works?
It does look a little cheesey... However you can put this and other similar lights in a zip lock bag before mounting, to water proof them... *ask me how I know... 😉👍 AWESOME VIDEO! BIG CLIVE... Blessings: James
I've done that with outdoor battery packs. I leave the bottom open to allow ventilation or use a silica gel desiccant pack to keep them dry inside. The PIR sensors can see through thin polythene.
Hi, is it possible to avoid light sensor? To make it work even over the day? I thought of making an alarm system by hijacking it's motion detector sensor.
Many of these devices detect the light level by monitoring the output of the solar panel. You'd need to find that track that does that and disconnect it or tie it to the negative rail of the microcontroller.
@@bigclivedotcom OK, thank you for your answer. One more question. Do PIR detect motion all the day long regardless if it's day or night? Maybe I could use it's detection as a trigger. I am aiming to connect two wires when motion is detected to an old phone's fast dial, and make it able to call me when it detects the motion.
Is that possibility to read IC controller software or what it is ? I have more valuable light and in pone that microcontroller just blown. So i wanted to keep functionality so need to program new controler, have more working ones so i am able to check next one but they are able to read chip and program new one?
I have two items working well (sometimes !). Theu have a malfunction because, in the night , light on even if there are nobody in front of them. Do you have any ideas to fix them ? This problem is related to both. Could MPU be a dual 8 pin op amp (LM2904 like) ? Best regards
@@kennmossman8701 It makes them cycle at their lower end of state of charge (2.4 - 3v) which isn't good for them and shortens their life. Li-Ion cells last best when used between 3.4 - 4.1v.
@@Shaun.Stephens quite right. too damn early here (HKT)! Need more coffee! Still destroy is a bit strong....how about affects, diminishes, weakens, .......................
Just buy 20 of these (£2.80 ish each) be intresting what they look like inside (see if they are the same), could I just attach a heatsink to the 2 chips that is getting hot if it is still the same
@@bigclivedotcom unfortunately the lights that arrived have zero battery protection as I left 2 of them on and it went all the way down to 2.30v and started going off and on at 2.4v if modes 1/2 used so I assume the IR module has insufficient power its retriggering , mode 3 for constant dim just got dimmer the lower the battery voltage is It just has 2 chips, IR module and a button,, I have ordered a pack of 1s 18650 BMS battery protection so it cuts off at 2.5v and 4.0v only issue with using bms if it does attempt to overcharge the battery and the bms cuts off the power from the microcontroller feeding the battery unsure if it will destroy the micro controller when the bms cuts off charging current (as the solar voltage might go quite high when bms is not accepting voltage anymore and kill it guess I find that out in summer, or leave one if them under a light see what happens ) Also what sealant should I use, as the sides of the panel are not fully flush so water is going to enter the units if not sealed, they also allows water to collect and stay behind the panel (was thinking of using silicone sealant or somthing els that's whether resistant along the edges that bonds well but not over the panel it self to prevent water ingress, some of these are going to be installed in not easy to access locations) I wasn't really expecting a response (UK person here) do you have Discord or other place as posting pictures (links) tends to get automodded/deleted now
Just found this video...Great work.
I bought a 6 pack of these lights from China 2 years ago with a promise in the ebay advert of 4 hrs run time! I put the 18650 cells through my testers and they came out at 850mah!
I complained that they wouldn't run for 1 hr continuously let alone 4 hrs and they gave me 50% refund on the whole order.
I swapped them out for some good 2500mah cells I'd recovered from an old laptop battery and these lights have worked really well with only 1 dying from corrosion.
Great video and keep up the good work.
That was my thought as well... though there should be enough space for at least two 18650s (in parallel), maybe even three.
the purple batteries should have a label on it" HongCi", the batteries suck and the solar panels cant charge it well and fast enough,
Got mine from Aliexpress. They only have a soldered and glued 14500, not even a cheap knockoff 18650.
Clive, I just love how you always teach me something on every one of your videos. They're so informative and interesting. Thanks so much for making them! :-)
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Thank you for displaying the inner workings of this light. I have 8 of them and they are indeed bright when on full mode but when set to the 3rd mid on mode, it doesn't last for more than a couple of hours. I now set it to the 2nd dim/full mode and it stays on for most of the light.
Thank you for the education.
You have an interesting and clear explanation . Some people make so many ums , ahs and I guess , that you realize it's only guesses spoken with confusion .
You rock Clive !
To be fair. When I started making videos I also ummed a lot because I hadn't developed the skill of thinking ahead of what I'm going to say.
I have one of these and it works surprisingly well, even now in winter with quite cold temperatures for here (-10 degr.). I only used it "turned on" by motion so see little point in modding the LED resistors....it's only on every now and then and for a short time. It hangs on the side of my house...with another house at about 3,5 meters from it and even so the solar cell seems to charge it good enough.
Got one of these 1 year ago and a solar LED floodlight from Amazon, over the winter the floodlight died completely same circuitry as this device but with 2 18650 cells, so I transplanted the dual 18650 cells into this device and wired the LED array of the floodlight to the output of this device and both are now married together covering my back yard, I covered the panel with rhino shatterproof film and sealed the whole thing with black wurth RTV automotive silicone hahahaha, worthy of your approval? 😎
it's only 3 pound directly from China on Temu so I don't mind too much
Backlight the “Pico Balla” candy with the LEDs from the panel and see if they make for a more interesting lighting fixture. 😁
I've got 2 of these and they are working brilliantly so far.
hi, we have new solar motion sensor security light, do you have any interesting to cooperate with us?
@@currydouble9572 Yes no problem do you have an email?
@@VILL4IN-1 13662615035@163.com, please send message to us via this email, or you can add my whatsapp: 8613662615035, looking forward to cooperate with you, we need you to make vedio for our product
Great video, love the detailed explaning. I just wanted to get an idea about the circuit board and you got it covered really well. Thanks again. Tc
With schematic, Is Clive is a schematic addict!!
It appears so
I bought some of these out of China last year for about $12 CAN$ each. First pair I bought, one arrived DOA. Company sent a replacement. In the mean time, I ordered another pair from a second company, also in China (both through AliExpress.
Second pair arrived, and while both worked, one of them had the PIR cover broken.
So, out of 5, I've got 2 that work fine, and one that works when it wants to, and one that does nothing.
I took the DOA one apart, and it has the 18650 cell soldered in. I could not see any obvious point of failure - no burnt components or loose connections.
Instead of screwing them into position, I used a 2 inch square of Velcro to attach them to the wall. This is handy in that it allows me to move them into full sunlight on occasion, as two of them are not in the best location for charging.
Excellent explanation, thank you for this!
1200 mAh for a no-name Ebay cell is pretty darned good. I've usually gotten ~700-800 mA cells when I order stuff from ebay.
the pico balla comes from because haribo also sells "balla sticks", and those pico ballas are essentaly balla sticks cut into pieces
From the pcb photo it seems that the button is connected to battery positive, not to the 3v3... you fixed it on the schematic unconsciously :)
Greetings from Italy!
These cheap lights are wonderful for sticking an esp8266 on them, disabling the lights and using it as an outdoors motion detector. I integrate mines to Home Assistant and alarmo to get a cheap and simple alarm system. I also use it to trigger the main lights from movement outside when I'm at home.
There have been a couple of comments about the 3.3v regulator so I did a bit of analysis of the components to see if it needs to be that high.
The dropout voltage is probably about 250mV, the lowest I could find was 178mV and they were starting to get too expensive for such a cheap device. That means the battery voltage needs to be over 3.5V under load in order to maintain a stable voltage and avoid retriggering.
The PIR is intended to be battery operated and most of that type have a minimum voltage of 2V so no problem there.
I've checked the MOSFET too, it should be fully turned on at 2.5V and although the on resistance would be slightly higher it shouldn't be significant at the current involved here.
That really only leaves the voltage of the microprocessor to consider. A lot of those will run at voltages down to about 2V or even less. If that's the case I really can't figure out why they picked a 3.3V regulator other than cost.
It would be interesting to swap it out for a 2.5V regulator (with suitably low dropout) and see what happens. I don't see any other voltage sensitive components or dividers except possibly the 47k pull down resistor between the PIR and the MCU, but a 33k would resolve that.
I have a cheap version. Don't think I have a battery protection on mine.
DIY working bms 1s
I just bought two of these. Thanks very much for your suggestions.
Thank you so much for such detailed information and explanation. Look forward to watching more of your videos.
These lights are great. I use them when camping to ward off bears and the like. I place about 10 of them around the perimeter of the camp and on a couple of occasions I have woken to hear a bear running away and one of lights turned on...
Great video & tear down of this solar light, they have revised them recently as others have said. Don't think it has full battery protection on these cheaper boards, with only one resistor & less chips, so will see if the unit or 18650 blows out...
However, very grateful to Clive for the tear down & listing the 3 power modes...
Mode #1 - 0/1100 mA with PIR
Mode #2 - 30/1100 mA with PIR
Mode #3 - 350 mA no PIR, (simply dusk to dawn operation)
Mode #2 is perhaps where most will use these lights with a run time of aprox 5hrs
(Depending how often the PIR triggers the main 1100mA flood/beam
Though as Clive suggests this may be pushing the LED's a bit too much)
As Clive suggested using small value resistor(s) on the positive wire from PCB to LED board...
I bought a few 10r value resistors to tone down the brightness a little too, plus one light was too sensitive, despite even taping the PIR sensor, some gas from a boiler flue was at times false triggering the PIR...
The black tape did dial down the sensitivity a bit but was still slightly prone to false triggering from the flue exhaust close by
(poor choice of location I know but wanted a subtle light there to begin with)
On Mode #3 - 350mA, where the light operates dusk~dawn @ 350 mA
Battery life will be shortened from the Mode #2 30 mA (5hrs)
So I was looking to effectively operate the light on Mode #3 but at reduced power
like Mode #2 offered in its 30 mA standby setting
The 10 Ohm resistor, fitted in line seems to offer something near 30 mA power
on dusk~dawn in Mode #3 like I was looking for to offer ambient lighting
but without false triggering from other PIR modes...
Other lights will be mounted elsewhere using the Mode #2 setting
(but wanted a light kept in that location for subtle lighting)
So a 10 ohm resistor worked perfectly in this instance as Clive suggested
(I tried a range of resistors, but 10 Ohm was perfect for what i needed)
A 10 Ohm dials down the main "flood" considerably but if using a number of lights on your property it avoids illuminating the area too much & shortening the lifespan of some cheap Chinese LED floodlights.
If a 10 Ohm resistor dulls the flood too much for your own situation, then you could use two resistors to make a 5 Ohm resistance & dial down the flood slightly less without being too blindingly bright when say putting the rubbish bins out for example.
So yeah, many thanks to Clive for the insight into these cheap lights, now about £14 for 4 of them on ebay, or £3:50, even with an odd dud/spare parts, say a fiver...
With a 10 ohm, or 2x10 ohm to make a 5 ohm resistor, to dial down the floodlight & extend the lifespan of the LED's. Maybe a small spread of silicone mastic to seal/water proof the unit, perhaps paint the components with something. Borrowing say the wife's clear nail varnish will offer some protection to the components - though will not offer you protection if she finds you have used it all up on silly LED lights.
Thanks once again to Clive, great video, amusing fun clips, a down to earth tear down wonderfully narrated too. The only thing puzzling me is wtf is there to dislike about this clip ??? How can people down vote such an informative video on these units, hmmm me thinks it might be the manufacturers disliking Clive informing others how to engineer them to extend the life of these LED's perhaps ???
Cheers again Clive & others taking the time to share & educate us more on these cheapo Chinese electronic devices
I mean, you could (re)build very simple models, using the QX5252F (a dedicated solar light controller in a TO-94 or SOT23 package.
I purchased these from Amazon. The first used to light whole night but later on this became faulty during summer and now waiting for some repairs. One gotten stolen. One of these is similar to the first one. Whose solar panel seems to have faded but it’s still working. The last pair is new and at home for emergencies use in case of light failure during night.
Thus I have two pieces of these 100 LED lights to work with to improve their performance. Which is why I searched and read this video with comments.
I appreciate your advice to take out one resistor so this can work longer than expected. About 12 Hours during winter.
I have tried to install better quality and capacity battery but it’s not accepting so I needed to reinstall the same capacity battery.
Now both lights are charging from Solar but their working time is greatly reduced. Maybe an hour or two maximum.
Living in farm with such rubbishy lights is never good. Hence I have some other type of lighting arrangements as well for my needs but I still have to look into these two lights. Some of the LED don’t want to glow, doesn’t matter how hard I want. Any help on what to do to those non lighting LEDs?
I am thankful to you for providing a great help in this regard.
It's worth mentioning that these lights can damage the lithium cells in winter by attempting to charge them while below zero celsius, when cells should not be charged.
Hmmmm. This seems to have been copied from some other nicely designed device, for trying to make and sell it cheaper. Though initially they seem very exciting but they are not long time companions. However with some modifications these can be worth spending. There’s another light available about which I am very excited. I am giving you link to give it a look.
Thanks for your message and thanks for great help in this regard.
Great work ! Thanh you from Bucharest -Romania ( subscribed 😀 )
Sorry for "Thanh" ! 😀 Thank You again Sir, for your work !!
I’ve been experimenting with outdoor solar lights for five years. They are incredibly simple and should be very easy to fix if it’s work it .
Symbol for a Schottky diode is a diode with the bar replaced with an elongated S made of lines that meet at right angles. If it matters. Then again in the USA, resistors are zigzag lines...
Of course, they’re zig-zag lines; that’s how they slow down the electrons! Doubt me? Try driving on a road that looks like that and see how fast you go without crashing or ending up going off the road! 🤣😆 There’s a reason behind the madness. 😏
Great video big Clive, thank you.
I've had a couple smaller versions of these. After a few months they'd fail to turn on but have a charged 18650 still. Not really sure if the sensor is failing or the switching transistor.
That's interesting. If there is still 3.3 volts, the FET probably died.
Check for corrosion. The PIR sensors are not properly sealed.
@@bigclivedotcom I have 2 very expensive battery chargers that have both failed in the same way, I would love to send them to you from Australia for you to have a look at if your interested? No one can figure out what’s wrong with them. Would make a great video even if you find out it’s not repairable. I will be more than happy to pay you if you can repair them also.. let me know if your interested
@@JimLahey21 What type of chargers are they and how have they failed?
@@bigclivedotcom They are cummins standby generator battery chargers, they do 12 and 24v, it’s going into fault and saying overload when it’s not connected to anything I opened it up and there’s nothing obvious that has blown etc? Google part number 0300-5878-01. Thanks
That battery cell is already $1-2 in bulk. Then you get a nice little solar cell, a battery charger, a PIR, and a 100 LEDs. that is quite a value.
Yes it is, sourcing the parts off of Ebay prepare to spend $4 for the solar cell, 2 dollars for the battery, $3 for an array of LEDs $5 for 5 battery protection circuits so thats $1 per cell, $0.10 for a diode.
I just got one of these that looks the same, but the board, marked YF-SF, only has the sensor, the switch, an unmarked 8-pin chip and a ? mosfet marked J3Y - no resistors or diodes or anything else that I can see. It was nice and bright for 2 days, now it only lights dimly for a few minutes, but it is only getting light from my kitchen windowsill. Am going to try and figure out if I can put a TP4056 in with it and add some extra solar
The pir security led light from lidl is pretty good lights our garden up well very bright and seems lo last a long time
Fantastic as always
Can you make it Spider proof.
Nothing can ever be truly spider proof.
Can you do a tear down of a solar flood lamp ?
I guess you could cover the whole thing in a sheet of adhesive film to make it water resistent
Or put it in a trash bag. It'll end up there eventually
I want to understand this better real bad. Circuit boards fascinate me.
Try having a look on Ebay for electronic kits. Simple ones with half a dozen or fewer components are good places to start working out what happens - and cost about £2 including carriage. Most will have a little circuit diagram with them.
Also worth looking for are free online electronic "intro and basic" courses. they will give you an understanding of the basics quite quickly and then you start to work out how and why the circuits work. www.instructables.com/class/Electronics-Class/
www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=electronics+kit&_sacat=0
R8 to the unused part of U3? Might be as stable reference, or prevent current spikes
I also wonder how long it will last... about 20 mins!! :-)
Just what I was looking for.
hi, we have new solar motion sensor security light, do you have any interesting to cooperate with us?
Ah, Big Clive loves to masticate.
Monetisation removed! ;)
Who doesn't? :)
I think clive posted this vid on the wrong site. He spends so long masticating.
Thank you so much for this guide! Is it possible to replace the solat panel with the same 5.5v solar panel but with higher current to charge the battery?
Yes. But make sure the battery has overvoltage protection.
Really good explanation
so 100 LEDs in parallel ?! OMG!
I put one of these up at the back of my house but it’s a white version instead; it’s been up for quite a while now and still works perfectly fine
6 months in and mine are still working absolutely fine. Great product
less then a week in, and I have to manually turn them on every night. I got two them with the same problem. Not happy!
@@Luc_Skywalker interesting, I bought a couple more a few weeks back and I'm experiencing the same issue you described. I'm thinking they might not be receiving enough light, I have not tried repositioning them yet, might get round to some time this week, I'll report back.
@@Luc_Skywalker same here that's why I'm researching what the hell happened to it
I have a few others like this,pretty much same circuits some use smaller batteries and I've been using them close to 2 years and they still work fine.
The factory might be located in Swords Dublin near to the Aer-Lingus Airport.
If the case allowed it (due to space limitations), I'd personally use a 26650 cell in there instead of an 18650 - that would give much longer run time and better current capability, especially if you used a decent cell. The cheapy 18650s like those don't really like more than 1A current.
Doing upgrades to the lithium cell (even a rectangular Li-Po might be able to go in) would result in the solar cell being the weak link, and needing an upgrade as well - otherwise the cells wouldn't ever get charged...
You could also put in 2 or maybe even three 18650s and use higher quality ones...
I bought a few of these in Thailand where I live they cost about £2.40 including delivery. There ok for what they are.
Thank you for your nice video!!
I have a dumb question: would it be possible to modify mode #3 from dim to full light? I have these lights in my terrace and they are set by default in mode #1 (ON only in case of movement). However, I also would like to have a good light source at night in the few occasions we stay outside for a longer time. Current dim mode #3 is too weak to read, for example. I also don't care much about the runtime, we don't expend the entire night outside anyway.
Thanks for you suggestions 😊
well, I finally gave up and installed an interruptor to bypass the MCU. Don't know how long it will take to blow the leds or the battery, but at least I have a steady "mode #1" to light up my terrace when we are staying outside during summer.
Nice video mate. Quick question. My solar security lights have three modes. When it comes on. 30 seconds when it detects motion. Ithe second mode is 20% all night and the third mode which I use which is 10% and if motion is detected it has 100% light but only for 30 seconds. My question to you is how can you increase the time the light comes on for? 30 seconds is way too short. I'd like two minutes. Cheers Graham
Unfortunately these units tend to have the delay implemented in software, which makes it hard to change without rewriting the whole system from scratch.
Isn't the voltage reference ruined by the leakage current from that diode?
corriente autorreductora 30mA. diy resistor iluminación 50 Ohm
I have this is actually quite good above the shed
Hello Clive, I have same issue with my 4 lights that are exactly the same on the outside. On the inside, the chip is slightly different and I have difficulties finding the resistor to remove. I can see I only have one Resistor (R750) if I am correct. Could I please send a picture? I do not want to throw them if there is a chance to fix them. They used to work though. Let me know, thank you very much!
Sweet video Big Clive
I'm interested in solar charging. I don't see how this protection device can disconnect the battery from the solar panel without also disconnecting it from the rest of the circuit, since it's in series with the battery. Am I missing something?
Question: Could a light like this be upgraded with a bigger cell and some additional components for a longer running life in case of a busy night? Also wondering if anyone has considered powering such lights of the 24volt circuit used for doorbells?
I added a big solar cell on top of mine and lowered the current of all the LEDs. It normally still runs in the morning and it's facing north.
I need to charge them 2 times during winter if it's really dark outside. For that, I added external charging terminals. Worked fine for several years now, because the batteries never run totally flat.
I don't want to run cables across the wall.
Any idea on how to make the light stays on a bit longer when movement is detected?
JBL speakers? I know they are high end, but I have two and would like to see how they work, especially because they are a bit wonky.
I took a small JBL speaker apart in a video.
@@bigclivedotcom The cylindrical ones. With subwoofers in both ends. They have a hefty battery, aswell.
Could you upgrade this by adding another solar panel and another battery to extend the life or brightness of the lights
Theoretically, yes you can upgrade units with cell protection.
I just got two of these on temu for $2.20 a piece, hope they work out well.
I have the same one. Any ideas how to add a button to leave the leds permanently on? Seems that the pir sends a digital signal and i can not simulate the signal to keep it on. Some help would br appreciatrd. Great video thx
What type of battery is it?
Hey Clive. How do I go about sending you stuff for future tear downs
Contact Clive at www.bigclive.com and ask for postal address.
Can you use nail varnish to make it more water resistant
On the PCB that can work.
@@bigclivedotcom thank you
My problem with these solar lights like the simpler ones, have a problem. I put one out over the summer and it got so hot it cooked the lion battery the Cip went, one knackered battery , a great idea but how do you keep the inside cool and water proof??
Is there a modification I can do to make it stay on longer when motion is detected in mode 1
It's often baked into the software.
I have a similar light which I was tampering with to add a manual switch so it is always turned on but had no success. The pir sensor maintains its voltage and probably sends a digital signal to the ic. Any ideas how to simulate the signal or where to add a switch (on your board for example)?
Btw, thx for the video.
Your switch could bridge the output transistor.
add a TP4056 and you can manually charge the battery if ever needed, i modified all of my solar lights to make that easier to do in times that sunlight is limited.
Works like a charm.
How did you do that? Connect the output of the TP4056 at the same solar wires?
@@javiercalero9596 from the TP4056's positive and negative battery pads connect a long enough positive and ground wire to the battery holders terminals of the solar light,, about 20AWG should do, for the power in of the TP4056 have a long enough wire to suit your needs, then solder a USB A cable's positive and ground wire to it. Then all u would need is a USB power source to charge the battery when needed.
The TP4056 Should be in the unit itself then just drill a hole in the backplate of the light for the wiring to go through. You can use 18 gauge wire if you want to lessen the voltage drop when charging, but 20 should do just fine, depending on how long the wire will be.
Hope this helps
Also, doing it as u assumed would not be good for it because the power out of the TP4056 can only provide battery level voltage, so 3.7-4.20, so its best to just have it the way i described so that the power/voltage the light itself uses isnt affected by the TP4056.
Oh also, connecting it that way the battery wouldnt have protection so it would be possible to overcharge it, which is why u want the TP4056 to handle charge and protect.
As an additional idea for you, i have the porch solar light connected to a USB charger that is plugged into a smart socket that i can turn on/off with Alexa. I currently have it set on a schedule so the charger turns on for an hour and a half every day then turns off.. The light is under an overhang so it never gets much sun.
@@DigitalIP great post. Thank you. I will try, i hope we dont get explode :-)
@@javiercalero9596 lol, its very easy to do.. Just remove the battery from the holder before you do any soldering to be safe.
Any solar light that uses 18650's can be modified this way. You can even modify the light to be a small USB power bank for one use or another.
Non techie here. When replacing the battery is it as simple as finding any 18650 or should it be the purple covered one.
There are a wide range of 18650s with different specs and I would like to be ready with replacement batteries for when the time comes. Thanks for this video and any help.
Most of the cells used in these are standard 18650 cells. Don't go too expensive as a low capacity one is usually fine.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks 👍
You need to get one of the old halogen style worklights to use for testing solar panels. LED just does not work.
I find placing a small 250w unit at appropriate distance simulates sunlight quite well.
My Maxeon cells (wide spectrum solar cells) generates their rated current in such a situation matching good full sunlight while even my 200w led at point blank only gives me a fraction.
Otherwise, keep the videos coming! Enjoying them a lot!
Really? That's weird. Most bench LEDs can put out ~6500K light (tho I know Clive prefers the warm-white). Do you know what temp your LEDs were? I'd think the warn-white ones (~2500-3500K) would be shit for solar cells but I'd expect ~5500-6500K ones to fare much better.
Looked inside one today, and it only had 2 x NPN Tranistors and a Resistor (100 Ohm) + MCU + PIR + 100 LED + Solar Panel + Switch + Battery. Pin on MCU (7) powers PIR. One transistor switches the LEDs, the other controls battery charging. White Plastic case.
Opened another today, different again. 1 Mosfet (A2SHB) 2 resistors (1 for mosfet gate discharge, 1 to limit LED current, 1 capacitor (smoothing) and 1 diode (to prevent discharge through solar panel). Also the PIR sensor in these units is just a regular re200b type. They must use on board ADC to read the 20mV pulse (peak to peak). Black Plastic case , elongated mounting slots.
Přesně tento typ se mi porouchal - nereaguje na pohyb ani přepínač, baterie je dobitá a solární panel dodává cca 5V. Na opravu potřebuji znát označení MCU a PIR - poradíte?
@@karlvonbanhof2723 PIR = re200b MCU = Chinese ASIC (e.g. mx8098h). Suggest hacking in an ATTiny85 + AM312 (e.g. See: th-cam.com/video/pMx2BsaKWUA/w-d-xo.html)
Moc děkuji, součástky objednám, a až mi tyto součástky doručí, včetně tranzistorů SS8050-J3Y, tak se pokusím světlo opravit. Pak dám vědět. Přeji pěkný den.
for a while i've noticed that although they say items come from china, i've been receiving them from places like malaysia, laos, kyrgyzstan, and other random places. im guessing its somehow even cheaper to send from those places then it is from china, as dirt cheap as it already is. it usually takes longer from those places, too, which is annoying.
I've mostly given up on Ebay for these sorts of things. Instead, I order from places like Banggood, pay a bit more for Canada direct shipping, and I get most everything in 10 days to 2 weeks. Ebay? 2 *months*+. Prices are slightly higher on commerce sites like Bang, but I can't stand waiting for 2-3 months.
@@TheJohn8765 Order from Aliexpress and you will get them cheaper and with free shipping. Banggood is just a dropshipping site for Aliexpress. Even on Aliexpress there are the manufacturers and then export companies so by the time it is listed on banggood 3-4 companies are taking a cut. I spent close to 2k on Aliexpress a few months ago but it would have cost me 4-5k buying the same stuff on amazon or ebay.
@@excitedbox5705 Aliexpress doesn't use Paypal. I'm not sure if that's good or bad!
China has been using other countries as a go-between for China-to-US transactions. It's a rather clever way for them to bypass the tariffs. :-)
I bought 5 of these outdoor solar lights. I did set all of them on the "shut off/full power light if movement is detected", but one of these lights, after about 1 hour, turn itself to the "constant medium power light, no matter if movement is detected". What could I do to make this "rascal" light work like her sisters? Thank you in advance.
Do you think a pir would keep false triggering if you had one of those plug in heating air fresheners?
Only if it would move.
Those PIR sensors only detect moving changes in temperature.
Or else, every PIR sensor would get triggered by sunlight, radiators, incandescent lights, ...
@@kpanic23 I wondered about rising heat or any sort of temperature control, I'll try it
@@phonotical Trust me, I had a PIR sensor installed in my bathroom. Quite frankly, it's terribly inconvenient. If you just have to take a leak, the lights stay on for 5 minutes after, needlessly consuming power.
But if you have a little more pressing business to attend to, after 5 minutes the lights go out and you have to wave your arms like a maniac to get the lights back on.
Even worse, if you take a shower, all the PIR sensor "sees" is the "warm block" of the shower curtain. Bouncing up and down in the shower doesn't help. So when the lights go out, you actually have to stick your arm out of the shower curtain and wave frantically at the sensor.
Needless to say: I changed it back to a regular light switch after a couple of months. Way too much hassle...
@@kpanic23 I was thinking of getting exactly that, then I thought about microwave sensors, but my lights randomly going on at night would probably be freaky
Is it possible to swap it's small solar panel with a 5v large panel with extended wires. I am planning to put the panels in the roof and run the wires to the circuit inside the garage. Will this type of swapping of solar panels be suitable for such circuit? Thanks in advance...
It usually is possible, but don't use one that's too big as the charge current often has no regulation.
Ok. Solar panel max 6v 3w
got a version of these but it has a 400mah lithium cell with no protection, only the microcontroller and one fet
Awesome video! I'm using one for a project, how would you make it work regardless of voltage coming from the solar panel? (During the day)
Disregard, mine was using a signal to the controller straight from the positive side of the panel across a single resistor. Removed the resistor and Bingo! Works day or night now😜
Hm, so, the protection circuit just shunts the positive (via the sense resistor) to the ground when there's overvoltage? I reckon that works great as long as the solar cell is weak enough not to overcome that.
Oh, no, actually, nope, now I get it, it passes the current only in one direction when in overcharge condition and the other way when in overdischarge condition. I've never looked into these.
They usually have two mosfets internally to control charge and discharge, and also measure the voltage across the MOSFETs to detect overcurrent.
Hello , is it possible to bypass thar motion sensor? To stays always on at maximum during the night. Thanks
It wouldn't last long at full output.
@@bigclivedotcom even if i add 1 or 2 extra batteries?
Does it seem odd to you that these little lights never include any kind of temperature sensor to prevent charging when the temperature is below freezing? I have a few of these, and if the protection chip is based off of the TP4056, pin 1 is literally there to enable temperature controlled charging cutoff, but it's almost always just connected to ground instead of a thermistor.
They probably rely on the available sunlight for charging current being very low when it's cold.
@@bigclivedotcom yeah, probably. Still not great though.where I live, we get sunny days in the winter where it doesn't get above freezing.I know these are cheap gadgets, but I'm tempted to try to desolder that pin, and insert a thermistor lead.
Love you Clive!
My brother put 2 of these up today for my birthday. When we took it out of the box, put our hands on top and pressed the tiny power button it did not turn on. Did I get a dud? How long does it need to charge before it works?
Make sure it's switched on if there's a slide switch and leave it in bright light for a day.
Clive, any particular reason you use a manual ranging multimeter?
I like the large display on this unit.
He also has an auto-ranging unit
It does look a little cheesey...
However you can put this and other similar lights in a zip lock bag before mounting, to water proof them...
*ask me how I know...
😉👍
AWESOME VIDEO!
BIG CLIVE...
Blessings: James
I've done that with outdoor battery packs. I leave the bottom open to allow ventilation or use a silica gel desiccant pack to keep them dry inside. The PIR sensors can see through thin polythene.
Nice I need about 3 of them.
I would not recommend these light got 8 in july now 3 partly working 4 die completely 1 flash then die
@@jetli740 thanks for heads up grasshopper
how much time is the backup?
It depends on sun exposure.
Hi, is it possible to avoid light sensor? To make it work even over the day? I thought of making an alarm system by hijacking it's motion detector sensor.
Or to put it straight, how can I disable the microcontroller to know the light level by checking the voltage from the solar panel.
Many of these devices detect the light level by monitoring the output of the solar panel. You'd need to find that track that does that and disconnect it or tie it to the negative rail of the microcontroller.
@@bigclivedotcom OK, thank you for your answer. One more question. Do PIR detect motion all the day long regardless if it's day or night? Maybe I could use it's detection as a trigger. I am aiming to connect two wires when motion is detected to an old phone's fast dial, and make it able to call me when it detects the motion.
Can you take down a “ring” device please.
Clive is too cheap for that.
A D if the was a 25p land he would be there!
Is that possibility to read IC controller software or what it is ? I have more valuable light and in pone that microcontroller just blown. So i wanted to keep functionality so need to program new controler, have more working ones so i am able to check next one but they are able to read chip and program new one?
Unknown microcontroller.
Is it possible for this model to setup day off light mode? So far my lamp reacting on the motion day and night.
It's usually turned off by detecting light on the solar panel.
I have two items working well (sometimes !). Theu have a malfunction because, in the night , light on even if there are nobody in front of them. Do you have any ideas to fix them ? This problem is related to both. Could MPU be a dual 8 pin op amp (LM2904 like) ? Best regards
Lm393?
I try to measure with the same configure schematic board MCU supplyed "662k" regulator out 2.5volt not 3.3v
Because it is a 18650 cell would I be wrong in thinking, This light is not suitable for the cold Canadian weather during the winter months?
I bought one of similar construction and she still works down to -24°F
So do you advise buying it or leave it?
The quality varies widely between many similar looking units. Some have no lithium battery protection and do explode!
The solar cells are always too small to charge the light. That destroys the batteries very fast.
destroys?
@@kennmossman8701 It makes them cycle at their lower end of state of charge (2.4 - 3v) which isn't good for them and shortens their life. Li-Ion cells last best when used between 3.4 - 4.1v.
@@Shaun.Stephens quite right. too damn early here (HKT)! Need more coffee! Still destroy is a bit strong....how about affects, diminishes, weakens, .......................
Just buy 20 of these (£2.80 ish each) be intresting what they look like inside (see if they are the same), could I just attach a heatsink to the 2 chips that is getting hot if it is still the same
If I remember correctly it was the resistors getting hot? They should be fine.
@@bigclivedotcom unfortunately the lights that arrived have zero battery protection as I left 2 of them on and it went all the way down to 2.30v and started going off and on at 2.4v if modes 1/2 used so I assume the IR module has insufficient power its retriggering , mode 3 for constant dim just got dimmer the lower the battery voltage is
It just has 2 chips, IR module and a button,, I have ordered a pack of 1s 18650 BMS battery protection so it cuts off at 2.5v and 4.0v
only issue with using bms if it does attempt to overcharge the battery and the bms cuts off the power from the microcontroller feeding the battery unsure if it will destroy the micro controller when the bms cuts off charging current (as the solar voltage might go quite high when bms is not accepting voltage anymore and kill it guess I find that out in summer, or leave one if them under a light see what happens )
Also what sealant should I use, as the sides of the panel are not fully flush so water is going to enter the units if not sealed, they also allows water to collect and stay behind the panel (was thinking of using silicone sealant or somthing els that's whether resistant along the edges that bonds well but not over the panel it self to prevent water ingress, some of these are going to be installed in not easy to access locations)
I wasn't really expecting a response (UK person here) do you have Discord or other place as posting pictures (links) tends to get automodded/deleted now
My solar light stays on, and Fresnel lens broke. Any help?, thanks in advance.
It sounds like water has got into it and caused corrosion.
May I ask what are the dimensions of the 3M double sided tape? Thank you in advance.
Thank you.
Is it a garden light? Or more for perimeter / security lighting?
Mainly just finding your way up a path at night, but can also double as a security light,.