Extending the run-time of a solar garden light.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ย. 2015
- In countries like the UK where we have a lower than average amount of sunlight (mainly due to cloud coverage), the performance of solar garden lights tends to be optimised for the lower light exposure.
Some lights tend to run at higher current though, and while being brighter they don't last long at all when it gets dark.
Most of these lights use a dedicated chip for complete control including charging, light sensing and driving the LED from a lower voltage cell by stepping the voltage up with a pulsed inductor.
By changing the value of the inductor you can change the current and intensity of the LED. Strangely, increasing the inductor vlaue reduces the current. So a 47uH inductor will make the LED bright, while a 470uH inductor will make it run at much lower current.
The dollar-store lights tend to use a 470uH inductor so they can skimp on the size of the solar cell and battery.
In this video I change the inductor in a light to reduce the LED current and get a longer run-time at night.
Datasheet for the XD 5252F chip in the rather unusual form of a JPG image.
www.xingdong-et.com/wp-content...
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Hats off for your gripping technique when soldering... I assume it's essential in your job.
One thing to look out for is that the high frequency parts of these circuits are fairly sensitive to wire length. I was looking into getting a stable DC out of one of these lights by adding a schottky diode and a capacitor instead of the LED so i bodged them in using 10cm of wires. No go, almost no voltage at all. Bodged the diode and capacitor directly to the LED pads and it worked perfectly.
Hello ... I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your GREAT tutorial/autopsies.
You seem to answer all the questions that pop into my head over the week.
I especially like your easy-going attitude and voice.
It is a pleasure to watch each of your videos.
Appreciatively, dave & family in austin, texas!!
"It started out harmlessly with solar lights and now it's gone in to profanity and sort of elements of racism... but that's alright." -Big Clive, 2015
I never would have thought of that, maybe the resistor is what I was thinking but no, the inductor. That's genius. Clive, you're the man.
hello from Australia Big Clive, I always remember the colour code by bad beer rots our young guts but vodka goes well :)
Love your videos bro! Very informative and enjoyable to watch.
Hi Clive, and thanks for the very interesting mod! The datasheet's interesting too, and as mentioned by others, the use of an external inductor to assist in voltage boost (at the expense of LED current) is interesting. My Wife (Australian by birth) was listening in to the start of this clip, and commented "do they even have ANY sunshine "up there" ?? ( ;-D ). Best regards from Down Under as always!
Haha, I was taught the resistor colour code 'rude' version at college, and I can never forget it. I have to be careful if I'm working not to say it out loud :-)
I do like the way you refer to the solder as 'Lead based solder'......still the best solder!
best one is "bad boys ravage our young girls but violet goes willingly" it works but it is a dirty acronym for resistor color codes...but whatever helps us remember it works. colors in series...black brown red orange yellow green blue violet gold white (or silver) :)
Excellent video...I used a socket on mine re experimenting with different value inductors :)
Well I've always wanted to learn the color band codes and have even tried a few times. Now I know them forever. That mnemonic will be difficult to forget. When I was in college a professor taught the class a memory skill that works by associating drastically obscene, fantastic, out-of-instance, or non-sequiter imagess with the memory to be stored. So if for instance I wanted to remember a telephone number, or even a name - I could, for instance, create a visual snapshot in my mind of something ludicrous. Like - an accident on the corner of 1st and Mary street where Mary is the name I want to remember and the 1 is the first digit of her number - there on a huge billboard with purple and pink polka dots is the rest of her number all overlooking the horrible accident in the intersection with a elephant and a semi truck. Once I have all that imagery fully filled in with all the details I won't forget it. In fact, just conjuring this example will cause me to recall it years from now. Mary's phone number starting with 1 is permanent.
Gotta love that lead based goodness!
Hi.We have 6 sets of string solar lights. Spent £6 and baught 6 solar lights and doubled up the aa batt and two solar cells per set.Now stay on till early morning in winter.There is space for another Aa inside the units..ODD
Nice project, more for less what a bargain. When I was at school we leaned the tangent rule in a similar way ( Silly old Hitler caught a hare treading on apples ). I did not know about inductors disguising themselves like resistors l will be weary of these little beasties in the future, many thanks Clive for the entertaining programs.
The reason for the current droping when increasing the inductor is, that the driver chip "charges" the inductor for a fixed amount of time each cycle. The smaller the inductor the less current will build up in that time. Now you might say, the bigger inductor holds more energy with the same current, but remember, the energy inside the inductor is calculated as ½*L*I² . The current is squared and therefore "overpowers" the increased inductance.
Depending on the type of driver it might wait after "charging" for the inductor to run out or it might wait just long enough for it to be "empty". In both cases the next charging cycle starts again from zero and is therefore governed by the same law.
beautiful technique
You can directly drive little transformers from small CCFL lights on those chips. I have used them to run little neon lights from a single AA.
Enjoy this new knowledge of tinkering.
I found that 100 uH was a good all around value for these circuits. I bought a few dozen 100 uH 10% chokes from an online guy and I measured them at 75 to 80 uH with two different meters. I emailed the guy and I sent them back and he refunded the $$. He also measured them at too low a value with more than one meter, so he had no explanation for the out of tolerance issue. This isn't the first time I've had this problem.
So I gave up on RF chokes for this circuit and started buying the Fair-Rite 594300(something) 3/8 inch or 9mm ferrite toroid cores for 12 cents apiece and winding a 6 inch or so piece of wire on them to make any value of choke that I need. They're lower resistance so have less I squared R losses than an RF choke - every loss takes away from the brightness of the LEDs. I'm much more satisfied by the results. Every electronics tech or hobbyist should have a few dozen ferrite toroid cores in his parts stock to quickly wind a needed value of inductance. The cores can be from .25 inch or 6mm up to more than 1 inch or 25 mm but larger sizes get expensive. You can get them already wound, of course. A good source for small ones were the CFL lights.
I remembered the resistor color code very easily, because it was very similar to the "spectrum of white Light" I Remembered at school. Red orange yellow green blue indigo voilet....😂😂😂😂
I hacked some very similar solarlights by switching to a larger cell - has been working well
Maybe the 47 plus the 91 in series? That should be around the 20 mA mark, and might be closer to what you want without breaking the bank.
A higher inductor value giving a lower current is nothing strange at all, just physics. ;) Keeping everything else the same it takes the inductor with the higher value longer to get "charged" to the same current (simple linear relation between time constant and inductance). If the controller doesn't do any current monitoring, but has a fixed dutycylce and period, the average current is inversely proportional to the inductance. (if you multiply the current and inductor values in the datasheet you'll see they all come to almost the same number, except for the very high current one where other losses reduce the number).
I've been doing electronics since childhood and picked up the color values then. The may not be in the same order as most crayon sets were coming in, but I still felt the resistor colors had a "natural" order, which made it easy to remember without any rude rymes. But you're right, the grey and the white rings were always the odd ones that rarely appeared. I could only remember that grey was "8", because white wasn't, because it appeared on the E-series "39..." values. ;)
Knowing the color values by heart is very useful outside of electronics. If I want to number stuff where it's hard to write a clear number on, I just mark them with colored permanent markers. Luckily most sets come in exactly the colors for 0-7 and I almost never come to grey and white anyway (again?). And on dark stuff, where the colored markers wouldn't be visible, I use a white permanent marker as "foundation". It seems to have a completely different solvent in it, so painting over with other markers won't mess up their tip.
Do you have any more of those phrases/word association things? They really help. I still remember a all the ones from my childhood. EGBDF, OQHERSA, MVEMJSUNP ect
Would you get better runtime and efficiency if you ran the leds in 2 series 3 parallel and kept the initial inductor similar one of your other garden light videos?
Others tinkering with 5252f suggest better performance if you run a diode and small ceramic cap on the output. Would this also help?
Very old, I know but I was thinking you could have added the other/original small inductor in series to give a few more uH and lessen the current just a tad more, yes? And/or, any inkling at this late time how the light made out longevity-wise?
Wow no comments on this video? That was very informative and useful. Just one question. Did it give you the runtime you needed or did you find a different inductor?
I always put in a decent capacity AA removing the rubbish one fitted but is there a way of installing 2 AA batteries so it lasts longer between decent bright days ?
I realise the output from the solar panel is small but in the summer nights are short but it seems with the low capacity batteries these things come with one dull day and they don't light up the next night!
PS the best solar lamp i have found so far is the poundland £5 one with the remote solar panel thats has a movement sensor the 3 batteries mean its never failed to come on even in the middle of winter !
A better way of making the thing last longer, seeing as though that looks to be a standard AA or AAA battery, is to change the cell for one with higher capacity. They are usually supplied with either 600mAh (AA) or 300mAh (AAA) cells, which are completely useless - so I stick something in with at least 1000mAh (preferably 1500mAh+), or the nearest equivalent AAA capacity (700mAh).
Thankfully, I can get Ni-MH batteries more cheaply than inductors (I get all of my batteries, including Ni-MH, for free).
EXACTLY. What he's doing here is interesting and clever, but really, all it's doing is trading off brightness performance for time.
I was having a similar thought with these led lights that run on 2AA and 3AA batteries, I was thinking of having the running on maybe C or D cells... What do you think?
OMG I love those things, I am always buying them from Dollar Tree and I usually buy every single one in the store too lol. I reuse the solar panels in them. I take and remount and wire them in a dollar store picture frame and make little 12 volt panels that generate a decent amount amp to charge a SLA battery or something.
They also carry a Ni-CAD or Ni-MH AA or AAA rechargeable battery which is very useful to me.
+ElfNet Gaming You simply can't buy the parts separately for the cost of the complete light.
Oh I know lol thats why I buy the whole light from the dollar store
Billy brown, whaaaa?
You said it too fast for me to break the words apart. As to say your words ran together on my end, brother.
you are fun great job and ty
Clive I use a couple of solar landscape high output lights around the house, they're good until about 1 am. I was thinking about adding 2 equal value batteries to the other 2 it uses in parallel to extend the time it's lit. do you think based on the solar input that would increase my time?
Top tips 👍
Time you made an alligator clip attached to a length of stiff copper wire.
Then attach the copper wire to a heavy metal block, lead would be ideal.
This clip then can hold components or small PC boards for soldering.
Tinning leads or components will be so much easier.
BTW I also use a small red rubber bulb (Jaycar) for removing solder, it has a white plastic tip.
Can you add a capacitor to change the frequency of the 'charge pump' circuit?
Will it change the current instead of changing the inductor?
I once made an micro Henry add-on for my multimeter when I made spy bugs.
Clive, how do you find the light output level of those white solar lights? Do they put out a reasonable amount of light?
Sometimes I get a bit confused watching all these UTube videos. Saw one the other day that said inductors were pretty much usless in a direct current circuits, then another video shows a cheap china light that uses an inductor as a fuse in an AC light, and here you have your circuit controled by an inductor. Makes a mans head spin a bit. About 4 months ago, I found myself in need of an inductor of a certain size, and looking in my parts bin revieled I had nothing in that range to even try. So I retired to Ebay and found that inductors, like resistors are available in "kits" ranging from very small to large. So I placed my order, and somehow ended up with a double order (double clicked, where I should have single clicked or something like that!) so now I have a plentyful supply of solid state inductors. A couple of weeks back I received an order from Bangoods that had a pack of 50 1 watt LEDS, I needed a couple for a porject, but you know how that goes, one is a price, but you can get 50 for a buck more, so why not right? So here I sat with 50 1 watt LED's so for shits and giggles, I took a piece of circuit board and built up with 9 of these little gems. My thoughts, well I have a lot of 9 volt rechargable batterys, and 9 watts on 9 volts, why that looks like it should work right? NOT things got very hot very quickly so I began inserting resistors, begining high and dropping low, but all of them became very hot, very fast. Then it dawned on me, I have this big bag of inductors, why not give one of them a try. I picked a rather large (in physical size) one and inserted it in the main power line, much like the fuses in the cheap china LED lights. Sure enough, now the light is extremely bright, lighting an entire room if needed, some what dimly but bright enough so one would not step on a cat, or inadvertantly kick the coffee table, quite usefull in this era of power cuts and huge thunderstorms that love to blow the power structure in the warm months, and ice storms in the winter! I have not given it an indurance test, but things stay cool enough to the touch, and the wife says it is blinding her if I aim it anywhere near where she sits, pearched on her recliner watching the idiot box, while I watch you on UTube listening through an adapter that runs the sound through my blue tooth enabled hearing aides.
The inductor is in an ac circuit here.
Regarding the fading that dulls the light entering: on eBay I simply bought a stack of Glass petri dishes.
All you do is prise off the original plastic dome, and affix a petri dish over the cell and silicon it on.
This eliminates the 'fading over time' plastic dome problem, but the most important consideration when initially purchasing the solar light is to only buy one that has the Cell made of glass, and Not the epoxy one (easily distiguished by the shiny glass surface, versus the uneven surface of an epoxy covered cell).
However if all else fails, using toothpaste and a cloth can eliminate the haziness (yellow) of an epoxy surface...
tifino Rubbing compound works better than toothpaste. It's fast and easy by hand.
there are also spray on automotive UV A/B protectants and cleaners which will stop the yellowing for a couple of years between applications.
One other super easy way to increase the run time is to glue a piece of ferrite material parallel onto the inductor modestly increasing its value. :)
as AVE would say DEEEEEEEEEEEmonitized :D Either way i still love your videos.
How would adding another battery(bigger)work. And yes I would learn very little about inductors which I do appreciate very much.
adding more batteries would not work, i had the same thought at first but i just realised why it would not help. the problem here is not that the battery does not have enough capacity, the problem is that the solar panel does not charge the battery far enough. so the only two options are changing the solar panel (alot of work) or changing the amount of power the LED uses (much easier) thats why clive did what he did
I wonder if you have tried soldering irons with integrated sucking bulbs instead of using desoldering braid. I find these really convenient.
+rchandraonline I have a full automatic desoldering gun, but only use it for the really stubborn situations.
Clive, did you try to install your "Joule thief" and put the LED's in series?
the resistor colour code i learnt from college was bye bye rosie off you go bristol via great western.
Hi, I have various Chinese solar garden lights that use a single 5mm LED or 3 of them wired in parallel. Drew the circuit schematics for all of them and noticed that every 4-pin IC has different markings and connections going to LED, battery and PV are wired on different terminals of 4-pin ICs. For example, all 3 of the single 5mm LED lamps have these ICs: F1 4U704, JR 8618 0442, and HW012 0386, while on the 3 LED one it's only printed "24088". However, I couldn't find any specs of the aforementioned chips for some reason, and since I want to upgrade some of these to a brighter, 1W LED setup, my question is: what do the prime differences between these ICs affect to (i.e. max. allowed input voltage / load current)?? I looked the datasheet of QX5252, and its min op. current is 3-300 mA, which is acceptable for a 1W warm white LED, assuming it won't operate on full brightness.
You can generally increase the output current to a degree by using a lower value inductor.
could you do a tutorial on running about 10-15 solar lights off a larger battery which has a dedicated solar cell which could be attached to maybe a shed roof? one problem with solar these days is a) they aint bright enough b) don't last long enough
Yes, I've been thinking of a similar plan, maybe driving four wired stations with two LEDs each, large enough panel to charge a decent battery in partial shade.
One other thing you can do that will improve overall performance is get rid of the Chinese NiCd and replace it will a quality brand name battery.
had you tried to add a 2 microfarad capacitor parallel with the resistor
I also would throw away the NiMh or NiCd and put an Eneloop in it, lower self discharge rate means longer on-time for the LEDs.
I just remember it's black, brown, rainbow, gray and white. And black, gray and white also make sense in terms of light, so it's just the brown that's completely random.
Hmm, green "resistors" are inductors, that's something they never taught in school, and is probably why that UPS went bang after I thought I'd repaired it...
It's always easier to remember rude things, it's the shock and awe effect... :P
Can you use the Joule Thief circuit to get the most out of a solar LED lamp? seems like a perfect combo...
Most solar garden lights already use a Joule style booster so they can use a single 1.2V cell and smaller panel. But it's a more sophisticated chip that controls the switching on of the light be sensing the daylight via the solar panel and also cuts off if the cell voltage drops below about 1V.
P= IXE so if you lower the current by raising the resistance you lower the power assuming the voltage stays the same and vise versa.
Hi, can you do an updated version using those small li-ion from single use vape? It will be nice. Br
But doesn't increasing the inductance also increase the back EMF that provides the pulsed voltage supplied to the LEDs? And if that's too high, isn't that a problem? Where is that extra voltage dropped? By decreasing the current, voltage increases, so power dissipation stays the same, right? Can you tell me what I'm misunderstanding please?
I think if it was me I would have just worked one end to save all that work!!
QX5252F Formula to find current for a given inductor.
=(((2*Vin)/L)*0.000001815)/Vin
For example, a Vin of 1.3V and an inductor of 82uH yields ~44mA
This tracks closely with the QX5252F Specification
I just used a .2 Watt solar panel and a 1500mah battery and put in a 20 ma led at 20,000 mcd. The inductor is about 150 to 160 uh.
Hello Clive, could you please post a link to that LED solarlight controller chip datasheet? Id like to see their table of different inductance's and current output
+Dana Vixen Hi. I've added it to the description above, but here's a direct link to it as a JPG image.
www.xingdong-et.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/TO-94-XD-5252F-1.jpg
+bigclivedotcom You could just put the 91uf and 47uf inductors in series
bigclivedotcom 0
Can you link to the datasheet/image as this looks an interesting IC.
Easily available too!
+PIXscotland www.xingdong-et.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/TO-94-XD-5252F-1.jpg
@@bigclivedotcom I will say thankyou for PIXschotland; I consider it so rude to ask for something and not even say thank you when you receive what you asked for. So, thank you, Big Clive, thanks for alls your great content and for your kindness. We need kindness.
The bigger the inductance the slower the current will rise over time.
If you put 1v on a 1 henry coil the current would rise at 1 a per second, a 10 henry choke would only be 100ma per second.
It looks like this chip has a fixed on charging time for the inductor, therefore the overall current into the led depends on the inductance of the coil.
Inductors in parallel generally isnt a good idea however this isnt a life support machine, the only thing to make sure is that the dc current of the inductor is at leas twice that on the drain on the batteries.
"Inductors in parallel generally isn't a good idea " How come? Would they be ok if you kept them at a good distance apart or can they do other unexpected things like oscillate?
Maybe not so much oscillate, but oscillations may be a problem, parasitics will be increased, causing ringing, this happens anyway due to stray inductance and capacitance, however multiple inductors will increase both these factors.
What if you replace the rechargeable battery with the Super/Ultracapacitors? Will it increase the life of the garden light?
Unfortunately you need one that is too big physically to fit to get even close to the run time off a battery.
Nice
if our local dollar tree has these lights for a dollar I would take them for their batteries and LED's! I wish Dollar Tree in USA had these but it seems they don't . They'd be nice for a source of cheap 1.5v NiMH AA batteries and little solar panels that work! I wish they had these here for a dollar...
I have a question. Can one put the QX5252F solar joule thief in series so that one can use 7 of them on a 25 watt 18 volt solar panel? (calculated 7.2 of them if it is 2.5 volts solar panels they originally use).
With 7 separate 1.2v batteries and leds separate, and also same value of the led and inductors, with the only common is the larger solar panel :)
It could be useful, then i could use my 25w solar panel for 7 joule thiefs that light up my appartment at evening or the whole night perhaps with 330 value inductor, before i need to use the larger solar panels with DC-DC converters that at wintertime gets empty when it is darker.
If you dont have anything to do some day then test two systems with a 5 volt PSU or solar panel for example :)
And if the QX5252F or the similar YX8052F cant do it then can the original joule thief do it? :)
Another thing i would like to know is if one use a led on normal 3 volt with a PWM pulse generator on lets say 50% pulse width or even overvolt it 50% 6 volt, does it light as bright to the eyes with half the power used compared to a led that goes on half or full voltage?
In other words is it possible to trick the eyes into thinking this was bright with less power used?
I don't think you could easily use them in series like that as they will all be switching out of sync and could be damaged. The 18V from your panel could be converted to 5V with a car/truck 12-24V USB charger to top up some power banks that could then provide illumination at night with spotlights, built in lights or even strings of USB lights.
Yes, i was thinking of that it might be some unbalance in a 7 joule thief project like that, it probably wont work, but could be fun to see if it does too :)
Good idea to use those car cigarette adapters, they are perhaps more designed for putting 5 volt out than the red board XL6009 double coil buck boost converter i just used, it did burn two of my 6x 18650 usb battery bank controller chips when i pluged them in.
Strange thing is i has a blue board same XL6009 that has been ok for years to charge usb power banks and mobile.
I wonder why that red board version suddenly shows 7.5 volt and 6.4 volts and what i did adjust it to on a laptop psu, the 5.02 volt.
It seems to be random unreliable.
And thats why i did think of a joule thief instead to use on those 25watt smaller solar panels, becourse i just need some extra light in the evening.
The blue ones run fine on a 80watt solar panel and another one with 60+20 watts solar panels.
The solar panels are behind home windows so they are likely prevented from getting alot of light that way i has ben told, but thats what one gets when living in a apartment, not so much possibilities here :)
i did just buy some or those car/truck 12-24V USB charger.
I hope they will work, they has 3 usb plugs, these ones.
They seems to put out 3 different amperes.
www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Universal-12V-24V-3Port-USB-DC-Charger-Adapter-For-iPhone-Smart-Mobile-Phone/273424185604?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=572808008005&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
Or is the 1 plug or 2 plug version better? (regarding using less electricity).
Oh well, i did just now buy 3 different versions so i will see for myself :)
Hello i am trying to experiment but the datasheet is no longer available, can you host a photo of the datasheet please ?
Why not add a cell in parallel? Also I found best results using 33mh
How much does this change the charge time needed for the battery? The same inductor is used for charging as it is for the led driving.
+nyetloki The NiMh cell is charged directly from the solar cell via a diode. It will charge normally.
in Navy electronics school. we were taught.. Bad Boys Rape Young Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls. learned that over 20 years ago, strange how its easy to remember.
bad beer rots our young guts but vodka goes willingly
So I will gladly admit that I don’t know 1/10th about batteries, electricity, etc... as you. I do however have a question. I recently purchased some solar pathway lights that hold a 14430 battery with a 250 mah rating. I have 2 problems though: 1. The lights are in an area that only receives a few hours of sunlight a day due to shade trees overhead. 2. The lights do not stay lit very long at all. My question is- will replacing the batteries with something rated at a higher mAh help my situation at all?
The main limiting factor is probably the amount of charge put into the lithium cell from the solar panel. Relocation and aiming at the path of the sun may improve things. For best results the solar panel should have unblocked exposure to that part of the the sky.
10:01 ohhh that was close D:
I have yet to look up inductors, they look like a resistor but what functions are they used for do they resist or conduct ? yes im new to doing electronics i have don just about anything done with leds and 555 and custom pick programing and use but haven't played with these yet.
+gigabytex64 They don't always look like a resistor, but one of the most convenient PCB mounting versions does. They're basically a magnetic coil. Although they have a resistance they are actually measured in inductance (usually microHenries). their main tasks are blocking high frequency electrical noise, boosting voltages or forming part of an oscillator.
+bigclivedotcom Thanks I just built a Lab power supply it may pay for me to look into these for the future. Thanks
nice
So the inductor limits the amount of power that the leds can use,thus extending the run time of the light. would a resistor do the same thing or does the resistor use the same amount of power but regulates how much the led gets. Does that sound right?
+scott firman The inductor forms part of the boost converter that steps up the voltage. It's more efficient to change the inductor than add a resistor.
What is the difference between an " inductor " and a " resistor " ?
a resistor resists current while a inductor is a coil
One inducts, the other resists
@@retrogamer33 that's very helpful. Thank you.
Could one just remove a few LEDs from it to increase the run time?
No, the other leds will just use the extra that becomes available unless you put for example two leds in series.
(Suprised clive didn't use this approach as he demonstrated in another video.)
Sometimes more LEDs means LESS amp draw......go figure
Wouldn't it be easier to just remove the end two LED's?
Is it still working Clive ?
Mine developed a rusty switch and Screw (nearest the B- connection)
and the run-off from the screw went under the 5th LED, dimming it considerably.
I managed to make it brighter by wiggling it (prob... should de-solder + clean).
+Gary Hart It is still working. The rusty switch and LED thing is very common in solar lights. Water finds its way everywhere due to the thermal cycling of day and night causing vapour condensation and wicking. You can bypass the switch and seal round LEDs and other bits with nail varnish or resin.
+bigclivedotcom
Hello Clive,, I have a question, , does the photocell fully charge the battery on a typical day? And if it does, couldn't the battery AH rating be increased?
Keep up the good work, you are making me want to chase trons.
Ttfn. ..
+Willy Bee I'm not sure if the solar cell could charge the cell even on a full sunny day. At the moment that light seems to be doing quite well.
+bigclivedotcom
Thanks for the reply,
yep, the solar cells always seem to be the weakest link.
Years ago, on the telly, there was a program called THE ALL NEW THIS OLD HOUSE..
They put in solar panels for an off grid house. They said it would completely power the house.
And it only cost Thirty Thousand USD , $30000...
I can not see where that would be a good idea. ..
tanks again, and keep up the good work. .. Ttfn
Aren't these chips just a simple Joule Thief with a solar routing charger built in?
Yes, that's my understanding too
Is gold not 5% tolerance?
Use small ferrite ring and change turns... or tapped - difference inductivity gives different power..
Sounds like you need a variable inductance in the same form as a potential divider, or pot.
Shame it dont exist in that simple form.
Rewind a wirewound pot with enameled copper wire, then sand one side for the wiper, perhaps ?
+zx8401ztv Amazingly but variable inductors are very common and they are produced in vast quantities by most manufacturers (like coilcraft).
They are simple devices, you dont need to change number of turns to change inductance, there is simpler solution by movable ferrite magnetic core (varying amount of core in coil change permeability and as result inductance).
+Miloš Lazović Or, for open/exposed coils, just adjust the spacing between coils to tweak inductance.
Though neither is an option with resistor-type package inductors as they are fixed value, but they are common enough that if you look hard enough you will probably find a suitable value lying around somewhere provided you do not mistake it for a resistor, as they look very similar. Or simply keep an assortment of such values on hand in your parts drawer for just such occasions.
I think an easier way is to use a bigger battery and more powerful solar panel. maybe a 200ma 2v solar panel will do it. :-)
what would happen if you put the original and the 91 henry one in series?
@bigclivedotcom or what would happen if they are in parallel ?
+theilige Inductors are like resistors, they add in series and divide in parallel.
i need some decent outside lights
With the solar lights I have the problem is that during summer it yellows the stuff that holds the solar pad in, is there any way to get around this problem.
The resin does yellow and diffuse over time. Perhaps a thin glass square glued on top might filter the UV that causes most of the degradation.
Clive, When I learned the resistor code in High School electronics in California, I was taught Bad Boys R*** Our Young Girls But Violet G**** Wil******". 🙀🙀🙀
Hello again -- couldn't you just wire in parallel two AAA rechargeable batteries to extend light time? Curiously yours, dave
No, because it's not he capacity of the battery limiting the output but the energy supplied by the solar cell to charge it up in the UK climate. :-)
Thanks for answering my question, I really appreciate it. Dave
+corp55555 It's a very valid question and changing the battery to a higher amp-hour one (or putting two in parallel as you suggested) would certainly increase the light time where there was enough power in to at least fully charge the battery. :-)
If you want to remember the colour code and you are a physicist (or you like rainbows) then it is black, brown and then the colours of the rainbow starting from red.
I have an issue with a solar frog light ( from wagner )it is a beautiful thing and It has always worked well , but now it runs for about 5 seconds. Could this be a capacitor fault ?
It could be panel corrosion or a faulty battery.
@@bigclivedotcom was indeed a faulty battery. my battery charger indicated that the battery was fully charged, but when i tested the battery the charge went out. ( Like a light ) lol.
Could you show how to add a 3.7 battery to one of those $1 solar lights?
It's not practical, as the solar panel is only suited to charging a NiMH cell.
are any other mods reqd if applying an external power source with the nimh battery/cell in place?
If you want to charge a NiMh solar garden light with an external supply like a USB charger then you'll need a current limiting resistor.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks clive
Couldn't you just put two 470uH inductors in parallel (achieving 235)?
whats the visual difference between an inductor and a resistor if they have the same colour bands?
The base colour is usually different, but the resistance of an inductor will usually be much lower than what the colour bands might suggest.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks for your quick reply.
I've got a portable solar camping light I'm looking to extend the run time and extend the solar ma production what am I looking at to fully charge it? I get about 4 hours of sunlight during winter and about maybe 12 hours of sunlight in the summer
Easiest fix is to reduce the amount of current through the LEDs. They'll be dimmer, but last longer.
bigclivedotcom this upgrades version is barely bright as it is I was looking at a 6v 4watt panel I believe the one that light comes with is maybe a 120ma solar if that
then upgrading the battery to two lithium ion batteries since it appears to have a lithium ion battery on the inside
the gold is 5% tolerance D:, silver 10% and black 20% :D
Why do you not use a solder sucker?