Hi My friend! Thank you for the insight. I was able to update my solar lights. Question, where can I purchase the leds? Could not locate a vendor. Thanks
@@3271Gman Sorry i just saw this. There are lots of places. Amazon or ebay being the easiest, but definitely not the cheapest. Digikey and Mouser are usually the places that those sellers get their stuff from and resell.
Way cool info. I always buy twice as many to make paths brighter! My grandson found your instructions intetesting, too! And he knows what you are talking about...😊
This would be amazingly easy for modifying Halloween Props. :) Would make monster eyes brighter and such. Definitely going to consider using this year. The waterproofing and such was especially helpful.
This is cool. You did what I was dreaming up of doing. $1 a solar cell is an awesome deal and was wondering how we could tweak them. Thanks for uploading!
I thought the switch enables you to put the light in storage without running the battery down, but you're right - in time every one of them rots out and (of course) open and not closed
Liquid Electrical Tape would have worked for a seal as well, or even clear nail polish lol This did actually give me some good info to test on some 5LM lights
I have the very same lights and I use them for indoor night lights inside my travel trailer. I've done this for years now.
2 ปีที่แล้ว +2
Herd‘s another trick to solder to the inductors: I would also have done it the way you did, but thinner wire works to. For example from a old transformer/usb charger. It‘s much easier to solder than.
Very interesting! I came across this wanting to fix one of those battery operated pull chain lights. I dropped it and now it is not as bright as others. I figure one of the connectors is loose. Unfortunately, my heating versa-tool won’t “tin” for some reason! So there goes that idea! Anyway, it never occurred to me that you could upgrade solar lights by borrowing from mother boards! I save them as well. So thank you!!
I had one of those. I just used ordinary elmers glue-all to fill in the cracks between the solarpanel and the plastic at it lasted until retirement(replacement with a better unit). Over a year I think- Now I got those harbor-breeze(hamptonbay clone??) lights from the big hardware store and those have a 3v AA-shaped LifePo4 in them and a super bright yellow LED.
Thanks to this video (which I added to my favorites), I forced myself to learn how to operate a multi-meter today. I used it to get a few of my ailing solar lights back in business. Just curious to know if the SMD or COB LEDs respond in the same way as the DIPs.
I wondered if I could repair some of the ones I have discarded over the years, 'cuz I did spend more than a buck or two. I love knowing it's possible. And I do have the switch problem so may start by bypassing the switches. Enjoyed the tutorial.
As per previous comment: any ideas as to why my crafting “versa-tool” won’t tin? I followed all the instructions, but nothing. Thank you! I take apart old crt tv’s for the cool copper and sometimes Fuchsia colored wire for crafting. I keep the mother boards sometimes just in case! Plus I like the way they look!
What conductors do you recoment for brightness as my colour changing stick lights are so dull and crap i want to boost the light up more can someone tell me what conductors to get as there are so many to choose from
Love this hack! Also great advice to bypass the switch - invariably, that's what always fails in these lights👍 Question - is there a rule of thumb to know what size inductor to upgrade to?
First thing i did was swap the battery's out and it was instantly brighter, don't know why it was different in your case.. different level or charge in the battery's maybe
So where can I buy the little piece that you started to give it to boost to handle the battery I don't have any spare parts like you have can you send a list of the items that I need to make my solar lights brighter. Thanks for sharing. A cup of coffee will be coming up. 🤛🏾
At first it seems like A LOT of tedious work…however the time to do the upgrade modifications on multiple lights as opposed to the cost to replace multiple lights with more expensive lights that offer a brighter light I figured why not try this out! It seems time consuming when watching the video while doing the mods, but once I got it down it considerably cut back on the time. Big plus for me is anywhere I can diy I save💰for more fun stuff!!
Don't bypass the switch on well-made lights or lights that you put in storage regularly (ex. Christmas solar lights) because turning them off conserves battery power for when you put them up again.
Good video. But, some of us, are not to tech savvy. And we don’t keep components. So where would would I buy this part, and most importantly WHAT is it called? And what size battery did you change it to?
I would just buy an extra light of the proper design and drill an extra hole for an extra light+battery+circuit with the same solar panel because after a while the battery completely fills and the rest of the solar energy is wasted.
Can you use a larger capacity mAh battery AAA in place of the 200 one? I have 350mAh 1.2v batteries in my solar lights that are sentimental. The ones I can buy on AMazon are 600 mAh. Will I fry them if I replace the 300-350 ones with the 600 ones? I THINK they would be the same size (AAA)... thanks in advance for your help
Home Depots $5.88 solar garden lights are pretty bright. 14 lumens. I use rechargeable 2000 amp batteries that I can charge when its cloudy. They last longer.
@@fearme8049 Yes Eneloops are excellent batteries. I used to be a wedding photographer and always used them in my strobe units. And then would have about 20 extra backups in my gear bag. It was way overkill but you could never have too much gear for the unexpected.
@@anthonychase4945 Nice, i use my powerex charger to charge when the solars get dim. The capacity of the cheap included batteries are woefull. Only about 1/3 to 1/2 the stated capacity. If you rely on batteries for your job get a decent smart charger if you havnt already and will know exact capacity and bring dull batteries back to life. My eneloops are still atleast 90% after 9 years.
@@fearme8049 I have the Powerex chargers too. I kept one at my studio and one at home. Now I keep one in my shed to charge up the batteries for the solar lights. During the summer I rarely charge.
What sort of Inductors would you order if you were going to upgrade 20-30 of these lights? - Would 100UH be enough? - You can buy them in packs of 50 or 100 from Aliexpress for about $1
Isn't that a resistor? I often change the batteries in the dollar store lights because i know they're cheap. I should try this. I bought 12 $1 lights last year and put them in this year. One battery didn't work at all (doa) so I threw a 2300 mah NiMH into it. However it still doesn't last longer because there's just not enough sun to charge them. Also, the one w/ the 2300 in it flickers later at night and IDKy. Now if there were a way to get them to stay on LONGER... that would be great.
He y never put down it work no matter how good looking is ,all that matters is u put ur soul dedication ,,I been soldering for yrs still never to perfect but what I always say it works...good video
Nice video and explanations. But why did you use Ni-Mh batteries? I thought Ni-Cd was better suited for repetitive rundown/recharge cycles like in solar garden lights. Couldn't you have used higher mAh Ni-Cd batteries and gotten the same effect?
you are correct, however finding hi-cap Ni-Cd batteries locally can be a pain. I have a ton of various Ni-Mh batteries laying around so I used that. Ni-Cd's are better for high current and like you said repetitive recharge cycles. These lights have a low current draw, so the only drawback to using Ni-Mh is having to replace the cell every year or two (which you may have to do with Ni-Cd's anyways depending on your climate).
I got solar flash light, it can turn on when the sun is up ... when at night, you need another flash light to spot it's solar plate, then it can be turn on ...
Let me guess Dollar Tree? I saw them selling solder powered flashlights once that had no battery and relied on a solar panel to power the LED. Completely worthless.
@@thewolfofswingthat2035 basically in this situation it acts like a pump. There's not enough power to run the LED alone, so it stores energy and then releases it . The light output of the led isn't constant, but instead pulsed. Our eyes can't easily see it because its at a high frequency.
@@Electronicle I've been using a two transistor circuit that Julian Illett designed. Very simple and works. With tweaking the buck converter I can get 10 hours of light
@@garyvcole Maybe that could be resistor, but that is inductor. I got also last time inductors which looks like resistors, but i bought them especially for my homemade solar lights. Solar light where power supply is only 1,2V battery will not work without inductor.
Ha, that makes me laugh as well, everytime I hear them pronounce "sodder" it makes me chuckle but my mind screams "sold her" that's how you say it! How hard is that ? :)
This isn’t a simple mod for the everyday homeowner. Is a nerds fix as a ‘see what I can do’. Good to see but I’ve no interest in going through all this to make garden lights brighter.
@@Electronicle don't want to be annoying, buut that's not a buck-boost converter, probably not even a boost converter, because there is a bit to little amount of parts to be DC-DC converter
I recently got a pack of 5 lights from Sam's (their brand) for like 18 bucks and they are pretty bright! But after a couple of nights, but they began to get dim around 3 o'clock and shut off while it's still dark(so, from 8pm to 4am, not a bad run). We live in a super-high UV area. They came with a 800mAh battery. I think of either switching to a 2500mAh battery or soldering on a holder for a second battery in parallel (under the cap, there's lots of room), or maybe doing both. The goal is for them to last until the rising Sun turns them off. Are these ideas realistic? And which is better? My concern that the solar panel won't charge both batteries or a single bigger capacity battery sufficiently, so it would be an exercise in futility. Your thoughts? I'm not really an electrician by trade.
It all really depends on the quality and output of the solar panels. You can try using a slightly larger battery mAH rating. Don't go too high as Nimh and Nicd batteries don't like constant partial charges.
@@Electronicle Thanks for reply. the batts came as Nimh 800 mAH. I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I added a second parallel battery holder into some and used the 2 of the original batts, and I bought 2.7k maH batts for the others, and I put 2 2.7ks in some. All setups are lit until the morning, for now at least. These are really good lights for the price-- ive noticed my neighbor have them too now. I went to Sam's to get another pack and they were sold out!
How about that, I learned something new today - thanks so much. I bought some nice ones, the outsides look great, the light - not so much. So new batteries here we come. Thanks for your video, great instruction and be safe. Love Peg
The voltage is actually determined by the battery voltage and the collapsing magnetic field in the inductor (it's not produced by the IC itself). The IC is just switching to constantly induce back emf in the inductor at a certain frequency. This voltage is then high enough after the collapse for it to make it's way over the LED. The LED is thus lit by pulses at the same frequency as the oscillation, it isn't constantly lit, our eyes can't tell the difference. LED's don't have linear current draw in relation to voltage, however they still are voltage dependant, despite some random Americans online pretending that they are some miraculous device that runs off pure current (not even something that exists in this world, there is no current without voltage, you require both for there to be power, they don't exist on their own). LED's will require a certain voltage before they start conducting, and indeed you do need to raise this voltage to a certain level to get them to draw properly, meaning they are dependent on the voltage, but just not in a linear way (so going a little over can mean burnout, where as in linear relationship electronics it won't). For example an LED with a starting forward voltage of 3v, if connected to just 3v, will be dim, however if you increase the voltage to 3.4v it will be bright. The LED does need a certain voltage, because it does have a resistance that determines how much current it can draw (even if not linear). The physical resistor in line has a linear relationship, so we use that, so even if the voltage source is a mere 0.2v higher than usual for some reason, or if the LED's resistance lowered a little for some reason, neither result in the LED burning out, because the resistor itself will limit current depending upon voltage in a predictable way, meaning only a certain amount of current can get through the resistor regardless of what the LED is trying to draw. Oh and yes, it will burn out if you try to run it at a massive voltage, there is another misconception that you could run a 3.2V LED at like 100V, just as long as it's only drawing like 20mA, this misconception created by some Americans on internet forums claiming that it runs purely off current and that voltage doesn't mean anything. This is again false, increase the voltage massively, and the physical power increases, and the LED will burn out instantly. Wattage is still determined by the voltage and the current, and LED's wattage is a product of both, it isn't some magical item. However it is true that a 3v LED would survive longer on a 5v supply and 20mA limiting resistor, meaning the LED would only be drawing around 60% more power than it should, when compared to for example just running the LED at 4v without a resistor at all, because of the LED's exponential gain, it would burn out after just a minute or two and be drawing 300% more power than it should. However this concept has become muddied by some Americans who don't quite understand electronics properly, filling those forums on the internet etc. As far as upgrading the unit, you will actually need to replace all 3 components, meaning the battery should become a 600mAh at minimum, the LED should be increased to a 30mA capable LED, and the solar panel should also be another 3V one, but with at least 3-4x more current than the current weak one. Because the tiny mA solar panels included are not powerful enough to fully charge a 600mAh battery for example, they are purpose built just to be big enough to charge the crappy 200mAh battery and run the weak LED for around maybe 6-7 hours during night. The IC itself doesn't need to be replaced, because if you look at the datasheet it can handle more than it's used for in these little lights, this is likely because larger solar lights use the same IC, these IC's were purpose built for general solar garden light purposes, so they are used in underpowered and higher powered units.
Yes, there is a calculation we can roughly use to determine how much current we will have access to. I believe it's pi x 2, which is 6.28. Then you times that by the frequency of it switching, then you times that by the henry, I think that was it. That will give you the ohms, then from there you can use ohms law with the voltage source to determine the amps. So for example if we use a 30uh, and a switching speed of 200000hertz. We should get 6.28x200000x0.00003 = 37.6ohms. From there it equates to around 38mA. And if we instead use a 60uh inductor, it drops way down to 19mA. A common inductor value is 33uh if I am not mistaken, it seems like a perfect mod for the lights, if you can get better batteries and a better solar panel also.
Replaced a resistor with an inductor is what I saw but hey maybe some inductors look like through hole resistors or a resistor can also be an inductor in certain circumstances? Hmmmm yeah my electronics brain is rusty right now but I see your question immediately.
I feel like every one of you who has, and will, make a comment about the fact he's wearing gloves... Must have some kind of weird hand fetish. Is that why you're really here, to look at his hands? You guys seriously should find a professional to talk to if you gotta get your excitement for the day by going to TH-cam videos to look at people's hands.
Really....you would rather watch tv...even the walking dead isnt worth watching anymore...the news has become nothing more than "spot the lies" game.shows. i have picked up a lot of new skills.because i QUIT THE IDIOT BOX.
s
Hi My friend! Thank you for the insight. I was able to update my solar lights. Question, where can I purchase the leds? Could not locate a vendor.
Thanks
@@3271Gman Sorry i just saw this. There are lots of places. Amazon or ebay being the easiest, but definitely not the cheapest. Digikey and Mouser are usually the places that those sellers get their stuff from and resell.
Way cool info. I always buy twice as many to make paths brighter! My grandson found your instructions intetesting, too! And he knows what you are talking about...😊
This would be amazingly easy for modifying Halloween Props. :) Would make monster eyes brighter and such. Definitely going to consider using this year. The waterproofing and such was especially helpful.
This is cool. You did what I was dreaming up of doing. $1 a solar cell is an awesome deal and was wondering how we could tweak them. Thanks for uploading!
I thought the switch enables you to put the light in storage without running the battery down, but you're right - in time every one of them rots out and (of course) open and not closed
Thats crazy how easy it looks and the results. I'll have to try that sometime, maybe get some ready for next year.
Liquid Electrical Tape would have worked for a seal as well, or even clear nail polish lol
This did actually give me some good info to test on some 5LM lights
lol so i'm not the only one that uses clear nail polish for stuff
@@zachbeckner Yeah it comes in handy for low power electrical projects and a solder mask etc if you dont have anything better to use.
I have the very same lights and I use them for indoor night lights inside my travel trailer. I've done this for years now.
Herd‘s another trick to solder to the inductors:
I would also have done it the way you did, but thinner wire works to. For example from a old transformer/usb charger. It‘s much easier to solder than.
Very interesting! I came across this wanting to fix one of those battery operated pull chain lights. I dropped it and now it is not as bright as others. I figure one of the connectors is loose. Unfortunately, my heating versa-tool won’t “tin” for some reason! So there goes that idea! Anyway, it never occurred to me that you could upgrade solar lights by borrowing from mother boards! I save them as well. So thank you!!
This video sends viewers to my channel. Thank you for sharing.
You’re right 😂
Thanks buddy, now I have a reason to get my already taken apart lights and play with them
I upgraded 2 of the el-cheapos and use the in the bathroom. I enjoyed the video. 👍
I had one of those. I just used ordinary elmers glue-all to fill in the cracks between the solarpanel and the plastic at it lasted until retirement(replacement with a better unit). Over a year I think-
Now I got those harbor-breeze(hamptonbay clone??) lights from the big hardware store and those have a 3v AA-shaped LifePo4 in them and a super bright yellow LED.
Thought this was going to be a quick tips to Brighton my solar lights ...have non of those items so they will stay the same
Thanks to this video (which I added to my favorites), I forced myself to learn how to operate a multi-meter today. I used it to get a few of my ailing solar lights back in business. Just curious to know if the SMD or COB LEDs respond in the same way as the DIPs.
I wondered if I could repair some of the ones I have discarded over the years, 'cuz I did spend more than a buck or two. I love knowing it's possible. And I do have the switch problem so may start by bypassing the switches. Enjoyed the tutorial.
You can get even more brightness by spraying the cover plate silver,the part the LED pokes through,or cover it with some self stick aluminum tape.
Great video 👍 But this is way over my head lol. I will just buy the 8-10 lights and call it a day!!
Same here! 🐻
awesome all you need to do is change the inductor to a smaller size? for brightness awesome man thank you for sharing.
I use a tiny bead of cheap clear chalk around the outside edges of the solar panel. Smooth it out and I leave them out year around.
I hate to be dense..
But why...caulk maybe?
what is clear chalk?
As per previous comment: any ideas as to why my crafting “versa-tool” won’t tin? I followed all the instructions, but nothing. Thank you!
I take apart old crt tv’s for the cool copper and sometimes Fuchsia colored wire for crafting. I keep the mother boards sometimes just in case! Plus I like the way they look!
What conductors do you recoment for brightness as my colour changing stick lights are so dull and crap i want to boost the light up more can someone tell me what conductors to get as there are so many to choose from
Love this hack! Also great advice to bypass the switch - invariably, that's what always fails in these lights👍 Question - is there a rule of thumb to know what size inductor to upgrade to?
First thing i did was swap the battery's out and it was instantly brighter, don't know why it was different in your case.. different level or charge in the battery's maybe
Great Video. You should also tie fly's. You have the touch. Keep them coming.
So where can I buy the little piece that you started to give it to boost to handle the battery I don't have any spare parts like you have can you send a list of the items that I need to make my solar lights brighter. Thanks for sharing. A cup of coffee will be coming up. 🤛🏾
At first it seems like A LOT of tedious work…however the time to do the upgrade modifications on multiple lights as opposed to the cost to replace multiple lights with more expensive lights that offer a brighter light I figured why not try this out! It seems time consuming when watching the video while doing the mods, but once I got it down it considerably cut back on the time. Big plus for me is anywhere I can diy I save💰for more fun stuff!!
Don't bypass the switch on well-made lights or lights that you put in storage regularly (ex. Christmas solar lights) because turning them off conserves battery power for when you put them up again.
SUCH A DIFFERENCE BRILLANT
I noticed a slight increase we changed out the battery in the other one but cool thank you
Good video. But, some of us, are not to tech savvy. And we don’t keep components. So where would would I buy this part, and most importantly WHAT is it called? And what size battery did you change it to?
Ok I'm super lost
I would just buy an extra light of the proper design and drill an extra hole for an extra light+battery+circuit with the same solar panel because after a while the battery completely fills and the rest of the solar energy is wasted.
Can you use a larger capacity mAh battery AAA in place of the 200 one? I have 350mAh 1.2v batteries in my solar lights that are sentimental. The ones I can buy on AMazon are 600 mAh. Will I fry them if I replace the 300-350 ones with the 600 ones?
I THINK they would be the same size (AAA)... thanks in advance for your help
I wish I paid attention in my electronics class in high school. 😆
Nice hack , also I've taken a silver Sharpe and run it around the base of the LED as to make it more reflective
That's a great idea! I want to try it again but paint the top inside white.
Some aluminum foil might work better? Or at least it would be cheaper?
cool but Give us some information about the names of the resistors you put
Where can I get the parts from..
Home Depots $5.88 solar garden lights are pretty bright. 14 lumens. I use rechargeable 2000 amp batteries that I can charge when its cloudy. They last longer.
I always swap out my solar lights with eneloops. During the winter they last 3-5 days. In the summer possibly a month.
@@fearme8049 Yes Eneloops are excellent batteries. I used to be a wedding photographer and always used them in my strobe units. And then would have about 20 extra backups in my gear bag. It was way overkill but you could never have too much gear for the unexpected.
@@anthonychase4945 Nice, i use my powerex charger to charge when the solars get dim. The capacity of the cheap included batteries are woefull. Only about 1/3 to 1/2 the stated capacity. If you rely on batteries for your job get a decent smart charger if you havnt already and will know exact capacity and bring dull batteries back to life. My eneloops are still atleast 90% after 9 years.
@@fearme8049 I have the Powerex chargers too. I kept one at my studio and one at home. Now I keep one in my shed to charge up the batteries for the solar lights. During the summer I rarely charge.
Best instruction video thank you very much 👍✅✅😊👏🙌💫
What sort of Inductors would you order if you were going to upgrade 20-30 of these lights? - Would 100UH be enough? - You can buy them in packs of 50 or 100 from Aliexpress for about $1
I found 20-50 works best for the solar lights that I’ve used. However if u also have a 200uH inductor in yours then 100 will be an improvement
@@Electronicle can you tell me exactly what I need to do this as I'm no electronic expert. So I can order
Name of the 4 pin chip ????
Isn't that a resistor?
I often change the batteries in the dollar store lights because i know they're cheap. I should try this. I bought 12 $1 lights last year and put them in this year. One battery didn't work at all (doa) so I threw a 2300 mah NiMH into it. However it still doesn't last longer because there's just not enough sun to charge them.
Also, the one w/ the 2300 in it flickers later at night and IDKy.
Now if there were a way to get them to stay on LONGER... that would be great.
Please learn how to record the audio volume, so we don’t have to whack the volume up, then a crappy ad blares out
Thankyou
He y never put down it work no matter how good looking is ,all that matters is u put ur soul dedication ,,I been soldering for yrs still never to perfect but what I always say it works...good video
Nice video and explanations. But why did you use Ni-Mh batteries? I thought Ni-Cd was better suited for repetitive rundown/recharge cycles like in solar garden lights. Couldn't you have used higher mAh Ni-Cd batteries and gotten the same effect?
you are correct, however finding hi-cap Ni-Cd batteries locally can be a pain. I have a ton of various Ni-Mh batteries laying around so I used that. Ni-Cd's are better for high current and like you said repetitive recharge cycles. These lights have a low current draw, so the only drawback to using Ni-Mh is having to replace the cell every year or two (which you may have to do with Ni-Cd's anyways depending on your climate).
Electronicle Okay, thanks. I just ordered a bunch of Ni-Cd's and just wanted to make sure I didn't screw up. Lol.
nah you're good
can you spray laquer on the board?
How do you know if the solar Papi’s broken?
I thought you were going to change the LED too.......
cool video. Schematic would be useful.
My problem is my solar light won't turn off during the day.
Great thunder storm. And video. :)
What did you do to it
this is incredible!
What was the new battery you put in? Just wondering if it was still a 1.2v or 1.5v?
It was a 1.2
What is the number of buck boost converter
what are the resistor's ohms used?
I got solar flash light, it can turn on when the sun is up ...
when at night, you need another flash light to spot it's solar plate, then it can be turn on ...
Let me guess Dollar Tree? I saw them selling solder powered flashlights once that had no battery and relied on a solar panel to power the LED. Completely worthless.
Led life brutal afected
At 3:40 I swear I started hearing Charlie Brown’s teacher talking. I didn’t understand a word he was saying. 🙃
so many times I've wondered why rechargeable batteries are only 1.2v?
you removed the resistor wouldnt that make the LED more likely to burn out as the voltage is too high?
You mean the inductor? It's not a resistor. Looks the same but isn't. I replaced with a different value.
@@austinstrunk hi i am new to E&E... thats an inductor? like a coil? whats the purpose of putting a coil there?
@@thewolfofswingthat2035 basically in this situation it acts like a pump. There's not enough power to run the LED alone, so it stores energy and then releases it . The light output of the led isn't constant, but instead pulsed. Our eyes can't easily see it because its at a high frequency.
@@thewolfofswingthat2035 Also sorry this is my other account, forgot to switch back to electronicles...but same person
@@austinstrunk one for normal stuff, another for trolling ? *wink*wink* hehe. thanks for explanation . subscribed.
To me this is as advance that anything in life gets.
Ps..please.send the rain this way
Would you ge more time if you used a lithium cell and a buck converter?
oh definitely.
@@Electronicle I've been using a two transistor circuit that Julian Illett designed. Very simple and works. With tweaking the buck converter I can get 10 hours of light
I would have liked to see it with the better led you mentioned.
So you took out what looked like a resistor and replaced it with an inductor?
No. Both were inductors
@@Electronicle I've learned now that inductors also can look similar to resistors! Thanks, great video!
You can also see that it is green colour, not like resistors. It's inductor.
@@garyvcole Maybe that could be resistor, but that is inductor. I got also last time inductors which looks like resistors, but i bought them especially for my homemade solar lights. Solar light where power supply is only 1,2V battery will not work without inductor.
Go to college. Become electrician. Have brighter garden lights. 😁
is it possible to change the color of the led also?
Yupperz. Check my channel. Did a vid on that too.
Which should plan to use: 33uH 1 watt , 47uH 1 watt, or 68uH 0.5 watt inductors --which? I guess, my real question has to do with wattage.
The equation is Watts = Current(amps) x Volts . Half watt inductor is more than sufficient for this application.
@@Electronicle Thank you!
Cool!
Soddering! I’m not a great sodderer! I know what you mean, but in UK it has a completely different meaning!!!
Ha, that makes me laugh as well, everytime I hear them pronounce "sodder"
it makes me chuckle but my mind screams "sold her" that's how you say it! How hard is that ? :)
Im acting like I understood everything you said hehehe ... this vid is too advance for me LOL great vid though
So I take it you swap the old resistor with one of lesser value in order for more current to flow? And then swap out the battery for a higher mha 👍
its not a resistor, its an inductor
@@Electronicle yeah that would have been more clear, what colors of what we would call resistor would you use
Man here I thought I was gonna rip a foil piece and set the light on that. Mvm
Lower the inductance and get a 1.5 volt battery.
This isn’t a simple mod for the everyday homeowner. Is a nerds fix as a ‘see what I can do’. Good to see but I’ve no interest in going through all this to make garden lights brighter.
I know. I thought it would be something simple like stick a piece of tin foil or broken mirror inside the lamp container... 😭
I thought off clear insulation stuff
Only 49 lights left to go
A white led would be nice.
Just solder the new inductor in parallel with the other one on the underside.
Easy peasey.
THANKYOU FOR VIDEO GOOD TO KNOW
Did you use a capacitor
The device you removed looks like a resistor to me?
Yup. But it's an inductor. They can have a similar package typr
@@garyvcole look up buck boost converter or dc-dc converter
@@Electronicle don't want to be annoying, buut that's not a buck-boost converter, probably not even a boost converter, because there is a bit to little amount of parts to be DC-DC converter
@@Kuzia141 In fact, it is. It boils down to that tiny 4-terminal ic which is probably an XY8018 device.
Yup pulled a resistor and put in an inductor
LOL, man who in the world going to do this!
m e
I recently got a pack of 5 lights from Sam's (their brand) for like 18 bucks and they are pretty bright! But after a couple of nights, but they began to get dim around 3 o'clock and shut off while it's still dark(so, from 8pm to 4am, not a bad run). We live in a super-high UV area. They came with a 800mAh battery. I think of either switching to a 2500mAh battery or soldering on a holder for a second battery in parallel (under the cap, there's lots of room), or maybe doing both. The goal is for them to last until the rising Sun turns them off. Are these ideas realistic? And which is better? My concern that the solar panel won't charge both batteries or a single bigger capacity battery sufficiently, so it would be an exercise in futility. Your thoughts? I'm not really an electrician by trade.
It all really depends on the quality and output of the solar panels. You can try using a slightly larger battery mAH rating. Don't go too high as Nimh and Nicd batteries don't like constant partial charges.
@@Electronicle Thanks for reply. the batts came as Nimh 800 mAH. I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I added a second parallel battery holder into some and used the 2 of the original batts, and I bought 2.7k maH batts for the others, and I put 2 2.7ks in some. All setups are lit until the morning, for now at least. These are really good lights for the price-- ive noticed my neighbor have them too now. I went to Sam's to get another pack and they were sold out!
@@Electronicle So I"m guessing my $1 ones have crappy solar panels. I mean, they were $1. LOL
How about that, I learned something new today - thanks so much. I bought some nice ones, the outsides look great, the light - not so much. So new batteries here we come. Thanks for your video, great instruction and be safe. Love Peg
The voltage is actually determined by the battery voltage and the collapsing magnetic field in the inductor (it's not produced by the IC itself). The IC is just switching to constantly induce back emf in the inductor at a certain frequency. This voltage is then high enough after the collapse for it to make it's way over the LED. The LED is thus lit by pulses at the same frequency as the oscillation, it isn't constantly lit, our eyes can't tell the difference.
LED's don't have linear current draw in relation to voltage, however they still are voltage dependant, despite some random Americans online pretending that they are some miraculous device that runs off pure current (not even something that exists in this world, there is no current without voltage, you require both for there to be power, they don't exist on their own). LED's will require a certain voltage before they start conducting, and indeed you do need to raise this voltage to a certain level to get them to draw properly, meaning they are dependent on the voltage, but just not in a linear way (so going a little over can mean burnout, where as in linear relationship electronics it won't). For example an LED with a starting forward voltage of 3v, if connected to just 3v, will be dim, however if you increase the voltage to 3.4v it will be bright. The LED does need a certain voltage, because it does have a resistance that determines how much current it can draw (even if not linear). The physical resistor in line has a linear relationship, so we use that, so even if the voltage source is a mere 0.2v higher than usual for some reason, or if the LED's resistance lowered a little for some reason, neither result in the LED burning out, because the resistor itself will limit current depending upon voltage in a predictable way, meaning only a certain amount of current can get through the resistor regardless of what the LED is trying to draw.
Oh and yes, it will burn out if you try to run it at a massive voltage, there is another misconception that you could run a 3.2V LED at like 100V, just as long as it's only drawing like 20mA, this misconception created by some Americans on internet forums claiming that it runs purely off current and that voltage doesn't mean anything. This is again false, increase the voltage massively, and the physical power increases, and the LED will burn out instantly. Wattage is still determined by the voltage and the current, and LED's wattage is a product of both, it isn't some magical item. However it is true that a 3v LED would survive longer on a 5v supply and 20mA limiting resistor, meaning the LED would only be drawing around 60% more power than it should, when compared to for example just running the LED at 4v without a resistor at all, because of the LED's exponential gain, it would burn out after just a minute or two and be drawing 300% more power than it should.
However this concept has become muddied by some Americans who don't quite understand electronics properly, filling those forums on the internet etc.
As far as upgrading the unit, you will actually need to replace all 3 components, meaning the battery should become a 600mAh at minimum, the LED should be increased to a 30mA capable LED, and the solar panel should also be another 3V one, but with at least 3-4x more current than the current weak one. Because the tiny mA solar panels included are not powerful enough to fully charge a 600mAh battery for example, they are purpose built just to be big enough to charge the crappy 200mAh battery and run the weak LED for around maybe 6-7 hours during night.
The IC itself doesn't need to be replaced, because if you look at the datasheet it can handle more than it's used for in these little lights, this is likely because larger solar lights use the same IC, these IC's were purpose built for general solar garden light purposes, so they are used in underpowered and higher powered units.
Yes, there is a calculation we can roughly use to determine how much current we will have access to.
I believe it's pi x 2, which is 6.28. Then you times that by the frequency of it switching, then you times that by the henry, I think that was it. That will give you the ohms, then from there you can use ohms law with the voltage source to determine the amps.
So for example if we use a 30uh, and a switching speed of 200000hertz. We should get 6.28x200000x0.00003 = 37.6ohms.
From there it equates to around 38mA.
And if we instead use a 60uh inductor, it drops way down to 19mA.
A common inductor value is 33uh if I am not mistaken, it seems like a perfect mod for the lights, if you can get better batteries and a better solar panel also.
Resistor?
I bet when Bob the accountant tried it he messed it all up. Hey Bob change out the battery.
You changed out the inductor or a resistor?
inductor
Replaced a resistor with an inductor is what I saw but hey maybe some inductors look like through hole resistors or a resistor can also be an inductor in certain circumstances? Hmmmm yeah my electronics brain is rusty right now but I see your question immediately.
is tinfoil included in this video? lol
WHAT IS WITH THE GLOVES ???
Parts from China. Lol
Can you show us the schematic diagram.
The 3 cents you mention does not include the cost of the better battery.
I have those excat lights all 16 are very bright
I feel like every one of you who has, and will, make a comment about the fact he's wearing gloves... Must have some kind of weird hand fetish.
Is that why you're really here, to look at his hands? You guys seriously should find a professional to talk to if you gotta get your excitement for the day by going to TH-cam videos to look at people's hands.
Why the rubber gloves?
How do you make it water proof
Clear silicone everything that's not sealed
how much is your time worth?
Really....you would rather watch tv...even the walking dead isnt worth watching anymore...the news has become nothing more than "spot the lies" game.shows. i have picked up a lot of new skills.because i QUIT THE IDIOT BOX.
That is a carbon resistor NOT an inductor
it was an axial inductor