It is the Scottish accent. I lived up in Scotland and the people are really chilled and add a sense of humour and you will be refreshed by the positive energy.
Well, finally got around to building this. I have a backlit address light on the front of my house that gave up the ghost and the circuit was ridiculously more complicated than this but performed the same function. Charge battery during the day and light sign at night. It had a photocell and two solar panels. The insulation on the wires had disintegrated and the wires all corroded. So I tore everything out and rebuilt it as seen here basically just using the shell and it works like a charm.
So much for going to bed early! Thank you Clive, you are helping me understand things once again. I had Aortic surgery back in 2008 and was retired from my job in 2010. I was an electronic engineer but lost a lot of confidence. Neurological issues reduced me to tea making and sweeping up, from commissioning communications systems on helicopters. Anything greater than two wires was blanked. Thanks for your series on the basics. Some of it is coming back but tomorrow I will have lost it again. Best wishes. I envy you! Bob
Hi Clive, super simple and straight forward, so that I could start building them in a mini series as a night illumination for the bird feeders that my wife builds. Thanks for the inspiration!
It's always fun to see circuits like this done as simply as possible. A couple of notes: 1) Charging a battery by just hooking it up to a solar cell works because the solar cell can only provide limited current, but it's important to make sure that the cell you're using won't put out more current (under full sunlight) than what the battery can take as its max charging current, or you could fry your battery (can be an issue if you're using small batteries with large solar panels). 2) If you want to be able to adjust the light level at which it switches on, you can put a variable resistor between the base and the positive rail too (might be useful, because I wonder a bit whether the current setup would actually switch on or not under, say, a full moon).
I guess I'm late to the game on this, but I wanted Christmas lights along my garden area this year. I used a 3.7V Nokia and a 6V solar cell. It works like a charm. Thanks for the terrific video!
I like that the solar cell is the charger, and light level sensor. We had some solar lights that used a LDR/CDS to sense light levels. Over engineered.
Ingenious, Clive. I love it! So much that I've made a new folder for your projects. Your soldering and well thought out project is a dream. Thank you so much!
Whenever I play a Clive video my cat comes in the room and starts mewing, he must like the Scottish accent. I have two old phone batteries on my desk, I was thinking "What can I do with them?" and this video shows up.
Thank you so much Clive. Watching you is so very therapeutic. Last two weeks have been truly shite. I failed electronics when I was at college cos I was colour blind. Couldn't read the resistors, etc. But watching you is so very soothing. Thank you.
A reasonable accommodation for that would be to allow you to use a multimeter to measure the resistance. I can see (forgive the pun) where you might still have difficulties, but there are ways around those difficulties.
''The charge current is limited purely by what the solar panel can deliver, in this case about 100 to 200mA. '' i saw that after! thank you! love your projects!
In germany we lay the transistors flat side on the table with the legs facing to you, then it is "Ein Blöder Collector" (one stupid collector) and the EBC line up with the pins
Clive, This is just what I needed! A few month ago I came about of several old protected phone batteries and always wanted to do something with solar power and lights!!! I will give this a go and tell you how it goes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I made this! Had all the parts floating around. Used a 2N3904 & a schottky diode. The lithium battery I found in my 'to be recycled' box. Was measuring zero volts (yeah). 920 mAh. Works great! Currently powering a laser diode while I blow e-smoke at it (because why not?). Ran an attiny flashing led project of mine the whole night. Edit: updated info.
Love such projects. You should do more things with light/dark and movement sensors. I use them in lots of places in my home and it's not only look good(automatic on off depending on time of day and movement) but it also can reduce energy costs in home because you don't turn on main lights just to go to bathroom at night or turn on/off lights all the time because it detect movements or light. I just bought tons of cheap night lights with photo-resistors or movement detectors, gut them out, replace leds and put in nice looking boxes and stuff them in closets, near the doors, garden, bathroom etc etc. And it work perfectly.
Akinaro Agreed. In addition to the energy savings you mentioned, there would also be a conservation of duty cycles of the mains equipment (wall switches, tungsten bulbs, CFL coils, fluorescent tubes). Such mass-produced equipment is (usually) carefully engineered to reliably survive some specific number of duty cycles, and operating hours, but no more. Waste not, want not.
Excellent and such a simple circuit. I was eating breakfast thinking it would be nice to see a Big Clive project and there it was, great timing. More projects please. I’m going to make one of these.
This is such an awesome project! I just love how "smart technology" it is. Which is so in tune with modern day themes. Also that it's just utilising salvaged parts so it's promoting reuse, recycle. Something I love doing but I just don't have the skills or knowledge! Electricity is one of those things my brain can never understand or get the hang of no matter how many times I watch videos on it. One day if I find a salvageable solar panel I will try this!!
Clive, this is exactly what I need to fix some external LED lit xmas trees that have given up the ghost. I've got a small solar panel and 2 old (but good) Samsung phone batteries. I'll be getting the other bits post haste. Thanks a million :)
"DerCrawlerVomUrAnus" - Internet linguist Idiot detected! No, really. That saying has been in the English language for several hundreds of years. For example, in the Miles Coverdale Bible of 1535. So there.
@Anvilshock @WhiteHawkUK I didn't know that tbh, we use the same saying over here "den Geist aufgeben". I just thought he literally translated a German phrase into English, similar to "the yellow from the egg" or "I think I spider". Both are prime examples used to illustrate how *not* to speak English by literally translating expressions into other languages.EDIT: Spelling
I’ve seen one of your videos before this one and it gave me enough of a basic understanding of transistors. Recognizing your environment during my search for a basic solar powered configuration for LEDs, I needed to stop by to use a spin on an American colloquialism just to say you are a straight-up e-lectrical gangster- and your humor througout the whole process makes the process much more digestible.. I still need considerable repetition before I “understand” what the hell all these words mean, but you have provided a man’s one giant leap.. so thank you!
It's easy to remember the BC547, I memorised it as the "Big Clive 547"... :P As for the project, that's a pretty neat package there, it'd be interesting to see how long the LEDs remained lit from a fully charged battery... :)
Doesn't matter. They were running on a 10 ohm resistor. The effeciency of the LED's makes no difference, it only determines how much light is produced. I don't know what the voltage the transitor is outputting, assuming it is 4v(probably incorrectly), the LED's are using 4v / 10ohms = 0.4 amps of current. Assuming the battery is 1020mA/h, the light will stay lit for 1.02 Ah / 0.4 A = 2.55 hours.
I've always wondered if that equivalent 2N of the BC is an identical transistor with just an american name or just one that is almost the same in function (hfe etc.)
It's amazing how memories work. I haven't thought about BC547s for about 40 years and I immediately remembered the name from my AO Level (roughly equivalent to a current AS level) electronics class at school.
Thank you so much for this,. I made a name plate for the front door...I had 3 LEDs to light up the house number when dark..and I was looking for a diagram like yours .. I'm very new to electronics...and it's taking ages for my auld brain to learn these new tricks... I love your videos... You make it look so easy. 😃 Take care..
Love your stuff, Clive. This is very useful, please make more videos of this type. One beneficial change I'd make, is adding battery holder, rather than soldering it in directly. You would have more thermal clearance, and you'd easily replace that battery once it puffs up (we've all had that happen to old Nokias) That or move to a 18650, which would help in the long term. The BL-5C may not be available in 10-20 years
I agree this like Bob Ross of today. So much talent bigclive!! When I was a teenager, I'm 40yr/old now, my friend Doug was really into small circuitry and solar panels, I guess I'm reminiscing of those days and will be trying this out.
Simplistically "sweet". I would have never thought to use the reverse leakage of the solar panel to use as a photo-detector! Love the circuit "BC" and your channel. I am a Canadian EE and always learn things when a watch your channel!!!
Non carbonated sodas have to be nitrogen charged to maintain packaging stability. Otherwise it would crunch up like a water bottle and be supremely difficult to stack or put into a vending machine.
Thank you for explaining all of this. I'm sure I could have found an explanation sooner with Google but the way you present it I find is easier to understand. Keep it up!
Speaking of labelling, you should check to my house. It seems the electrical wiring hasn't been done by a professional (or a dodgy one). They got live and neutral mixed up, so the fuses ended up on neutral. I should say it was quite entertaining first time I tried to replace one of the light fixtures...
Hi my friend, I really appreciate you taking time, and trying to make sure (Even The beginner can Do what you are doing.!! I remember first started out There wasn't any U-Tube" OR any videos Much more than pictures in book's, and spending hours at The library.!! OR trying to learn all I could from Others. YES, this is a very simple" Cheap project" as one comment, stated,... But they have forgotten about how hard it is to understand This stuff correctly.!! At the beginning of There (wanting to learn) stage... SO, TO YOU, I SAY THANK YOU, FOR REALLY CHEAP LIGHT PROJECTS,!! AND I For one would like to see More. Also, what you might Do with a step-up, and Voltage doubler.!! JR.
I scrounged up some parts (had to scavenge a diode and 10k resistor, but had the rest) This was a fun build! I have mine sitting in the sun happily charging away as I type this. Super cool, Clive!
19:02 . . . If I would be tinning the transistor leads, holding the transistor between my finger and thumb, there would be "OWWW!!", and the transistor would be stuck in the curtains across the room.
@@DanielPinel No cat here... but now that I think about it, I likely would say something a lot worse than "OWW", when I've been burnt and thrown a component across the room.
15:20 Thank you for explaining why the batteries are left at a half charge. Always wondered when I purchased a new device that had a Li-Ion battery that they came half charged. One more item ticked of the old bucket list.
Is it ok that this is using 5.4V to charge a 4.2V lipo battery? AFAIK the DW01 chip doesn't drop the incomming voltage to 4.2V. As long as it's below the over-current limit, it just passes it all through. Right? Or is charging lipos one of those "it only takes what it needs" situations, and feeding it overvoltage is fine as long as it doesn't try to keep charging it's own internal voltage to beyond 4.2V (which it won't coz the chip cuts it off as soon as it gets there).
As far as I know, the input voltage from the solar panel would drop to the battery voltage during charging as it’s a current limited supply. If it wasn’t current limited then yes, in theory, it could be overcharged.
If you supply higher voltage to any battery it will charge it, the current would be dependent on voltage difference and cell internal resistance, so higher the voltage diffrence higher charging current. Solar panels of this size can't deliver much current so even the 1.2V difference is acceptable as the voltage will drop in the solar panel
I think he's relying on the chilly, low-light conditions of the isle of man as well as the high internal resistance of the solar cell to keep from overcharging the lipo.
But Clive, when I learned to solder many centuries ago, Rule Number 1 was 'You must have a sound mechanical connection before applying solder." I seldom see you do that. Is Rule Number 1 no longer a thing?
If you mean like bending leads after inserting a component into a PCB then that's something I disapprove of. It makes it much harder to desolder faulty components without risk of PCB damage.
It's probably one of those rules for beginners to teach a steady hand sufficient to provide said mechanical connection alone. After all, nowhere in that rule does it say that it must be a connection that can carry the weight of an average Olympic elephant and that requires tools and/or destructive bureaucracy to separate.
Same for me - but going back almost 50 years to valve and tag-board construction. I guess everything was under much more stress - like when changing valves, so perhaps mechanical solidity is less needed now. And as Clive says - makes it a pain to remove anything.
I stopped watching Steve when I was so addicted to his videos that I had been thinking of trying out Camel Cigarettes for that euphoric experience. Also, there really wasn't much variation between the MRE's. Sure, some countries put in off the shelf food.. and some had their own designs. Most of it was the same. I was happy whenever Steve would eat something foul and clearly way past its shelf life.
Two things: First, why not use an LDR as a resistor to turn on\off the transistor. Next, that looks like a generic Nokia battery...I bought some of those off of eBay not too long ago for a similar project; however, I didn't trust them. I know the official ones and good generic batteries *should* have the protection, but... it's eBay, so make no assumptions. So I left it charging on my bench power supply constant voltage for days and nothing exploded. So this looked good right? Well, I went on resoldering the terminals and the plastic melted. My curiosity got the better of me. I peeled off that plastic and saw the board. From that, I found the middle contact to be a resistor (for determining the capacity), but I saw an outline of where the protection chips should have been. Concerned, I clipped the board off and there was **zero** protection on the battery. Moral of the story? Double check your batteries, unless you are certain of where they came from.
Geez dude. This couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s early spring here in North Carolina and I’ve just planted everything and I was looking for a better way to get a charge on my outdoor solar lights. Now I’m going to use this.
Used to do a similar setup up with apprentices (I live in Germany) I would walk them through a motion sensor setup for the bathroom. So you would get up in the night and the light would activate for three minutes and give of enough light to aim and wash your hands.
I thought the same when he doodled the circuit diagram. I reckon in about 12 months, he'll open up an eBay solar light, and it'll have the same design (including an unpopulated resistor pad where he drew the alternative version).
they actually have a cheaper design, using only small cheap chip (like YX8018) and inductor that basically is doing everything (regulate the current, control charging and turning on and off), there are even other versions of the same chip that allow bigger voltage (cells in series) and bigger current
Love it. Got it working on my string of coloured LEDs. I'm so used to... plus rail on top; neg rail on bottom. So it took me a while to get my head around this. It all depends on the leakage current. Nice work Clive.
BC547, BC548, BC549 plastic transistors are the same as BC107, BC108, BC109 metal can transistors, just in a different case. 2N2222 and 2N3904 transistors were the most common 'overseas' types before Japanese and Chinese transistors started to appear over here in the U.K. This Wikipedia article is an interesting read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC548
I remember wondering about whether that pull up on the base was needed from the meteor light project. I didn't test it at the time because I ended up using a mosfet instead of a BC547 (the meteor lights could be quite power hungry, and with the BC547 spent most of it's time in the linear region and not fully saturated). Then a low power PIC was added to turn them off a bit after midnight, so they didn't annoy the neigbours by running all night, and save a bit of charge during the winter months.
I don't really like placeing my batteries right in the solar panels ( in these small projects) because of where I'm from. In the centre Chile summer my panels get so hot I bet i can cook on top of them jajajaja.
I made one of these three years ago from this vid, I use super capacitors and a joule thief circuit with it as well. It has sat outside on my porch the whole time still going strong.
I love your channel for these sorts of simple videos anyone can follow, I am going to make this same light right now, we all got tons of these batteries lying around!
Binmen: Boys, get the hazmat suits on, smells like Big Mans been playing with dodgy stuff again. Big Clive: Its Korean Cinnamon Punch tins and old solar panels.
I love your channel. My other favorites are Techmoan, 8-bit guy, Technology Connections, 8-bit keys, Retro recipes, Mr. Carlson's Lab, Fran's Lab, EEV, just to name a few. My father asked me if you can say, "Purple Burglar Alarm?" Not sure why. He wouldn't tell me.
@@bigclivedotcom REALLY?! That's not very neighborly! Excuse me while I give him a very stern talking to. I come from a Scottish heritage as does he - grrr!
I remember being frustrated with the European transistors with part numbers I could not find. But usually I found a 2N2222 worked quite well. NPN with collector voltage limit of 60, current rating of 1 A and (usually) a 1 W power rating. In the rare cases where it didn't have enough gain, I used two of them in a Darlington config.
BC547 and it's cousins (546, 548, 549) are very common in electronics projects all over the world. Equivalents to them, if you're somewhere they're not as common, can be: BC337; 2N3904 ; 2N5088; 2N2222; Or any other TO-92 package, NPN transistor classified as a "General Purpose Transistor". Just remember to check the pinout on the respective datasheet to the part you're using!
Odd how everyone seems to go for the BC547. I've always defaulted to the BC548. Is there much difference in them? I'm guessing a slight difference in gain, voltage rating, or current rating might be the answer.
Every single English course I've ever been to has always taught possessive "it" with an apostrophe. But, you are correct, as stated here by the Oxford Dictionary: en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/its-or-it-s Thanks for letting me know!
The BC547 seems to have a higher voltage rating while the BC549 has lower noise, at least according to wikipedia. Probably should default to the 549 if it is similarly priced.
I realize this is a bit old, but a great video none-the-less. It is now very easy for we in the US of A to order the BC547 Transistors from Ebay, in fact I ordered a hundred because I am a bit dyslexic and trying to wire up a 3904 in place of the one you use was a bit much for my aging brain, but having a supply of the most common European transistor just makes life much easier.
You're like the Bob Ross of electronics. Sometimes I watch your videos just to relax. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
It is the Scottish accent. I lived up in Scotland and the people are really chilled and add a sense of humour and you will be refreshed by the positive energy.
He made me think of Bob Ross as well. How the paintings would have been if Clive and Bob switched places.
Was Bob Ross the painter fellow?
That's a perfect analogy!
You put to words the thing I have felt, good job, hah.
I'm no electronics guy, but after several years of watching Clive's channel, I actually feel confident that I can make this myself
Well, finally got around to building this. I have a backlit address light on the front of my house that gave up the ghost and the circuit was ridiculously more complicated than this but performed the same function. Charge battery during the day and light sign at night. It had a photocell and two solar panels. The insulation on the wires had disintegrated and the wires all corroded. So I tore everything out and rebuilt it as seen here basically just using the shell and it works like a charm.
So much for going to bed early! Thank you Clive, you are helping me understand things once again. I had Aortic surgery back in 2008 and was retired from my job in 2010. I was an electronic engineer but lost a lot of confidence. Neurological issues reduced me to tea making and sweeping up, from commissioning communications systems on helicopters. Anything greater than two wires was blanked. Thanks for your series on the basics. Some of it is coming back but tomorrow I will have lost it again. Best wishes. I envy you! Bob
Hi Clive, super simple and straight forward, so that I could start building them in a mini series as a night illumination for the bird feeders that my wife builds. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hot damn. Your soldering work looks so spot on. Everyone can clearly see you are doing this a lot and have done it for a long time.
For the first time ever, you've shown a project I literally have all the parts for! :D
You had better make it then I am going to
Even the Vilac soo jeong Giaa? Lmao
Nice!
I have been running one like this for almost 3 years now nonstop and so far it has been working with no problems , great little night light
It's always fun to see circuits like this done as simply as possible. A couple of notes:
1) Charging a battery by just hooking it up to a solar cell works because the solar cell can only provide limited current, but it's important to make sure that the cell you're using won't put out more current (under full sunlight) than what the battery can take as its max charging current, or you could fry your battery (can be an issue if you're using small batteries with large solar panels).
2) If you want to be able to adjust the light level at which it switches on, you can put a variable resistor between the base and the positive rail too (might be useful, because I wonder a bit whether the current setup would actually switch on or not under, say, a full moon).
I guess I'm late to the game on this, but I wanted Christmas lights along my garden area this year. I used a 3.7V Nokia and a 6V solar cell. It works like a charm. Thanks for the terrific video!
I like that the solar cell is the charger, and light level sensor. We had some solar lights that used a LDR/CDS to sense light levels. Over engineered.
Let's get this out onto a tray ! Nice !
Yes!
Nice little hiss!
Steve1989 is the king of MREs.
When steve gets something from ancient Mesopotamia, that's delectable like fresh! I'm gonna have to finish this! How has he not died of botulism
@@samclarke3573 fake food kills germs, good and bad. Nice!
Ingenious, Clive. I love it! So much that I've made a new folder for your projects. Your soldering and well thought out project is a dream. Thank you so much!
Nice to see Korean stuffs on this channel! Big love from Korea :)
Whenever I play a Clive video my cat comes in the room and starts mewing, he must like the Scottish accent.
I have two old phone batteries on my desk, I was thinking "What can I do with them?" and this video shows up.
not only cats like Clive's voice ;)
They think his beard is a play thing 😁
You're funny small 😅😅😊
Thank you so much Clive. Watching you is so very therapeutic. Last two weeks have been truly shite. I failed electronics when I was at college cos I was colour blind. Couldn't read the resistors, etc. But watching you is so very soothing. Thank you.
A reasonable accommodation for that would be to allow you to use a multimeter to measure the resistance. I can see (forgive the pun) where you might still have difficulties, but there are ways around those difficulties.
Excellent. Found a use for all those solar panels from otherwise "dead" solar lights. Should be a fun project too!
Brilliant idea!
thats a sweet little project clive! My 6 year old wants to do that on the weekend. awesome vid once again.
Thanks, Clive, for another interesting and useful project. More like this please!
''The charge current is limited purely by what the solar panel can deliver, in this case about 100 to 200mA. '' i saw that after! thank you! love your projects!
In germany we lay the transistors flat side on the table with the legs facing to you, then it is "Ein Blöder Collector" (one stupid collector) and the EBC line up with the pins
True for BC547. Not true for 2n2222 among others.. :)
The To-92 pinout is not standardised. It can be BCE, CBE or even ECB for pin 123. To-220 is always BCE though.
Simon Tay - Yes, it’s a right pain in the arse! I wish they had agreed on a standard.
Even more fun is the transistors that are/were available with alternative lead outs, like the BC214L...
i just try one then the other if it doesn't work..
Clive, This is just what I needed! A few month ago I came about of several old protected phone batteries and always wanted to do something with solar power and lights!!! I will give this a go and tell you how it goes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I made this!
Had all the parts floating around. Used a 2N3904 & a schottky diode.
The lithium battery I found in my 'to be recycled' box. Was measuring zero volts (yeah). 920 mAh.
Works great! Currently powering a laser diode while I blow e-smoke at it (because why not?).
Ran an attiny flashing led project of mine the whole night.
Edit: updated info.
Thank you Clive, I love seeing you build , modify and showing the maths behind the builds, I like the other stuff also but more so the electronics,
Love such projects. You should do more things with light/dark and movement sensors. I use them in lots of places in my home and it's not only look good(automatic on off depending on time of day and movement) but it also can reduce energy costs in home because you don't turn on main lights just to go to bathroom at night or turn on/off lights all the time because it detect movements or light.
I just bought tons of cheap night lights with photo-resistors or movement detectors, gut them out, replace leds and put in nice looking boxes and stuff them in closets, near the doors, garden, bathroom etc etc. And it work perfectly.
Akinaro Great idea!
Akinaro
Agreed.
In addition to the energy savings you mentioned, there would also be a conservation of duty cycles of the mains equipment (wall switches, tungsten bulbs, CFL coils, fluorescent tubes). Such mass-produced equipment is (usually) carefully engineered to reliably survive some specific number of duty cycles, and operating hours, but no more. Waste not, want not.
Excellent and such a simple circuit. I was eating breakfast thinking it would be nice to see a Big Clive project and there it was, great timing. More projects please. I’m going to make one of these.
Clive, your torch needs a "not Julian Ilett's" sticker :)
This is such an awesome project! I just love how "smart technology" it is. Which is so in tune with modern day themes. Also that it's just utilising salvaged parts so it's promoting reuse, recycle. Something I love doing but I just don't have the skills or knowledge! Electricity is one of those things my brain can never understand or get the hang of no matter how many times I watch videos on it. One day if I find a salvageable solar panel I will try this!!
Clive, this is exactly what I need to fix some external LED lit xmas trees that have given up the ghost. I've got a small solar panel and 2 old (but good) Samsung phone batteries. I'll be getting the other bits post haste. Thanks a million :)
if they were mains voltage xmas lights they won't work as they are wired in series, for this project they need to be parallel
"given up the ghost" - German detected!
"DerCrawlerVomUrAnus" - Internet linguist Idiot detected!
No, really. That saying has been in the English language for several hundreds of years. For example, in the Miles Coverdale Bible of 1535. So there.
@@DerCrawlerVomUrAnus : I have heard and used the same phrase all my life- never been near Germany.
@Anvilshock @WhiteHawkUK I didn't know that tbh, we use the same saying over here "den Geist aufgeben". I just thought he literally translated a German phrase into English, similar to "the yellow from the egg" or "I think I spider". Both are prime examples used to illustrate how *not* to speak English by literally translating expressions into other languages.EDIT: Spelling
I’ve seen one of your videos before this one and it gave me enough of a basic understanding of transistors. Recognizing your environment during my search for a basic solar powered configuration for LEDs, I needed to stop by to use a spin on an American colloquialism just to say you are a straight-up e-lectrical gangster- and your humor througout the whole process makes the process much more digestible.. I still need considerable repetition before I “understand” what the hell all these words mean, but you have provided a man’s one giant leap.. so thank you!
Also, I geeked watching that strip come alive. The satisfaction of the self-generated idea come to life- a marvel to witness!
14:04 - “It’s like Blue Peter, only more dangerous”
New channel tagline?
Superbun I agree
Now that looks a fun project Clive I must go through more of your older projects thank you.
Cool! Seems to work perfectly, and it's dead simple. (I can tell because I actually kind of understand the explanation of how it works, ha.)
I love it. I like coming up and building simple circuits like this. 😁 Love it.
It's easy to remember the BC547, I memorised it as the "Big Clive 547"... :P
As for the project, that's a pretty neat package there, it'd be interesting to see how long the LEDs remained lit from a fully charged battery... :)
I'd say veeeeery long. Green LED are fantastic, they are bright at very low current.
Doesn't matter. They were running on a 10 ohm resistor. The effeciency of the LED's makes no difference, it only determines how much light is produced.
I don't know what the voltage the transitor is outputting, assuming it is 4v(probably incorrectly), the LED's are using 4v / 10ohms = 0.4 amps of current. Assuming the battery is 1020mA/h, the light will stay lit for 1.02 Ah / 0.4 A = 2.55 hours.
In the US it would be a 2N-3904 or a 2N-2222
I've always wondered if that equivalent 2N of the BC is an identical transistor with just an american name or just one that is almost the same in function (hfe etc.)
It's amazing how memories work. I haven't thought about BC547s for about 40 years and I immediately remembered the name from my AO Level (roughly equivalent to a current AS level) electronics class at school.
Fantastic video, right at the time I was wondering how to make some solar charged led's for my boat that would go on and off automatically. Thank you!
Question: Am I the only one hearing a faint hum/buzz in the audio? Or is it the result of staying out too late last night?
Soldering station transformer.
I thought photo induction was around for a cuppa and some dangerous antics 😊
Thank you so much for this,. I made a name plate for the front door...I had 3 LEDs to light up the house number when dark..and I was looking for a diagram like yours .. I'm very new to electronics...and it's taking ages for my auld brain to learn these new tricks... I love your videos... You make it look so easy. 😃 Take care..
Love your stuff, Clive. This is very useful, please make more videos of this type.
One beneficial change I'd make, is adding battery holder, rather than soldering it in directly. You would have more thermal clearance, and you'd easily replace that battery once it puffs up (we've all had that happen to old Nokias)
That or move to a 18650, which would help in the long term. The BL-5C may not be available in 10-20 years
Anyone know how much less time different color lights would last? I can't wait to do this project but would prefer to use white light mostly.
I agree this like Bob Ross of today. So much talent bigclive!! When I was a teenager, I'm 40yr/old now, my friend Doug was really into small circuitry and solar panels, I guess I'm reminiscing of those days and will be trying this out.
@4:52 - don't you mean masticating?
If you are 'masticulating', you must have three hands...?
Simplistically "sweet". I would have never thought to use the reverse leakage of the solar panel to use as a photo-detector! Love the circuit "BC" and your channel. I am a Canadian EE and always learn things when a watch your channel!!!
Non carbonated sodas have to be nitrogen charged to maintain packaging stability. Otherwise it would crunch up like a water bottle and be supremely difficult to stack or put into a vending machine.
Peter Gettys for some drinks I'd think that could also help preserve the drink and keep it from going bad too.
That is very interesting. I didn't know that but it makes perfect sense. Thank you.
With the really thin plastic used on those they could. A little shot of nitrogen would prevent that and help keep the water from going bad.
Thank you for explaining all of this. I'm sure I could have found an explanation sooner with Google but the way you present it I find is easier to understand. Keep it up!
Speaking of labelling, you should check to my house. It seems the electrical wiring hasn't been done by a professional (or a dodgy one). They got live and neutral mixed up, so the fuses ended up on neutral.
I should say it was quite entertaining first time I tried to replace one of the light fixtures...
Perfect timing Clive! I've been looking at replacing some of my solar lights in the garden and building my own, this looks the ticket :)
At 3:18 was that a Steve1989MREInfo reference? :P
Think it was.. Second one I've seen this week too, Binging with Babish made one too 3 days ago, rofl
Damn right it was!!! LOL :-D
reminds me of my fathers electronic gadgets (12V fluros in the mid 80s) with a chooks nest of wiring and that always seemed to work!
That's my favorite drink when I was stationed in Korea.....
well, every korean including me are amazed that he somehow read that
Hi my friend, I really appreciate you taking time, and trying to make sure (Even The beginner can Do what you are doing.!! I remember first started out There wasn't any U-Tube" OR any videos Much more than pictures in book's, and spending hours at The library.!! OR trying to learn all I could from Others. YES, this is a very simple" Cheap project" as one comment, stated,... But they have forgotten about how hard it is to understand This stuff correctly.!! At the beginning of There (wanting to learn) stage... SO, TO YOU, I SAY THANK YOU, FOR REALLY CHEAP LIGHT PROJECTS,!! AND I For one would like to see More. Also, what you might Do with a step-up, and Voltage doubler.!! JR.
Next time you have friends over, when they walk in, be standing by the litter box eating one of those snacks. 😂😂😂
I scrounged up some parts (had to scavenge a diode and 10k resistor, but had the rest)
This was a fun build!
I have mine sitting in the sun happily charging away as I type this.
Super cool, Clive!
19:02 . . . If I would be tinning the transistor leads, holding the transistor between my finger and thumb, there would be "OWWW!!", and the transistor would be stuck in the curtains across the room.
So... you (pardon me) *yeeted* the transistor across the room?! I hope you didn't have a cat...
@@DanielPinel No cat here... but now that I think about it, I likely would say something a lot worse than "OWW", when I've been burnt and thrown a component across the room.
15:20 Thank you for explaining why the batteries are left at a half charge. Always wondered when I purchased a new device that had a Li-Ion battery that they came half charged. One more item ticked of the old bucket list.
Is it ok that this is using 5.4V to charge a 4.2V lipo battery?
AFAIK the DW01 chip doesn't drop the incomming voltage to 4.2V. As long as it's below the over-current limit, it just passes it all through. Right?
Or is charging lipos one of those "it only takes what it needs" situations, and feeding it overvoltage is fine as long as it doesn't try to keep charging it's own internal voltage to beyond 4.2V (which it won't coz the chip cuts it off as soon as it gets there).
As far as I know, the input voltage from the solar panel would drop to the battery voltage during charging as it’s a current limited supply. If it wasn’t current limited then yes, in theory, it could be overcharged.
If you supply higher voltage to any battery it will charge it, the current would be dependent on voltage difference and cell internal resistance, so higher the voltage diffrence higher charging current. Solar panels of this size can't deliver much current so even the 1.2V difference is acceptable as the voltage will drop in the solar panel
Mr Auto plus I'm sure the protection circuit would limit the maximum charge current.
I think he's relying on the chilly, low-light conditions of the isle of man as well as the high internal resistance of the solar cell to keep from overcharging the lipo.
You're not feeding it overvoltage, since its current limited, and as you say, once its not, the chip cuts it off.
Thanks so much for making this video. It is still useful even after roughly 4 years. I'm supper excited and i will try something soon
But Clive, when I learned to solder many centuries ago, Rule Number 1 was 'You must have a sound mechanical connection before applying solder." I seldom see you do that. Is Rule Number 1 no longer a thing?
Yes, that and heat sinking the leads on solid state components because the heat of soldering can damage them.
If you mean like bending leads after inserting a component into a PCB then that's something I disapprove of. It makes it much harder to desolder faulty components without risk of PCB damage.
My lecturers would have thrown anything I made across the room in disgust if I'd bent the component legs over prior to soldering!
It's probably one of those rules for beginners to teach a steady hand sufficient to provide said mechanical connection alone. After all, nowhere in that rule does it say that it must be a connection that can carry the weight of an average Olympic elephant and that requires tools and/or destructive bureaucracy to separate.
Same for me - but going back almost 50 years to valve and tag-board construction. I guess everything was under much more stress - like when changing valves, so perhaps mechanical solidity is less needed now. And as Clive says - makes it a pain to remove anything.
A very neat little project! I tried a similar project with the same sized solar panel and made a right mess of it. Now I can do it right. Thanks!
"Nice hiss"
that explains the ringing in my ears.... XD
Lets get this out on a tray
Steve1989MREInfo
Doom2508 "Nice!"
I stopped watching Steve when I was so addicted to his videos that I had been thinking of trying out Camel Cigarettes for that euphoric experience. Also, there really wasn't much variation between the MRE's. Sure, some countries put in off the shelf food.. and some had their own designs. Most of it was the same. I was happy whenever Steve would eat something foul and clearly way past its shelf life.
I love you Clive! You're good people.
Two things:
First, why not use an LDR as a resistor to turn on\off the transistor.
Next, that looks like a generic Nokia battery...I bought some of those off of eBay not too long ago for a similar project; however, I didn't trust them. I know the official ones and good generic batteries *should* have the protection, but... it's eBay, so make no assumptions.
So I left it charging on my bench power supply constant voltage for days and nothing exploded. So this looked good right? Well, I went on resoldering the terminals and the plastic melted. My curiosity got the better of me. I peeled off that plastic and saw the board.
From that, I found the middle contact to be a resistor (for determining the capacity), but I saw an outline of where the protection chips should have been.
Concerned, I clipped the board off and there was **zero** protection on the battery.
Moral of the story? Double check your batteries, unless you are certain of where they came from.
why use an ldr when you have one already, the panel?
amojak ah, true and it's not like the LDR would go to an "infinte" high resistance when light is absent.
Geez dude. This couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s early spring here in North Carolina and I’ve just planted everything and I was looking for a better way to get a charge on my outdoor solar lights. Now I’m going to use this.
Instead soldering that base resistor to diode you could solder it directly to that pad to the left.
Used to do a similar setup up with apprentices (I live in Germany) I would walk them through a motion sensor setup for the bathroom. So you would get up in the night and the light would activate for three minutes and give of enough light to aim and wash your hands.
Very neat and clever circuit!
I always learn something from Big Clive. :-) Excellent video, as usual.
The chinese will be snapping you up to replace there designers of cheap lights :-D.
and without the resitor behind the LEDs.
I thought the same when he doodled the circuit diagram. I reckon in about 12 months, he'll open up an eBay solar light, and it'll have the same design (including an unpopulated resistor pad where he drew the alternative version).
lol i would not be supprised :-D
they actually have a cheaper design, using only small cheap chip (like YX8018) and inductor that basically is doing everything (regulate the current, control charging and turning on and off), there are even other versions of the same chip that allow bigger voltage (cells in series) and bigger current
I wonder if Clive knows about Shenzhen I/O?
Nice! I think I enjoy your 'putting things together' videos more than your 'taking things to bits' videos..
Lovin' this! How about scaling it up a tiny bit, ...a 5w panel and a 3 w cob with a 6800mAh cell?
Sounds like what I did at my home with 24 volt panels, battery banks and several COBs
Could be an awesome idea for a camper floodlight.. might have to do this as I'm not satisfied with the outdoor lighting on my Dutchman.
You'll need a better transistor 2n2222 can only drive 500-600 mA
how about 100w panel 75w led and 2 car batteries.
I love this. More simple projects please, for those of us of a less ambitious nature. ;)
3:48 you have a third hand?
Yes, but it has a mind of its own. xD
Oh yes- well spotted. That's was weird!
And a third leg to match.
Eryk Johansson I think something fell over on his bench
Foot-activated box releasing mechanism. :-D
Love it. Got it working on my string of coloured LEDs. I'm so used to... plus rail on top; neg rail on bottom. So it took me a while to get my head around this. It all depends on the leakage current. Nice work Clive.
The most common generic NPN in canada is the 2n2222
when i was a kid the bc108 / bc109 was the one..
BC547, BC548, BC549 plastic transistors are the same as BC107, BC108, BC109 metal can transistors, just in a different case. 2N2222 and 2N3904 transistors were the most common 'overseas' types before Japanese and Chinese transistors started to appear over here in the U.K. This Wikipedia article is an interesting read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC548
Brilliant circuit! So simple yet works a treat. If I were to design it, I would have popped right in an MCU.
Now, with the lights off, place the lit LED strip on the solar cell. 😎
huehue
Infinite energy !!
Hmm... I wonder if it would start flashing.
William Squires some of the energy will be lost to heat sadly
Enjoy your solar light flashing and oscillating as hell
Thankyou! Ive tried 2 times and finally got it to work, gonna build a garden light that will actually last more than 2 hours now.
10:05 I genuinely thought you were going to say “if it ever will”, that was strangely cool though ..
A simple enough circuit that even I can follow, and will likely be making a few of these myself. Great use for old phone batteries.
Please more Projects :)
YES !
I remember wondering about whether that pull up on the base was needed from the meteor light project. I didn't test it at the time because I ended up using a mosfet instead of a BC547 (the meteor lights could be quite power hungry, and with the BC547 spent most of it's time in the linear region and not fully saturated). Then a low power PIC was added to turn them off a bit after midnight, so they didn't annoy the neigbours by running all night, and save a bit of charge during the winter months.
I let my neighbors annoy me, and they're OK with me annoying them.
If you dont use protection for your battery then you might end up with heaps of little batteries! Lol!!
so funny
Did you actually watch the video....?
Peter Kay yes did you?
Mr. greens boat tanks and aluminium welding he clearly explains that the batteries have a built-in protection circuit.
Jason Kloos yes i know, it was a joke!🤑
As someone who is completely baffled by electronics, I find your videos fascinating.
I don't really like placeing my batteries right in the solar panels ( in these small projects) because of where I'm from. In the centre Chile summer my panels get so hot I bet i can cook on top of them jajajaja.
They also run very inefficient when heated.
👏🏼👏🏽 that was a good gizmo,auto on,auto off,auto solar charging. 😍
Oh my that was just the funniest thing that I've ever heard (that looks like a huge turd actually). Very funny big Clive LMAO
I made one of these three years ago from this vid, I use super capacitors and a joule thief circuit with it as well. It has sat outside on my porch the whole time still going strong.
3:18 Not bad!
I love your channel for these sorts of simple videos anyone can follow, I am going to make this same light right now, we all got tons of these batteries lying around!
4:15 *plot twist: it is actually dried poop*
I love watching you solder, it's a true art
Binmen: Boys, get the hazmat suits on, smells like Big Mans been playing with dodgy stuff again.
Big Clive: Its Korean Cinnamon Punch tins and old solar panels.
I love your channel. My other favorites are Techmoan, 8-bit guy, Technology Connections, 8-bit keys, Retro recipes, Mr. Carlson's Lab, Fran's Lab, EEV, just to name a few. My father asked me if you can say, "Purple Burglar Alarm?" Not sure why. He wouldn't tell me.
The classic Glasgow accent really destroys those words. It merges them together.
@@bigclivedotcom REALLY?! That's not very neighborly! Excuse me while I give him a very stern talking to. I come from a Scottish heritage as does he - grrr!
I swear! It's like having a teasing older brother for a father!
Do more solar garden light repairs, must be a few not working in your garden.
Is that a mister poole in your profile picture?
moot is ded
More quality viewing. Never stop doing this Clive Bravo.
I see you turn your pop tabs to the side eh?
Some of the captive tabs here tend to pull out moustache hairs.
I naturally turn mine to the left every time I open a can. An old habit from party days so I knew it was mine if I set it down;)
oh good, im not the only one that happens to XD it gets annoying, as i always forget untill it happens
I always pull them off unless I use a straw in which case I line the holes up.
@@bigclivedotcom so you've got a moustache then
I remember being frustrated with the European transistors with part numbers I could not find. But usually I found a 2N2222 worked quite well. NPN with collector voltage limit of 60, current rating of 1 A and (usually) a 1 W power rating. In the rare cases where it didn't have enough gain, I used two of them in a Darlington config.
BC547 and it's cousins (546, 548, 549) are very common in electronics projects all over the world.
Equivalents to them, if you're somewhere they're not as common, can be:
BC337; 2N3904 ; 2N5088; 2N2222;
Or any other TO-92 package, NPN transistor classified as a "General Purpose Transistor". Just remember to check the pinout on the respective datasheet to the part you're using!
Odd how everyone seems to go for the BC547. I've always defaulted to the BC548.
Is there much difference in them?
I'm guessing a slight difference in gain, voltage rating, or current rating might be the answer.
Possessive its has no apostrophe.
By default, BC171 I suppose. ...what? Not at all, what do you mean "oldschool"?!? If I wanted to go there, I would have said "AC181"...! ;)
Every single English course I've ever been to has always taught possessive "it" with an apostrophe.
But, you are correct, as stated here by the Oxford Dictionary:
en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/its-or-it-s
Thanks for letting me know!
The BC547 seems to have a higher voltage rating while the BC549 has lower noise, at least according to wikipedia. Probably should default to the 549 if it is similarly priced.
Just made this for my sons bed room he loves it and it works a treat. Thanks Clive 👍
They look like Jobbies !!
jackwe10 and crunchy jobbies at that... Clive will eat almost any shit...
I realize this is a bit old, but a great video none-the-less. It is now very easy for we in the US of A to order the BC547 Transistors from Ebay, in fact I ordered a hundred because I am a bit dyslexic and trying to wire up a 3904 in place of the one you use was a bit much for my aging brain, but having a supply of the most common European transistor just makes life much easier.