Waterproofing your solar lights to make them last longer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2022
- Since I really like this light (featured in a different video) I thought I'd make sure it's not going to succumb to damage from water ingress. It's the biggest destroyer of solar garden lights, and a little bit of waterproofing could make them last many times longer than they normally would.
For the PCB and where connections are close together I recommend a clear lacquer like cheap nail varnish. It's very easy to apply with the included brush.
The switches in these units are notorious for corroding inside, so bridging them out with a blob of solder will prevent that from being an issue.
The waterproofing of the solar panel itself is often the trickiest bit. On some panels a bit of water wicking along the edge can cause electrolytic corrosion that gradually eats away at conductive layers over time.
Another common point of corrosion is the terminals of the LED. They are often made of coated steel and corrode readily, aided by their close vicinity. A blob of lacquer or grease will block the water from sitting in that area.
The main issue with the batteries is corroded terminals. Smearing them liberally with grease will prevent that by excluding water and air. If you really squish it around the positive pip end it will also prevent the conductive schmoo forming between the anode and cathode of the battery case where they are close together.
Doing these things will have a huge impact on the life of your lights. Other things for the future are to note that you can solder in some new LEDs if you wish, and the batteries do gradually fail due to the high number of charge/discharge cycles they get. With AA or AAA NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) cells you can just swap in a new one. It doesn't have to be an expensive one - dollar store rechargeables are fine as the capacity doesn't have to be high and self-discharge is less of an issue with daily charge/discharge cycles.
For the true geek you can also change the inductor to get higher or lower intensity/run-time. Generally using lower values like 47uH will result in higher intensity, while 220uH or higher reduces the intensity, but results in much longer run time. Ideal for low sunlight applications.
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/ bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
It would be interesting to put one untreated outside as well, and revisit this in a year (or whenever it fails) to show the difference.
it will just rust away probably wont take a year if its got wet.. ive seen them with no legs left on the chip.. and the led with no legs or only 1 leg because the positive leg of the led was rusted away.. i never thought of nail varnish.. thats a good idea
@@09danstart On the other hand, I've got a number of solar "beacon" lights intended for marine use. They cost more, but are hermetically sealed and last a long time. I use them to guide vehicles up my long driveway.
I have two out of three deck post top solar lights that are dead. The one that works is over the overhang of the house and doesn't get wet. They all get roughly the same amount of sunlight. It took almost 3 years for them to die
Very useful video, and perfect timing too ... I've just put a home-made solar light out in the garden. I conformal coated the PCB, but forgot about the battery connections.
for lamps where the circuitry is contained in the top cup, personally i just melt some vaseline on a big spoon or similar small metal container and the dump it all over the interior making sure it touches everything before it cools by swirling it around and actuating the wet switch. its messy but is quick for when you are waterproofing a lager set. also has the benefit of the coating not being able to crack
There's good info for knowing what's driving the tech, but then there's great info for maintaining and protecting it! Love this video.
For connectors, terminals or sealing ingress points, I personally prefer Silicone grease, it's safe for use on most things and since it's intended for o-rings anyway, that makes it great for outdoor projects like a water-resistant box.
I believe some UK telecommunications crimp joiners are packed with silicone grease. I’m pretty sure that’s what it is in there, I managed to get a box of them some time ago (still got them somewhere). They’re an IDC terminal, translucent, with 2 entries, for thin solid cored wire.
I like to use silicone grease on the external connections in outdoor TV aerial installations; found that it makes them last a long time before failing. Some TV aerial installers do this, but most don't, probably because leaving it out guarantees them follow-up work in a couple of years!
@@nutgone100 They're referred to as "jelly beans" and the contents are silicon gel, rather than grease. British Telecom have been using then since the latter half of the eighties. They're a definite improvement over the old open terminal blocks (chocolate block), plus, they're cheaper and faster to install. Since the advent of broadband, jelly beans have been retrofitted in older copper wire telephone installations. Even in the dial up days, jelly beans were an option if the engineer thought it would be worthwhile. The difference is palpable, silent lines, no hissing, no crackling, no squealing, no nothing, just nice silent telephone lines.
@@nutgone100 You mean fish eye connectors and I believe you are right about the silicone grease. Might have been petrolium jelly in the past though.
@@MrJozza65 foam dielectric cable & CX3 connectors 👍
Used to do the silicone grease and glue lined heatshrink previously.
I'd spot-weld some nickel strips on the NiMH cell and solder the wires directly on. Also, install the cell with the + pole pointing down. The can (which is the negative terminal) reaches all the way up and forms the "collar" around the plus pole. If that groove fills up with water and/or oxidises, it will short out the cell. With the + pole down, it should just shed moisture.
That's a clever take, I like it!
Please bear in mind that some nail varnishes are slightly conductive. Usually those that have 'hardeners' or some such labeling.
THANK YOU! Exactly what I needed as I hate having to replace outdoor solar lights every year. I knew there had to be something that helped.😊
Well that's one way to explain the vaseline and nail varnish in your toolbag. 😋
EXCELLENT tips, Big Clive! That's what I have been doing on electrical devices for decades. It's good to spread the word!
Thank you! And best wishes!
Used to work in garden centres and had no end of returns on lights "stopped working". Very few of these are labelled "waterproof" but the (reasonable) assumption is that they go outside - they should be!
Do they make a loss on them? I'd imagine most of these lights are destined for landfill after 6 months.
@@CamelCasee They figure that most customers will simply buy another one. Only around 5% will still have the slip around, and be bothered to claim on the warranty. However with the increasing rise of shop cards all you have to do is have a rough idea of when you got them, and then get the shop to look up and reprint the invoice to return them, though with more now emailing you the slip it is easy to just look at your email and find the shop purchases and look yourself, and give them the invoice number to enter in the returns counter. Did that last week, returning a failed cheap mouse, more because I was going to the store anyway, and it had died after a week, so exchanged 3 weeks after I got it.
😠
I wonder if there is such a thing as the "100$ garden light", that has all the bells and whistles a garden light should have...
I personally have a piece of ws2812 strip and a powerbank stuffed in a 2000ml white powder bottle. works really well, even in the pool :D got to charge it now and then though.. but it has wifi :D
Clive, there is a really good product out there called "Wet Protect" It comes in an aerosol can, you can spray it into the light and be done. That stuff wicks everywhere and forms a potent barrier against moisture. I have used it for years in waterproofing marine electronics including radios, never had a problem since. As far as I have observed it does not degrade plastic in any way. I am in no ways afilliated with the company.
I much perfer silicon grease and it has so many other uses around the house. Car Ignition Sealer spray has also come in handy.
I use red nail varnish to mark the +ve terminal in things like TV remotes when there are only relief moulded indications. I also use nail varnish as a thread lock. Not for anything serious but maybe on the nuts and bolts of a chassis mounted PCB for instance.
Where I work at we replace the external car lights. We've had a serious reduction in "redo's" when we started to put dielectric grease in the lamp contacts. You can pick this up at any car parts store. I used to use a glob of lithium grease for the car lights (not the LED types but the incandescent type).
Great hints, thanks a lot, I always put a big blob of Vaseline in summer on the top of the lamp what is mostly the solarpanel and wait until the hot sun melts it, because that flows same like water and gets stuck every where, so that seals the system pretty well
Looks like i'll be busy on my next day off buying some clear nail polish and treating those new solar path lights
I've got lots of coloureds, perfect touchup for bicycle frames.
Thank as always for the timely advice Clive
Love this! A lot of these kind of cheap garden lights will barely make a year here in California (where it hardly even rains!).
Hey man I throughly enjoy your videos and have learned quite a lot about electronics REALLY helpful. Thank you!
I use UV hardening glue (a tip from Julien from way back) to seal up outside things like this...works really well and since it dries crystal clear I can still see if there are any issues.
Never thought about nail varnish though...it's much cheaper than the glue too...thank you Clive!
I velieve that it was Julien who was using hot melt glue on some stuff that lived outdoors, and the results were less than optimal.
@@Roy_Tellason
The kind I'm referring to was not the hot glue but a UV glue...you put it on and use a UV light to cure it.
Always love your content!
I don't have any decorative lights inmy garden, but if I buy some in the future then i now know what to do. I know I've got a soldering iron out in the garage somewhere I'll figure it out if it ever comes to that. And nail polish also... good tip.
Great idea. Thanks
i like your idea and make stay longer with waterproofing. Good job!!!
Thank you GRANDPA CLIVE, we will not forget you
Great idea 💡 👍 thanks Clive
Outstanding! Thanks Clive, I've had to bin a few 'cheap as chips' but nice lights in the past.
Clive, you are naughty giving a can of Vaseline such prominence!!
I've been wanting to do this. I was going to seal the solar panal with Silicone. I will ad these trick you showed to it as well! Thanks clive.
I like to use two-part epoxy and a paintbrush. ArtResin or JB ClearWeld or any other will do. Another easier-to-apply option is a transparent rubber spray such as Gorilla waterproof patch N spray or flex seal clear. The rubber sprays are far easier to remove if you ever need to repair the circuit.
Thank you Clive!
Big Clive Industries, for all your waterproofing needs! Sounds good to me. Good luck. 👍
What I like to use is that UV glue, well the cheap version, UV nail varnish, it's amazing what you can use, sold cheaply for cosmetic decoration.
I also the coloured nail varnish, plain colours, red, brown, blue and yellow, on wires that I want to identify as live, neutral or data even, wire that had no identification.
Thanks for the reminder, I meant to do that to our new garden lights before I put them out this season but forgot.
Excellent advice on all of it but most especially the battery terminal. I use silicone grease from the plumbing department.
Good tip!
And when creating your own pcb designated for outdoors, as long as you do it using the dryfilm/uv-exposure method, after etching you can create a solder mask on that pcb using the same method again.
For a couple of years now I'm frankensteining my parents solarlights and the first pcbs to exchange the rotten original ones were made by the tonertransfer method.
Without a soldermask those quickly became somewhat filthy.
New versions using dryfilm for etching and then once again for solder mask are doing just fine.
Thanks Clive 👍
Wicked thanks very much Clive
Thanks Clive.
Excellent, I've only tried to improve my cheap stuff with sealing the case.
_Awe How Sweet._ Clive must Really love this light. ready to use next year, too. : } *Thanks* for info!
yeah yeah yeah
Thanks for the tips mate
Aha, cheers Clive, gotta say I’d heard of using oil or a varnish but hadn’t considered using Vaseline. Good tip. Personally, I’ve always popped them open and just smeared silicone sealant about, facilitating any lower areas to drain and air out. With the ‘death switch’ I just bridge the pins with wire/foil and coat that too. Because I’m a lazy bear, lol.
Ha ha funnily enough i have my nail varnish conformal coating to hand for all my waterproofing needs too. Cheers for the video Clive and all the best from sunny lancashire.
This came just at the right time..👍
I’ve actually got garden lights I want to save..
I’ll probably be replacing a few of the crappy switches at the same time..
I find them a more significant point of failure than water ingress and not just on garden lights..😕
very useful video. i'd like to offer a further tip suitable for some situations. a mix of silicone and turps. i find equal parts of each are best for me. other spirits besides turps also work but i prefer turps. they dont seem to mix but keep stirring, they do. i use it for around the very edges of the solar cell. another useful tip i saw in the comments of one of your videos was to use metho to clean the crud that develops on the surface of the plastic coated solar cells.
I gave up on solar lights ages ago. Might get some and give this a try
Same, waste of money and hassle imo.
I like to buy strings of Christmas lights, just to look at the pretty colors. They always seemed to quit on me quite early, so I took to pulling each lamp from its socket, scraping the connections on both the bulb and the socket, then putting a film of Vaseline in the copper/brass connections before plutgging them back together. The result of all this is that a string of lights that used to last for 6 months, lasted for over 2 years. Eventually I noticed that one of the end sockets was always "corroded," I suspect deliberately, to make sure the string would fail early.
Thanks. I've been using your pro tip to put some of the clear almost-self-fusing tape on top of solar panels and exchanging stock batteries by actually good NiMh ones for years now. So far I only had to replace them because the plastic bits are crumbling apart. Or someone accidentally broke them. It’s worth doing.
Could you expand a bit about the self fusing tape for solar panels? I haven't seen that video of Big Clive. Or perhaps give the name of that video?
Brilliant I’m going to be getting all our lights packed up for next year, I will do the water proofing, well earwig proofing lol, charge the batteries ready for next year thanks Clive
Thank you sir!
Damned useful stuff, nail varnish, and I have to confess I like the smell. Also very useful is nail varnish’s nemesis, acetone.
Clive's useful tip with nail varnish and vaseline. :)
Vaseline and nail varnish. Every dutiful man should have some available at all times, just in case. Always "be prepared" wrote Baden-Powell in his famous treaty "Scouting for Boys".
Excellent 👍👍
Hi Clive, First I'd like to thank you for including the direct youtube links in your patreon video email notifications, it saves lots of irritating clicks through the patreon site, and is a thoughtful addition.
On topic:
Thanks for the tips, and this is good general info for electronics exposed to outdoor conditions. The next time I need to replace the BME280 sensor in my weather monitoring setup, I'm going to apply these treatments to the exposed connections.
Be careful not to contaminate the sensor in any way with oil/grease/vapor, as it will affect its ability to measure humidity accurately.
@@Okurka. I for one am very appreciative of the Patrons. Vegans on the other hand.
I always put on grease to the contact points of the mechanical switches to prevent oxidation especially one of my simple projects.
1:09 For some reason this brought to mind playing Space Invaders back in the day.
Love it !
Brilliant!
Drone pilots use silicone conformal coating to protect our drones' electronics from errant crashes into puddles. This is readily and commercially available.
A very quick search while I was typing suggests that, for stationary applications like yard lights, acrylic coating will be significantly less expensive and do just as good a job.
The silicone stuff is preferred for FPV pilots since the acrylic can crack when you put your quad into a concrete pillar at 75MPH.
I use silicone paste or dielectric grease. Mission Automotive makes a nice thicker silicone paste. I have found it useful for tons of things.
Awesome Video big clive
This will make Mum happy, and me because I won't be given a bucket full of them to fix every year.
Where possible I like to cover the top and sides of solar gear with cling film. Just make sure the underside allows and damp like condensation to drip out.
in past i also used nail varnish to make simple pcbs
Thanks for sharing Clive!
They should do this already from the factory, but they don't/won't...
A few years ago, when you did a whole series on these solar lights, I stopped by a dollar store and picked up five. Two lost their plastic bits almost immediately by our dogs (but the electronics were salvaged), and one lost its plastic spike in the ground. Two of them are still operating on our back deck, though one of them is about to receive a parts transplant from one of its destroyed brethren. Turns out NiMH batteries get quite messy when they explode. 🤷♂
Thanks will do.
Nail varnish as conformal coating? Clever. 10/10, will try.
It's the butch embarrassment of buying the stuff . . ."Good morning, don't worry Miss - I'm not here for condoms." : )
When doing poe wireless access point installs in damp places like garages and sheds, or even under facia boards, I have always made a habit of dismantling them and spraying with about 6 coats of pcb lacquer. Not had a single customer complain of a failure in all the years I've done this.
I had wondered what Clive's favourite nail varnish was. Now we know.
Yes. It's high dielectric nail varnish.
I’ve done this. I like to coat the boards in epoxy resin from the discount shop. I use UV stable greenhouse tape over the solar panel to stop water ingress. Solar lights notoriously rust to death and don’t last long without any waterproofing. Honestly I don’t know why the manufacturers don’t just concoat them. Extends their life for several years.
That's probably exactly why they don't protect them. Future sales.
😠
Id rather buy slightly more expensive lights and not have to faff about waterproofing and sealing them, but ,even the more supposed better quality ones, Everready for example are poorly built and have water ingress issues.
Im a fisherman and sometimes repairing floats we use nail varnish and also superglue. Make sure you get the right type and its very waterproof also..........keep em coming Clive..........;)
in the US we have silicone conformal coating,
it works for years.
"The nail varnish I use".....Say that down the pub Clive 🤣
i can see that i will be needing to get some nice manly clear nail varnish, i can see a use for it on my ip rated led strips on the cut ends and the soldered ends.
In the mid- to end eighties we filled the (supposedly) IP68 distribution boxes for the very first (koax) network cable of the company i was working for then to the brim with vaseline to waterproof them. That way they were waterproof longer then the network ran on koax :). Nice to see this here in a way too 😁👍
I live close to the ocean. Salt is terrible. I do everything you do but I also I also put some silicone rubber on the top between the photo cell and the case. What I have found is that water will freeze and break the photo cell during the winter. It also keeps the water From getting underneath.
For the getting under the top, just pool a little nail varnish around that edge to better seal it.
Fall just started here so Ill try this next year. Thanks Clive
I wonder if there's anyway to make the plastic that comes on these not fade out so quickly or to clean them.
Very useful as usual, thanks. I’ve acquired a couple of Maglites with the usual problem of corroded, stuck batteries. I’ve cleaned one of them and I was wondering if you had any suggestions for treating the barrel before I put batteries in again. They’ll probably still end up corroding again but it might take less persuasion to get them shifted again. Vaseline might be the way to go, I guess. I was just going to give them a very light coating of 3-in-1. Thanks.
I've tried all ways to keep water out, and found that "WaxOyl" - the stuff to waterproof cars, is as good as it gets. I've previously tried melting candle wax over the circuitry, but it tends to peel off. Bee's wax is also very good, and when we consider that it's what was used to seal old wax/paper capacitors, it's not a bad choice. I have to say I hadn't thought of Vaseline before, but I can see how it would work very well.
Absolutely never use automotive lubricating grease. It will absorb moisture, and then promotes, rather than prevents corrosion.
I have wondered about paints before, but never got round to trying it, though I do use nail varnish in my vintage electronic restorations, mostly to seal screws and adjusters.
Good one with the automotive grease, yes, it is definitely hygroscopic!
thanks
BTW You can use UV Cue Resin / Bees Wax / Chlorinated rubber swimming pool paint (clear) / silicon oil / plastic dip (clear) / acrylic / white lithium grease for switches / buttons
Stern gland , stuffing box Grease and Bees Wax mix 50:50 (protects Electric motor, Combustion Engine & gearboxes ) Has a self Re sealing property due the Wax Cooling down
Also A Vacuum Chamber + Vacuum pump is useful (& Magnetic Indiction Hob with Temp Control ) (Transformer wax / Transformer Tar / Recyclable plastics)
This is more useful for more Porous Ceramic Components and getting a very good Solid Seal
I've covered the solar cell with a thin schmeer of clear silicone. I think I learned that here but I can't remember for sure
I'm going to try this! I've got some WD40 branded white grease spray which I'm going to liberally hammer all over the battery contacts etc and some fairly old clear coat car lacquer spray which might be good for the circuit boards etc!
I have been doing that for about 10 years now, and I need to add a little more info to your video...
1) The hard surface clear nail polish works best.
2) Completely cover everything on your pcb with that clearcoat or moisture will somehow find it's way in. (sometimes through the porous PCB itself)
3) If you get any of your components from china, you have to completely cover their leads with the clear nail polish after you finish placing them on the board. Especially the LEDs and the 4 lead solar light controller IC. (typically a 5252).
.
By doing that and carefully controlling how the battery is charged and discharged, I have some 10 led (multicolor dual rate flashing leds) solar powered lights that have been in service for more than 5 years and still going strong.
I built some into Mason Jars because I wanted to vacuum seal them, which only sucked more water into them when the lids rusted through, so avoid doing that in an attempt to seal them... I still build them into Mason Jars but now I replace the lids after about 3 years...
I had one lid that leaked so bad for so long that everything, including the battery, was under water. (which was very bad because I was using a Lithium battery to power it)
Luckily, it just kept flashing with the water in it, and after I poured it out and replaced the lid.
I no longer use the 5252 because it has too many external components and some batches are very sensitive to any supply voltages over 3 VDC; so I would have to use a voltage doubler or tripler to get the brightness I wanted from the leds....
It is an excellent device for a basic system but now I use a pair of 2N7000 fets, (leaded versions or smd), and a single resistor, in a simple circuit that can switch much higher voltages and currents...
Let me know if you want more information on what circuit I ended up with after 10 years of trying different combinations....
A bead of that nail polish or some silicone around the rim of the solar panel should help exclude moisture too. I prefer silicone for the flexibility as there's almost always a little flex in the goo that holds the solar cell in place meaning the polish would crack.
Great consumer advice...I wonder if a vaseline smeared battery contact might cause added resistance/conectivity issues?
The metal contacts push it out of the way at the point of contact.
These inexpensive solar yard lights could be re-marketed as 'solar emergency candles'. Tho only caveat being you would need to store them in a place outdoors so they could maintain a charge until you had a grid power failure. I know they often have an on/off switch, but I think they still gather solar energy while off.
I have tinkered with 'dollar store' solar yard lights. A common weakness I have found is with the battery connections becoming very corroded. Smearing a product called 'no-ox' or something similar onto the battery and the receptacle pretty much eliminates that problem. Another weakness that is common is the rechargeable AAA batteries have a high failure rate. Even the very cheapest batteries in my collection of rechargeable type outperform what the manufacturer installs.
So, one early spring I bought a large number of these units, like 25 or 30. They all had clear lenses. I took a trip to the craft store and thus discovered very affordable rolls of translucent cellophane in a variety of colors. I picked up 3 rolls, enough to last me a lifetime for sure. Then cut it into appropriately sized strips and inserted them in behind the clear lens. Oh my gosh I felt like the KING OF CRAFTINESS!! I had them all over the place. At night, I am fairly certain you could see my yard from outer space!😄👍
Thanks Clive for all you do. You are the KING OF BUDGET STORE TEARDOWNS!!
Keep up the good work 🤓
Using liquid rubber for those things. Also easier to get off if needed.
Silicone for the edges on the solarpanel
Conformal coating, if you have it, is a great product for this as it is a spray on product. Not many people will have this because it is a specialized electronics product.
I like the idea of Vaseline on battery terminals but for pcbs i used ignition sealer, it was Holts damp start but i cant find it any more so i used another one named Carlube.
Nearer the Ocean such corrosion would be prevalent, here at Dusty Mile High Denver, micro particulates are the problem, indoor odors, forest fire smokes, marj bowl blows, general air pollution will dirty up the inside of an electro-tech device in the first week out of the package. good barrier that nail varnish. surprising as well.
I have a single yellow LED solar light in my back garden. I purchased it in 2002 form £4.99 and it is now twenty years old. I have replaced the AA battery three times and repaired (or bypassed) the switch about eight years ago. It has never had any special attention (e.g. Nail Varnish) and has illuminated every evening for twenty years. Considering I have bought over two hundred solar lights since and none of them have survived for more than three years, I would say this is a pretty good design.
For the last eight years, we have lived on the Outer Hebrides, so it has also coped with 120 mph winds, driving rain and six hour long winter days.
I wish I had bought more than one of these lights...
You may find that waterproofing new lights gives them similar longevity.
I'm not sure I understood all the info.. except the recommendations of different lubricants for the battery's poles?
Thank u
If you use colour nail polish it makes it easier to see missed spots
(Just use clear around the LEDs if need be)
Another benefit of this is that you get to sniff the nail varnish ;) .
I had to do something similar to our cheap(ish) Chinese camera WiFi doorbell recently, it woke me (& the dogs, which were basically howling by the time I got downstairs) at 02:20 after a major thunderstorm, just wouldn’t stop going off.
I dried it out in some silica gel crystals but it did it again a couple of days later (thankfully at a more sociable hour), so I dried it out again & smothered the board in silicone based conformal coating.
So far it’s been ok. Those thunderstorms were pretty odd in as much as the wind wasn’t in the usual prevailing direction, I mean we’ve had it for months & it’s been fine, but it’s definitely not waterproof. Hopefully it is now though.