Solar Charge Controller for LED Flame Bulb

[dk6693]

Greetings everyone!

I am an extremely novice/amateur when it comes to electronics. I can do some simple repairs and cobbling-together of parts but am very inexperienced with electrical/electronics engineering. So please be gentle.

I’m looking to build a solar powered/charged lantern using an LED flame bulb similar to the one linked below. I’ve already built a functioning battery-powered version but want to incorporate solar charging and on/off function.

I’ve determined that the led matrix and control board require about 6v so I’m running it with 4 AA batteries. That part has been no sweat. What I can’t figure out is how “big” of a solar charge controller it’ll need to charge the batteries. I’ve Googled everything I can think of but haven’t been able to find anything covering what I’m specifically looking for or makes enough sense to me to apply to my project.

I’d really appreciate any help/advice/links to products that anyone can provide.

Thanks in advance!

Here’s the Amazon link to the bulb I’m using. https://a.co/d/1qejjXr

Also, if anyone know of these same type of bulbs that operate on less voltage that’d be awesome too.

Thanks again!

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Do you have a multimeter?
If you measure the current the lamp draws from the 6V batteries, you can then work out the solar panel power needed to recharge them.

 

[dk6693]

Do you have a multimeter?
If you measure the current the lamp draws from the 6V batteries, you can then work out the solar panel power needed to recharge them.

rjenkinsgb, yes I have a multimeter and will try to see how much current the lamp is pulling from the batteries. What formula/method do I use to work backwards with the current draw?

 

[audioguru]

LED flame bulbs do not look like that!
My neighbor has a pole in his yard with 5 bright LED flame bulbs on it and it looks great, almost like real flames.

I bought an LED flame solar garden light for $4.00 CAN at Dollarama. Its AAA Ni-Cad battery was garbage so I replaced it with a Ni-MH good one. It has a vertical little circuit board with 6 orange LEDs on each side flickering and making random chasings. It has the usual 1.2V to 3.5V voltage stepup circuit used in solar garden lights.
The product must be in full sunshine all day long for it to work most of the night long. It is not bright but is OK.

 

[dk6693]

Audioguru, thank you for the information. I think we’re still talking about the same thing though. The Amazon item I linked to has the same vertical led matrix (wrapped into a vertical cylinder) inside the plastic diffuser.

 

[Lightium]

rjenkinsgb, yes I have a multimeter and will try to see how much current the lamp is pulling from the batteries. What formula/method do I use to work backwards with the current draw?

You would use Ohm's law.

 

[audioguru]

The Amazon LED flames bulb has many LEDs probably in series strings since there is so much electricity voltage available. Since you have it working from only 6V then the LEDs must be matched and in parallel strings.

I have a cheap LED flashlight (torch?) that is powered from only 3 AAA battery cells (4V to 4.5V) and its 60 small LEDs must be paralleled.