Upgrading Solar Lights

[nabberuk]

Hi,

I have a set of solar fairy lights, they are powered by a single 1.2v AA. It has a dusk sensor and a solar panel. It's a pretty standard setup.

What i would like to do as a little project is replace the control box with a higher powered solar cell, bigger battery and include the dusk sensor.

As you can tell i'm pretty new to this, so are there any tips on where i should start?

Thanks

 

[alec_t]

The boost converter IC (usually a black blob on a small pcb) in the light is probably designed to cope with no more current or voltage than it already deals with, so that might need upgrading too. And perhaps replace the LED with a brighter one? Doesn't leave much (any?) of the original light .
Your lights must be a luxury type; mine just use the solar panel as the dusk sensor .

 

[audioguru]

I have MANY (too many) solar garden lights. I got 10 for free as a promotion to save electricity from my electrical utility company and they are more than 15 years old. The Chinese Ni-Cad AA batteries lasted less than one summer so I replaced them with name-brand Ni-MH cells. The wires on the yellow LEDs rusted away in one year so I replaced them with different colored good LEDs. The plastic solar panels got sunburned so I polished them then coated a clear finish on them.

I bought 10 for $1.00 Canadian each (($.70 American) from Walmart and only one worked brightly all night following a sunny day. I returned 9 and replaced them and found another good one. I returned some again over and over (the clerk said, "You again?"), sometimes keeping a good battery from one and installing it in one with a good sensitivity solar panel. They came with AAA Ni-MH batteries marked 300mAh and 600mAh with no manufacturer's name. Most measured only 100mAh, the good ones I kept measure about 500mAh each and the ones marked 600mAh measured less than 100mAh. I added a Schottky diode and capacitor and replaced their white LEDs with multi-colored flashing/fading LEDs. I measured the forward voltages of all the surplus white LEDs I got and picked two that were the same and connected them in parallel in one solar garden light.

A few of my solar garden lights had transistors and a LDR that rusted away in one year but most use the solar panel as a light sensor and charger to feed the Black Blob On Board.

Very bright solar garden lights are sold and are fairly expensive. I would not find their parts anywhere to make one myself.