Cheap solar light dismantled and repurposed... kind off.

I got bored last weekend and bought a couple of cheap solar garden lights from the pound shop having taken them apart i then used some of the parts to make a small charger for my mp3 players aaa battery.
My apologies as this is an afterthought 'ible but its the thought that counts...

Step 1 Whats in the box

In the box is very basic solar light with a very puny solar cell all sealed up in a fairly weather proof box.

I'm still thinking of ideas for the external box with just a little hot glue it would be weather proof enough. The stake and the post could also come in handy for the garden if i ever think of any thing....

Comments

[cyberraxx]

Not a bad idea. I've bought quite a few of these from Pound World (about 7 now) and reused a couple for the parts. unlike yours mine have a 30mm x 40mm x 4mm dark solar panel. (forgotten type)

I've modified one so now the solar panel sits at 45 degrees and under the dome and the LED replaced with a string of 10 low-power LEDs (bought at Pound World) that were originally powered by 2 AAs. All have original batteries replaced with same brand NiMH batteries rated at 1000mAH (also bought at Pound World).

It actually lasts all night where as the un-modified ones only last a few hours. not sure why as all seem to use exactly the same identical parts, are identical in size and all get the same amount of sun light.

I'm wondering if I could somehow hook the PCBs in series and double the output. **gets out soldering iron.....**

[blackdogg]

you can use parts of the control pannel to make a control panel for a levitator with electro magnet

[slim_jim]

Didn't you spend an awful lot of money to come up with this funky recharger? For what you spent on three garden lights, you could have just purchased a real solar cell. Bigger, better, less ugly.

[steveo_mcg]

The lights were a pound each and i've re-purposed some of the other parts so while a better panel would have been not a lot more for £3 i've also got three tiny jule thiefs, 3 battery holders, 3aaa batteries and some other parts which i've yet to come up with a use for. If i had just purchased these for the cells your quite right a proper cell would have been (much) better but for the rest of the bits its not too bad. The charger was more of an afterthought.

[mikedoth]

At the place I last rented we were going to throw out a bunch of these lights. I ended up taking them apart and keeping the boards in a box. I recently took them out and they had a bunch of resistors and transistors. Problem is I don't know how to test the transistors but they had some 1k ohm resistors which was very cool.

[steveo_mcg]

Yeah they're a good source of parts the old ones were much better though, these ones are so simple they only have a half dozen discrete parts.