How to Make a Solar Powered Walkway

Step 2 Solar Power!

I found these awesome solar lights designed to clip on to a patio umbrella at Home Depot for about 8 bucks.  I decided to go with these because the solar panel was separable and the batteries drove six separate LEDs.  If I'd used the standard solar lights it would have meant six little solar panels and a lot more wires running around.

I separated the solar panel from the battery/circuit board case and extended the wires that connected them.  The panel went on my roof just over the front door (see picture) and the battery case went under my newspaper box, with wires running discreetly along the corners and the edge of the window.

****Edit 1/30/10:  It has been brought to my attention that this type of light is no longer available, at least for less than $60 each anyway!  Here are a couple of possible alternatives I'm thinking about trying out for the path I'm going to build for my brother:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5501

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7491

http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Edge-L-949-Rechargeable-Solar/dp/B0013HPNRY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1264605147&sr=8-1-fkmr0

***Update 4/26/10  --  User Candor has pointed out this alternative to the lights I used, looks like it might be a good one:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70177439

***Update 3/2/11  --  IMPORTANT  --  Looks like the IKEA link above is dead, here's a new option from their website:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70200939

Also, I did a quick amazon search that revealed some possible good options for this project.

Finally, I just want to say that I don't recommend the dealextreme lights for the walkway project, they were a bit dimmer than I would like for this.  They worked out well for the bottle lights instructable I did, but I don't think they'd be so good for this one.

Comments

[solarstudent]

For the in-ground lights: isn't the circuitry on those limited to 1.2V usually (enough to charge the one battery it needs)? If so, could we just wire three of those in series to get the 3.6V we need? I'd prefer to not spend $25 for a solar light that has the circuitry to charge three lights if I am just going to be tearing it apart. Wouldn't mind spend like $6 on a few of those garden solar lights though.

[depotdevoid]

Really the main reason to use the single light is to have one source driving multiple lights. It's perfectly feasible to use one garden lamp for each in ground light, but then you have one battery, one circuit board, and one solar panel for each of those lights. If you're only doing two or three that should be fine, but I was going for six and that would have been a mess!

[lschwartz]

Around the 4th of July in the US, many stores, e.g., Walmart, Home Deport, Lowes, sell single stick-in-the-ground lights, decorated for the holiday, for as low as $1 each. The ones I found have everything contained in the cap that just snaps off. Next year, I'll get some and disassemble them to use as you suggest! Thanks for sharing.

[depotdevoid]

Awesome, I hope you share the results!

If you're going for the one light per block method, you might check Dollar Tree, every couple of months they'll get in a shipment of solar lights.

[moogeez91]

hey the link candor posted isn't working. is this product gone too?

[depotdevoid]

Hmmm, good point . . . I can't even remember what exactly the lights Candor mentioned looked like now! Here's one option, searching IKEA for solar lights:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70200939

A quick search on Amazon gives some decent looking results as well.

Thanks for pointing this out, I rarely go back and revisit my old ibles, this has also reminded me to mention that the dealextreme lights aren't very good.

[Candor]

How about this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70177439

[depotdevoid]

Those could certainly work, I'll add them to the list!

[Candor]

With those, wouldn't it actually be cheaper than what you spent on it? Actually, with that, you could probably just stick them below the brick, and lay the brick on top. Probably need to extend the power line, but that would be easily feasible

[depotdevoid]

Well, when I bought those little lights they were $8/each.  I guess home depot stopped carrying them, so now the only place I can find them wants $60/each. 

Those ones you've pointed out look pretty bright, they'd probably do well placed underneath the brick.  I just got a set of the dealextreme lights I linked to in the mail today, so I'll play around with them and let everyone know if they're any good.  They're actually a string of 60 lights, but I imagine they aren't going to be that bright or last very long, running off a single panel and one AA battery.  I might expand the power source though, to see if I can make it a bit better.

[FabioBurkard]

Man, this project is awesome! Thanks for sharing this beauty! 

The only thing I couldn't find is this solar light (specially so cheap)... I tried the Home Depot website, but all was over 60 bucks, and I live in Brazil, so I'll pay taxes and freight... it will became expensive. Do you have any cheaper idea? :)

[depotdevoid]

Thanks so much Fabio, I'm glad you liked it!

You know, it's weird . . . I just looked everywhere I could think of on the net, and the only ones I could find were 58 dollars each!  I couldn't find them on the home depot site at all.  I bought three of these things for $8 each less than a year ago.  I guess they weren't popular or something.

Here are a couple of options I found that are less than 60 dollars, and might work:

http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Edge-L-949-Rechargeable-Solar/dp/B0013HPNRY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1264605147&sr=8-1-fkmr0

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5501

This one looks particularly cool:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7491

I hope that helps! 

[FabioBurkard]

Thanks again, depotdevoid!

Ah, today I saw something I remembered your work: a computer table (in fact, only the monitor was over the table), but it was made from tempered glass, with some "hidden" red colored LEDs behind it. The effect was cool, 'cause the edges were glowing (the arrange of the LEDs made only the edges glow).

I particularly didn't like the red that much, but some kind of blue (green?) maybe would be cool, too.

Anyway, thanks for answering!