How to Make a Solar Powered Walkway

Step 3 Get to work!

Crack open the solar lights and separate the panel from the body.  There are three wires that connect them, so measure the distance from where you'll be mounting the panel to where the body will be mounted, and then add several inches.  Extend the three wires by that amount.

Within the body of the light, unsolder the LEDs and replace them with about 6-10 inches of speaker wire.  Make sure to seal everything up well with epoxy or silicone!  Mount this whole assembly on your house first, make sure it works, then prepare your glass blocks.  I used epoxy (because I'm an idiot) to mount the panel to the roof and the body under the paper box, and then stapled the wires in place.

At the corner of each of your blocks, mount an LED of your chosen color, tack it in place with hot glue, then cover the whole shebang in epoxy or silicone.  Make sure you leave the leads exposed!

Comments

[3tbones]

love, love this project...I seen your updated comments about this project, informing that you would not recommend the dealextreme LEDs for this project (not bright enough), what would you now rcommend and where would you suggest I get some of them, cause I really want to make some of these this summer. If possible could you post a image of what I should be looking for when getting the LED lights Thanks for sharing this project, I really love them.

[solarstudent]

did you need to edit the battery holder to have all of the batteries in parallel? I find it common with LED projects that batteries are in parallel to help increase the brightness. Your LEDs look pretty bright tho, so if you left the battery holder as is I guess it works out pretty well too.

[eamc317]

This is a great project and will try to make it soon! Do you know how much weight these can hold, like could these break if stepped on over a long period of time, or are they pretty sturdy. Thanks again!

[depotdevoid]

They are crazy sturdy actually, you're in more danger of slipping on them when they're wet. I recommend getting some clear griptape if you make this, but you don't need to worry about breaking them!

If you do make something like this, please post some pictures, no one has yet!  If you do, I'll not only send you a digital patch, I'll send a 3 month pro membership your way!

[eamc317]

Cool, thanks! Will try to make them soon. Thanks again!

[Zem]

 I love this! I'm definitely making something like this soon. (Maybe a row around the flower beds out front?) One question though, did you drill into the corners any, or is it just glued to the outside? Oh, and can you drill into the corners without cracking it?

[depotdevoid]

I didn't drill into the corners, as I didn't have any glass boring bits at the time.  Since then I've bought a set from harbor freight and plan on drilling next time I make a set.  I'm sure if you drill carefully and do everything right it wont crack.  I've drilled a hole in the side of one of these bricks to use for a different project and I had no problems.

Thanks for commenting and I'm glad you liked it!  If you do make some, post a picture and I'll send you a patch!

[guswatab]

Couldn't you just use a solar powered set of christmas lights whether it be white or multi-colored??  I would think you could stick the solar panel in the ground or just extend the wire and mount on the roof or something.  But I bet you could bury those just fine.  I think i am going to try it.  Looks great IMO

[depotdevoid]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

If you look at the links in step 2, I've got some solar christmas lights there.  In fact, I just got a package of them in the mail that I'm going to use to build a walkway like this under my brother's grape arbor.

Also, if you do build this, post some pictures and I'll send you a DIY patch!

[marjorieallea]

 Would this work with glass blocks with PVC sides? 

[willrandship]

Anything that can hold an LED would work, I suppose, but You might want reflective surfaces on the PVC on the inside. It might also not be waterproof.

[depotdevoid]

I don't see why not.  Where do you get that sort of glass block?

[lobalt]

At a lot of craft stores, they sell hollow glass blacks in various sizes that already have a hole drilled in them and a plug for it.

[marjorieallea]

There's a glass block wholesaler where I live.  All they sell is glass blocks.  The guy doing my basement windows started and ran out of them.  They were also sold at Home Depot and Lowes but the big boxes were either all out of them or were phasing them out and only selling pre-constructed windows of them at "standard" sizes.....

[ricore]

Très belle !
      ;   )

[depotdevoid]

Merci beaucoup!

[jmcarlin]

Instead of mounting the led on the side of the block, would it work if you drilled a small hole in the bottom to allow the led to be inside the glass block.

[depotdevoid]

Yeah, I actually tried to drill a hole in the side of the block for the LED, but at the time I didn't have glass bits--it didn't work out very well! 

I think mounting the light in the side of the brick is better, because the light will propagate through the block better than if it's just pointing straight up.

Thanks for the comment jmcarlin!

[hprather]

Nice project !  Does the one LED at the corner light up the block pretty evenly all the way around? I havent seen these solar units at Home Depot - but I'm going to check ASAP...   Thanks.

[depotdevoid]

It does light the whole block, but it's kind of concentrated on one side. 

I found these lights hanging from a display rack right next to the other solar outdoor lights.  It was a while ago, so hopefully they've still got them!

Thanks for the comment!

[fernxtwo]

what kind of LEDs did you use?
thanks.

[depotdevoid]

Hi fernxtwo,

I just used 5mm superbright LED's I picked up from dealextreme.com, they're about 10 cents each.