Solar Powered Wireless Detector by Mark Dixon

Step 2 First you get hold of a solar garden lamp...

As an online workshop for instructables, I was asked by folly to create a solar powerd version of the wireless detector that I used to make some of my art installations in the last year. At first this seemed a reasonable request and fun to do. However it took a while before I could find a cheap and readily available solar power unit that was compatable with the wireless detector. So, sorry about the waiting around. Basically what I am doing here is to replace the onboard button batteries on the wireless detector with a hacked solar garden lamp.

There are all kinds or shapes and sizes of solar lamps on the market, and many available very cheaply at this time of year (November) because there is not a lot of sun in the UK winter months. Armed with a screw driver I took apart seven examples ranging from garden spike variety to Hanging lanterns. The samples which I pulled apart fell in to two camps. The ones with a single re-chargeable battery providing about 1.2 volts and the ones with Two AAs providing about 2.5V. It is the later that is more useful, so I have chosen one of these to explain this relatively simple hack. All we are going to do here is replace the LED lamp with a pair of trailing leads fitted with crocodile clips. After that (providing you have a enough sun) you should be able to power a whole host of 2.5V to 3V gadgets, ranging from small motors to circuit boards and some MP3 players. You can also string these hacks together to create more juice.