Introduction: Solar Bike Light
Modify a solar garden walkway light into a solar powered bike light that charges during day riding and can be turned on at night!
Step 1: Obtain Materials
1. Solar Garden Light (G15439)
2. LED Lamp, from flashlight, I used (G15654)
3. Epoxy
4. Wire, solder, etc
5. Tools, drill, knife, screwdriver
1 and 2 have part numbers from the electronic goldmine.
Step 2: Take Apart the Solar Lamp
This should come naturally to most people here :)
There are 3 screws holding the 2 halves of electronics enclosure together, the transparent dome pops off easily.
Step 3: Add Your Lamp in Place of Exsisting LED
Using a soldering iron, de-solder the exsisting LED on the lamp and put it in your parts drawer/box/floor.
Be sure you have the polarity correct when you solder the leads of your lamp to the leads where the first LED used to be!
I covered the soldered connections in hot glue after I was done.
Step 4: Expand/Add Hole for Mounting to Bike
Using a drill I expanded one of the holes in the plastic that held the solar panel. This let me mount the unit where my reflector used to be.
Step 5: Cut and Epoxy Lamp to Solar Lamp Unit
I had to use a knife to expand the hole opposite of the mounting hole we drilled in the last step.
I set the lip of the lamp into the notch and epoxied it there, I also added epoxy to secure the wires and the LED's PCB.
Step 6: Mount to Your Bike!
I was able to mount this by removing the reflector and just using the same screw and mounting plastic.
Use a screwdriver to tighten and loosen things and position the lamp to your liking. I found that when riding, the circuit turns off the light when under a street lamp.
Have fun, be safe, wear a helmet yada yada...
34 Comments
11 years ago on Introduction
I have converted regular bysicle lights into solar charged ones using a solar charger from Ebay.
12 years ago on Introduction
I just had the Idea to modify a solar garden light to a solar bike light ;-) - so nice to see that someone has done it before! Nice work, I have to build one.
12 years ago on Introduction
This is an undeniable fact that solar lights is a very useful application. This looks so simple to make a Solar Bike Light and I hope practically it will be as simple as it looks to design one.
14 years ago on Introduction
This looks like a fantastic project and I can't wait to try it, my neighbors moved out recently and left me with a stack of these garden lights. Any other cool projects using these? I'm trying to figure out how to combine them with some paper lamps from IKEA to make a delayed sunset in my bedroom.
16 years ago on Introduction
Hey I have a question... People usually use their light at night... last time a remembered at night there is no sun. Plus most people aren't really up to the idea to leave their nice bike outside where some person can see it and take it easily... But still a very good idea... You need to put a very large capacitator in there to power this thing.
Reply 16 years ago on Introduction
Good for you! You know there is no sun at night. That's why there's a RECHARGEABLE BATTERY in it. Not a capacitor. Also, have you ever heard of a bike lock? Then you can leave it in the sun and it won't be stolen.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
I would just simply take the light off the bike and put in under direct sunlight in the backyard.
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
Ha ha... this reminds me of one of the funniest product reviews I've seen:
http://www.amazon.com/Powered-Christmas-String-Lights-18-Foot/dp/B000LZIC6S/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-9928317-3800146?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1182443425&sr=8-1
The guy didn't actually own any of the solar christmas lights, but he thought the idea was crap because he usually uses his christmas lights at night.
14 years ago on Step 6
Could someone show me a way to convert this to a simple blinking LED. This is perfect , but I need one that will blink a red led all night and then turn off in the morning, which this would already do. I really appreciate it.
Reply 14 years ago on Step 6
Get a solar light, find where they soldered the LED(S) remove the ones they installed and put a blinking LED from Radioshack in its place. I hope that helped.
Reply 14 years ago on Step 6
I tried that nak, however there was not enough power to get the LED to blink. If I doubled the battery power it would blink... but one AA battery would't blink the led that I bought at RadioShack.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
That's because red radioshack blinking LEDs are approx. 3v. That NiCd battery is approv 1.2v when fully charged. You can use 2 solar panels and 2 batteries but one solar panel and 1 battery is not enough.
14 years ago on Introduction
umm, if you were to need a bikelight then it would probably be dark and you wouldn't get very much juice out of the solar panel.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Modify a solar garden walkway light into a solar powered bike light that charges during day riding and can be turned on at night!
Critical words to convey the idea, and it works, too bad my bike was stolen. :(
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
oh yeah, i guess i skipped over that. but ehere's the battery?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Look at the photo in step 2. What does the big round yellow thing on the top look like to you? In case you got brain rot and can't tell, it's called a battery.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
and joey wins the Darwin award for not reading the first line in the article!
but it's a great idea! will be perfect for my velomobile!
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
W00T!!!! what do I win? a smack across the face, a bop on the head, decapatation, or all of the above?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
All of the above.
14 years ago on Introduction
cool