Here's a great start for a solar cell project. These assemblies for sun-powered garden lights consist of two glass photovoltaic cells mounted on a plastic bracket with a charging circuit, two rechargeable AA cells, and one amber LED. Between the solar cells is a photoresistor to sense light and dark conditions. In daylight the solar cells charge the battery. When it gets dark, the LEDs light. These are working units but the batteries are old and may not take a charge. Solar cell surface area is 3.78" x 1.98". Cells provide 2.6 Vdc @ 25mA in bright sunlight.
Average Customer Review:
(7 Reviews)
Customer Comments
Average Customer Review:
(7 Reviews)
A customer from Cleveland, OH
Need cell protection
These are fun units. However, since the battery runs down every night, you should put back diodes across the rechargeable cells to prevent backcharging of the weaker cell. Batteries will last a lot longer that way!
A customer from Downey, CA
Very cool
You cant go wrong on this one. You can either do a minor refurb on the batteries to use as is or use for parts with other projects. Or you can use it as a $2.50 education on solar charging circuits. For the price, I highly recommend it.
A customer from Rainy Vancouver, BC, Canada
Buy more to boost efficiency
If you buy more than one unit, you can parallel the solar cells ONLY (i.e., discard the secondary charger and photodetector and batteries), which increases the current available to recharge the batteries on the one complete unit, for the same amount of sun. Which in turn let you connect more than one LED. They are cheap so EXPERIMENT!
A customer from LA, Ca.
Parts Value Only
I didn't have much luck with either of the 2 units I bought. Batteries won't hold a charge, amber LED is a current hog. Best to look at this item for the solar cells, CD light detector and charging curcuit value rather then hope to use the assembly as is. Use the leads soldered onto the solar cells as you won't be able to resolder new leads if you remove the solder blobs from the cell back side.
A customer from Los Angeles, CA
Pretty useful
The batteries on mine were dead, but I added a couple of the 1600mAh NiMH batteries sold here, and it worked like a charm. The Amber LED is fairly bright.
This device can also be used as a power supply for a small 3V micro project. The board has pads that provide the battery voltage at all times (you may have to take the board out to get access to them, or scrape the paint off). Add a 3V regulator (like the 3.3V version of the Maxim 1595) and you're set.
The solar panels require direct sunlight to recharge the batteries, but that's because solar panels are only about 10% efficient, so you need a lot of light to produce a usable amount of power.
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