David Grantham
Location : Midlands, England
| Subject: Solar powered lights Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:35 pm | |
| I have 6 station lamps rated at 12v that I run off a 9v battery. I would like to solar power these and have them automatically switch on at dusk.
Can anyone tell me the best way to achieve this, for example modify a garden light in some way or obtain a circuit diagram and build from scratch.
This ought to be an off the shelf product for garden railways ? | |
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Carl Hibbs Admin
Location : Haute Normandie - visitors welcome
| Subject: Re: Solar powered lights Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:46 pm | |
| You can quite easily modify the LED output of a cheap single solar powered lamp but the solar panel is very small and usually just trickle charges a small 1.2v cell or 2. There are separate installation kits like this one from: ConradThis gives a bigger solar panel plus night/day function and a switchable movement detector so you could have them coming on only when a train (or cat) passes.... I'm sure Maplin do similar. | |
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GAP
Location : Bundaberg Queensland Australia
| Subject: Re: Solar powered lights Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:24 am | |
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David Grantham
Location : Midlands, England
| Subject: Re: Solar powered lights Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:57 pm | |
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ustoeuro
Location : South Dakota, SD
| Subject: Re: Solar powered lights Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:49 pm | |
| I don't think I am the first to say this, but you can add a light sensor to the circuit. I personally don't know how to wire that in, but I know that the sensor detects X amount of light, and when it goes below a certain point, it triggers a switch which turns on the light. Got it, because I confused my self just now. to truly see what I am talking about, go to the store, and buy a cheap solar light, then take it apart. After looking at something long enough, someone usually figures it out. Tell us what you find when done! | |
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GAP
Location : Bundaberg Queensland Australia
| Subject: Re: Solar powered lights Fri May 11, 2012 9:57 am | |
| Having thought about this a bit more (won't do that thinking stuff much any more, I got one hell of a headache from doing it ) I have found a method to do the on/off thing. It involves an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor). Here is a circuit using a relay as the on/off switch but you could use a transistor to do the same thing. http://electroschematics.com/5899/diy-ldr-switch-circuitsAll I have to now is make some cheap easy buildings to put the lighting in but that is another story. | |
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