Modify cheap solar LED lights?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Cheap solar powered LED lights have the solar panel and the light on a stake. At my house the best places for outdoor lights are in the shade much of the day.

Has anyone tried modifying a cheap light by taking the solar panel off and mounting it remotely? - for example, mounting the panel on the side of the house and putting the light at the bottom of the wall? If the panel was connected to the LED array with a thick wire, would that overcome the problem of the added resistance of more wiring?

I know there are expensive solar lights that have the panel and the light located remotely. I'm just curious about dealing with the cheap lights - perhaps as an idle amusement, which would be more fun if it worked.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I have purchased ~20 total of the all-in-one stake lights from 2 different manufacturers. None have ever lasted more than 6 months (in full sun).

Your experiment might be interesting, but the product is basically a party favor - - one party and then throw them away.

[Bruce Volden]

Stephan,
Funny you should bring this up!!! I had a set stuck into a tree trunk (cut tree) pointing up at a flag for several years.
Finally the trunk rotted and we had to take flag and solar lights off.
I saved the lights and took them apart to reach remote places in my garage. Yes you can disassemble them and "repurpose" them in other areas. It will require some soldering after separating the collector from the light. I use them for walkways in my dark garage. Just find some old CAT5 wire/Bell wire and you'll be off to the races.
Remember you will be dealing with DC voltage so polarity is to be observed.

Bruce

[Bruce Page]

Harbor Freight sells a solar light that has a separate charging panel.

[Steve Peterson]

I have never seen a solar light that produces any descent amount of light. Plus they usually only last half way through the night. Wired lights with a transformer are the best way to go.

Steve

[Jason Roehl]

The bottom line is that: 1) battery capacity is somewhat expensive 2) solar panel size is pretty expensive.

That said, if you want to spend $100-150 or so, a larger panel, some wire and a larger rechargeable battery would keep your lights on all night. You could probably even swap them out for higher output LEDs, as most of the price-point sets don't provide much useful light on another surface.

[Curt Harms]

I have never seen a solar light that produces any descent amount of light. Plus they usually only last half way through the night. Wired lights with a transformer are the best way to go.

Steve


Yup. And it's coming the time of year - shorter days and colder - when solar panel charged batteries shortcomings are accentuated.

[Rich Enders]

I purchased a set of 8 from Lowes, and scattered them along a walking path. Some are shaded under trees and others in full sun. They were 6 months old by the time installed, and are now 6 months in the ground. All are working through the night which this time of year is about 12 hours.

These replaced a two year old set which had the typical problems noted above. Maybe the technology has improved.

[Stan Calow]

I've had good luck with the bigger solar-powered spotlights from Aldi's (about $7 I think). The main problem i see with separating the panel from the light, is having two separate things and a long thin wire, all susceptible to being run or knocked over.