You can use these inexpensive lights for camping and battery recharging for devices such as for other lights, radios, walki-talkies, etc. When you buy these lights check to see what battery size it takes (either AA or AAA size usually), and what you need. Many nowadays are thin film solar, but older ones sometimes have a nice sized mono or polycrystaline solarpanel which are more efficient at converting sunlight power to battery power.
With a 700maH, AAA NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride, but came with a 200maH Nickel Cadmium that is recomended) AAA battery installed, the light from this will stay on fairly well for near to 9 days, that’s 216 hours, hence 18 or more nights of continuous use without any amount of solar recharging. It does this with a special voltage boost circuit that saves power by quickly switching the LED on and off. Note that it does help when your eyes are adjusted to the dark and you have some “night vision” ability. If you only used it an hour a day, it would last several months. After 9 days, the light was still on, but the level is such that using it to read by up close is unsatisfactory.
The plastic stem/stick/handle seems to be like pressure fitted onto the bottom of the clear plastic and can be easilly removed. This will make it easier to put into your carry pack or coat pocket. You can also tie some kind of cord around the rim to put the light on a tree or tent. The reflector seems to have a screw holding it in place and could probably be removed if needed.
I didnt show it in the video, but there is a plastic stake of sorts stored in the black tube. This comes out and gets placed into the ground and then the tube/stand gets placed over it. That’s usually for the typical home/garden use.
If the cover to the solar panel is plastic, you could probably glue a piece of cut glass (round or square) over that to protect it from getting scratched up.
It would be nice to add a manual switch, and it basically has to be in series with the LED and not the battery since we want the battery to keep charging when the sun is out. This unit in the video does have a light sensor ability by using (I guess) a pieces of the solar panel and it will turn off by itself in the daylight, still, this manual switch is needed so that it can be turned off at nighttime to conserve power rather than the light being kept on when not needed. Some solar lights do have an on/off switch.
These units are fairly cheap ($1 to $2) enough to use your imagination to what you might make of it. Having some light is priceless when you do need it. Some units look like garden rocks and if the battery compartment isn’t accessable to see a regular sized penlight battery it’s probably a very low capacity battery, like a calculator/button battery – rechargeable to only about 50maH and will only stay lit for about and hour or two. These are basically for decorative use.
Post time: May-08-2017