bigclive
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Exploring a set of very dead solar lights
🕑 Added 2023-10-20 02:54:01 +0000 UTCI get the feeling that these lights have had an apocalyptic overvoltage incident, since every single one of the bulbs is dead with dark blotches visible under the phosphor gel. They are 3V lamps with no resistors inside that have possibly been plugged into the end of a matching 240V string.
The solar panel is pretty big (no sunshine to test it at the moment) and the circuitry is surprisingly complex with a very modular approach. A lot of the reverse engineering time was spent hunting for elusive datasheets.
The cells are currently under test to find out their true capacity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ1E9O6onDM
Comments
Big Clive
Glas could help, but my biggest concern about this version is that lamination of the silicon in materials that might have a different thermal coefficient of expansion and cause stress on very hot or cold days.
Dave Frederick
Wow Big Clive. The work you do to bring about this content is truly amazing and staggering really. Thank you so much! That solar power unit is kind of neat though and nice you sort of got an extra one to play with and explore for our benefit. I wonder about the longevity. I think we mentioned putting automotive wax on the resin panels. The T-Cut worked a bit. I'm still testing that idea. I recently wondered what you would think about cutting a piece of glass to fit over these resin based collectors to keep them from getting cloudy or what have you, the other idea I had was to use some UV resin on them. Thanks again.
Curtis Hoffmann
I prefer solar cells actually made of solar materials. And, you know what? I'd *love* self-replicating cells.
