Solar Rechargeable Yard Light Hack 

Nearly all solar garden lights are a form of a Joule thief currently. The inductor and the four pin component create an oscillator allowing the led to run for a very long time on voltage from a battery below their voltage rating. That said, wonderful idea and thank you for your content, this nerd thunder business is fantastic!

Amazing tutorial, you really explain things so much better than most

Not a resistor, it's a Inductor for the boost circuit.

I think that the component you assumed was a resistor is actually an inductor, and the 4 pin part is actually a boost converter. The reason I say this is because I'm pretty sure you can't light a white LED with 1.2 volts. White LEDs are usually blue LEDs with a yellow phouspher coating. Blue LEDs usually require over 3.5 volts to light. Great vid though, I'm interested in seeing how this project goes. Thanks, Glenn

".. With Sophie the dog" Sophie exits the scene lol cool video!

those are sprinked all over the yard and patio. i wonder if my wife knows exactly how many rechargeable lights she actually has if would notice if a few went missing?

Jeri Ellsworth sent me here

If you're just wanting to run a microcontroller, my suggestion would consider using the output from the boost converter in parallel and series to get the voltage and current needed. My bet is they produce 3v and maybe 50mA max.

That looks like a boost converter circuit. I'm willing to bet it simply take the 1.5v from the battery and boosts it upto about 3V to overcome the forward voltage of the LED. This is why there is an inductor and what I'm willing to bet is a schottkey diode.

Is it possible to hook just the solar to each other and use one of those boards to power say 10 leds and an small battery bank of those 1.2 batteries?

Hi, brought 1000 led fairy lights system (solar), for the first week they shone brightly. Over the second week, weather was overcast, hence, the brilliance of the lights greatly reduced. Is there a way to combine the solar pack with another to ensure there is sufficient energy, regardless of the weather? Love to hear from you. Regards Claudio

Jeri Ellsworth sent me (I love her!

Hi, thanks for the cool video. I have a similar idea to put four of these together and have one more powerful light bulb, not four. What would be the most appropriate way to have four solar panels and four batteries, but only one light bulb?

The first time I saw them they were on sale somewhere for $2 each.I didn't need nightlights, but I thought about how well they would work on outdoor PICAXE projects. I bought 10.

Add an extension wire .. leave the solar panel outside extension wire the lights indoors.. just try to make it look modern maybe

This is great... Though wouldn't a sensor to let you know the seeds were low (enough to let a bird in) be a better solution? Or perhaps just a coarse wire-mesh in the slot to let seeds through, but keep birds out?

Just subbed, I really enjoyed tinkering around with simple device's !!!

New Sub from Jerri Ellsworth's channel :-)

Hi I have 30 solar garden lights and 1x12v 50w solar panel. Now what i want to do is connect all the lighta to the solar panel on my garden shed. How would i go about doing this so all the lights have their batteries recharge instead of using their own panels

nice! hey dont forget we need a motorcycle actualization. cheers from Argentina

Very interesting to hear your thoughts on how it operates and what the parts are.

Thanks for the video! So I had a quick hack project I got stumped with. My friend wanted her yard lights like these switched out to a color changing LED. I was able to find some that work with 3-3.3V but I wasn't able to get it to light up. The AA battery isn't enough to power the LED. What could I do to increase the voltage for the LED without frying the circuit. What can I do to modify the circuit and get the color changing RGB LED to light up. Light is small and won't allow for another AA battery. I was thinking using two 2/3 AA or a small rechargeable 3v lipo mini pack. What do you think?

Well that brings up a thought. What ways could a solar panel be reliably used as a heating element?

Great video and hack. So simple and useful. Thanks for sharing. : )

Is it possible to get 3 dollar store solar lights (aaa battery) and modify it to charge aa batteries?

5:44 Actually I think it's an inductor.

It does not have a resistor but an inductor.

Great to see you back. YT isn't The same without you 👍 Wonder if i could use this idea to trickle charge the bike...🤔

I have a question how can I connect a 12v led strip and make it solar without buying all the tech stuff and having boxes screwed in my shed.

Hello sir I have a seeburg ay160 jukebox that needs the tormat selector unit rebuilt. Is that something you would be interested in? Thanks

Question - I want to put a battery-powered (3 AA) rodent repeller in my shed. Can I use this hack to power such a gizmo? Nice long wires, solar parts on the roof, connect the wires to the battery cradle in the repeller? Will it charge and also power the device simultaneously?

Home Depot sold these Halloween lanterns with a USB-C port built into them so you could plug it in an outlet and keep it powered. Please do a hack video on how make these solar-powered with a light-sensor switch. Also, some of them didn’t have the port built in. Please also do a video of you converting alkaline batteries to solar-powered also with a light sensor switch.

There are so many more efficient ways to do what he is trying to do. I personally use a motion sensor door bell to tell me when the animals are active outside so I can photograph them.

Is there a battery that you recommend to use with these yard lights?

Might have gotten away with just one light if you used a joule thief configuration and removed the led. A zigbee MCU probably uses less power than an led if programmed efficiently :)

Pretty cool video. Awesome.

I have a ton of those. So,. I'm going to keep this a secret as to what I do with them lol, wouldn't want my source to all of a sudden think they are valuable LOL ! That said, I think your going down the wrong path here. You need to put a web cam on it. Then, when there's a little birdy in there, Mrs. Gotchables class of 2nd graders all shows up at your house to see the little birdy. Yep. that's what you should do. Thank Jeri for that idea , of course. She sent me over here. I'd think the microprocessor could be a 3.7 v one, like the arduino micro or some of the nano's I think might be. Then you could use a little regulator and It would be solid. Remember you've got to filter out the noise from the motor, there really bad.

I want to convert a battery light to solar. Is tbat possible?

Battery Ni Cd has always 1.2V ,possibly 1.4 when charged ,no load.The thing you name a resistor is an inductor and the 4-legged beauty is not a voltage detector

Ha! Greetings from PEI!

That looks like an inductor for the boost circuit to light the led.

Love the absence of ads.

I am in, just subbed. Teacher us about how a metal detector works. 🤓

Dollar General had some of those lights for $1 each a few months ago.

Darn I didnt push you over 100,000... best luck I was hoping you were going to gang the solar panels... maybe next time, Jen sent me. ;)

Hey...great hoodie! My home ☺️

Very cool

Its not that simple, anyone who knows basic electronics it that a white led needs more like 3v to strike light reliably. Your assumed the circuit is simple, the resistor is actually ans inductor and the voltage reg is step up boost converter IC. Yes things will work with fully charged batteries,your problems will start when you want solar charging to kick in. I will let you discover that one yourself. Just use a big solar panel to cope with the winter and calculate your total load needs.

those circuits are usually like a joule thief to get as much out of a battery as possible

That's a solar controller ic and a coil

Is the IC a YX8018?

You need a dollar tree store... You could have bought 18 of those.

Glad some viewers comments explained what the circuit is doing, poor prep / lack of knowledge is clearly evident!

I think you need to learn how works before make a video...

That cute little hottie Jeri sent me over.

Wow, kind of off put on this video as it was absolutely not technical and you did not appear to understand the circuit or the lingo. However for inspiration "joule theif" or "boost converter" is the basic idea of the circuit. None the less on the less technical side just clip off one leg of the led and keep this exactly the way you have it as it will offer plenty of battery backup for the dreary days and nights. Maybe add a couple extra panels for you can use a basic voltage regulator to control your output voltage. And your in business.