Solar Lights ... Now what ... ?

hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Staff member
I got my hands on a pair of old garden solar lights ( dead NiCd, corrosion everywhere, wires rusted through ). All renovated and working okay now ... but, other than for lighting, what interesting things can people here think of using them for ?

Extra points if PICAXE related and/or useful :)
 
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Andrew Cowan

Senior Member
Sensor for counting how many foxes/burglars/cats/rabbits walk past at night?
Discrete laser powered missile destoyer?
Datalogging units / weather stations?
Ultrasonic cat/fox/rabbit/mouse repeller?
Some kind of rocket launch pad?

Andrew
 
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Dave E

Senior Member
Moon phase detector.
Solar radiation level meter.
Cloud counter.
Lightning flash counter.
Earth rotation rate change early warning device.
Eco-friendly lady bug sub division.
Motion sensing indoor night light. Sit solar panel in the window to catch light.
Super nova detector.
Tiny Mars rover.

I GOT IT!
Solar powered, search and destroy fire ant killing micro-sized robot!!!! (I get dibs on the first production runs)

Dave
 
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kevrus

New Member
How about using the solar panels to charge a 144v lead acid battery pack driving an electric car...saves on paying petrol costs
 
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eclectic

Moderator
How about adding a 433 tx.
Then, it's a Sun alarm!

Code: 
Good point, I'll blame it on the sun coming up and frightening me :-)

Post #10
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9170
 
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212

Senior Member
I put one on top of a lighthouse garden ornament. You could use a Picaxe to make the sounds they make....or to scare the neighbors cat when it comes to poop in your flower bed.

Bug zapper.
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Staff member
So far Dave E's in second place with "cloud counter", but eclectic is out in front on the "useful" count with the Sun alarm. Wired up right I can turn a LED on / sound a piezo so I know the sun's out. I can add a PICAXE to delay the alarm so I'm not confused by passing aliens scanning rooftops at night with bright lights ( friends claim it's a police helicopter but I'm not convinced ). ramasule gets a special mention for Garbage Can Filler - An added alarm will let me know when I've closed the lid.

More points still available ...
 
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Dippy

Moderator
How about something for detecting rabbits?

... ah, that brings back memories of the most ridiculous/random/prolonged/deathly thread we've had.... ah, happy days.

Perhaps we could protect the privacy and rename the rabbit Eric Pode of Croydon.
 
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krypton_john

Senior Member
Whatever it is, it needs to have HopeRF comms for some reason or another.

Perhaps it could detect cats then fire up a laser pointer cat confounder?
 
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manuka

Senior Member
ENERGY -along with the rest of the oil shock world - is the flavour of the month here in NZ. It's also our mid winter,but very sunny,& I've just helped ~200 10-11 yo. kids at nearby schools with a "sun-in-a-box" emergency light/AA battery charger based around hacked solar garden lamps. I hence recommend you do the same, as costs came in at ~US$2 each (even new)!

Although almost throw away items to us oldies, few kids at this age have worked with them before & uptake has been extremely enthusiastic. Naturally the DIY container (here cardboard) can be suitably personalised. Stan
 

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moxhamj

New Member
Convert so you have a 5V supply http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/SolarLight/SolarLight.html

Then you can sense things - eg temperature, humidity, ground moisture. Ok, it will need a backbone of higher power RF repeater modules to get the data back to a base station (using the hope modules or whatever), but individual sensors can be very cheap and can just wake up for a short time, sense some things, turn on a radio module and then go back to sleep. I have some half built 08M ones that I intend "planting" in the garden to measure the local micro climate for the plants.
 
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papaof2

Senior Member
great group to work with

manuka said:
I've just helped ~200 10-11 yo. kids at nearby schools with a "sun-in-a-box" emergency light/AA battery charger based around hacked solar garden lamps. Stan
Click to expand...
I volunteered in the computer lab at an elementary school for about 10 years, teaching 4th & 5th grade kids (ages 9-11) "logic and problem solving", which included some BASIC programming. One of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. Nothing compares to encouraging a kid to use the knowledge he/she already has to solve a problem and seeing the light bulb come on (just like the cartoons ;-)

Considering how much some of the kids liked the programming, I wish PICAXE had been available to me then...

I made some long term connections there; I received invitations to some of their college graduations and I get regular email from one who is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Barda, Azerbaycan (the postal spelling).

John
 
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boriz

Senior Member
Sun tracker for solar panels.

The two panels, with a suitable separator/shade will be able to automatically drive a small motor, pointing the array straight at the sun and tracking it across the sky. The sun’s angle could be transmitted serially every minute (say) by a local PICAXE to any larger articulated solar arrays.
 
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manuka

Senior Member
FWIW - while recently demonstrating some simple fruit batteries to a bunch of pre teen NZ kids, I-gasp- stripped a wire. Astoundingly not one of the kids had ever seen or known about the bare copper revealed under the insulation, & everything circuit related was put on hold while Cu samples were snipped off & passed round for inspection!

A classic example perhaps of "make no assumptions"....
 
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stocky

Senior Member
Classic case of show a city kid where milk comes from and they are likely to NEVER drink it again LOL

or where an egg comes from....and tell them what else comes from the SAME hole - ROFL!

BTW - i grew up on a farm :p
 
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Dippy

Moderator
How about a solar powered pasteuriser with UV anti-bacterial lighting? (Every fridge should have one).
 
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