Garden Railway Forum

IanC asked for more info on my solar powered station lighting.

I previously wrote this up on a thread called Modeltown Lamps about 18 months ago.
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... ts#p125908

but I'll repeat the relevant bits here:

"As for the solar panel, I believe that most cheapo chinese garden lights incorporate a 'joule thief' circuit which allows LED's with a nominal voltage of around 2.3 volts to operate on a rechargeable battery with a nominal voltage of 1.2volts."

"Basically, I followed the instructions in this Youtube video ( there are loads of similar ones, but this works for me):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BKKwEm1n6E

I got a 5v PV panel from ebay, plus the other components that he specifies, and used one 1700mah Duracell NiMh rechargeable that I had lying around.
Made a small box from 2mm styrene sheet to fit everything in and it has been happily powering 7 LED's on my station ( 2 platform lamps, 2 in the building, the telephone box and 2 in the pub behind) from dusk until dawn ever since.

It's worth playing with the value of the inductor - changing it alters the 'brightness:illumination time' ratio."

This was actually referring to my original station, Elderbury, and is still working well since March 2017. The new station, Lower Bench has exactly the same configuration and has been going for a couple of months.

Philip,

Many thanks for this. Parts ordered on the auction site. They'll go in my box of bits to build my lighting modules for my lights which are already in stock. Just need a station now!

Ian

Very helpful, thanks.
I'm interested in how you arrange the plugs and sockets. Are they rust proof?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Jul 10, 2018 10:52 pm Very helpful, thanks.
I'm interested in how you arrange the plugs and sockets. Are they rust proof?

Rik

According to the Deltang site they are gold plated so I assume reasonably rust resistant, although not sure what the underlying structural metal is. The pins and sockets are embedded in black plastic. I simply soldered thin flexible wires and slipped heat shrink sleeving on and left both ends on flying leads. The combined pair was then simply pushed down the platform socket and the lamp post plugged on top, The plug and socket don't lock together very firmly tbh, so I added a sliver of insulating tape on the sides for peace of mind.

Thanks Philip
Will investigate

Rik