# Simple solar light conversion



## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

I converted a simple solar powered garden LED lamp to light a small gatekeepers building.
It was fun to do and the convertion did not take many time.

The 'donor' was a cheap gardenlight, like this:










I removed the cap of the solar light and took the inner part out. Its a plastic disk wit the electronics on 1 side and the battery and white LED at the other side.
Using 2 wooden strips as support I placed this disk in the building with the LED facing down. 










The building had a 18 volts lantern at the front of the building. I wanted to replace this also with a LED. From a plastic icecream cup (the ones with a chewinggum ball at the bottom) I cutted a lamp cap. I cutted/filed a hole on top and glued a holder with the LED in it. The top I covered with Tamiya putty.




























The second LED was connected with the LED on the print so that both are connected parallel. 
I also replaced the standard rechargeble battery to a 2000 mAh version.

The solarpanel on top was removed also. The powercable to the print was extended to about 1 meter using normal wire. I sawed off the top of the plastic standard of the gardenlight in a 45 degree angle. I glued a small styrene plate on the standard ad placed the solarpanel on this. This standard is placed somewhere near the building. Describing this I realise it's perhaps a good idea to take a picture of it.... 

Power on! Testing. The light on the front is shiningh though the plastic cap. A few layers of paint on the cap will solve that.




















And finally in the garden:










As you can see on the above picture I placed a small white styrene sheet behind the inside LED as a reflector. This was helpfull to increased the "brightness" of the light shining through the windows. 

I'm very pleased with the result although I found the white LED's shining very... white! I miss the yellow glow of a normal lightbulb a bit...
Yellow LED's are too yellow on the other hand. So perhaps I put a drip of clear yellow paint on the LED, to break the withe shine a bit.

So far...

Paul


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Very NICE effect!


----------



## bottino (Feb 7, 2008)

I have done this also, but I usually silicone glue the solar panel to the roof. I would like to see your method of remotely mounting the solar panel. . That might allow me to get light in buildings deeper in my layout that never see sun. Thanks
Paul


----------



## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Thanks for the replies! Here are a few pictures of the mounting of the panel. I used the plastic stand that came with the gardenlight. I've glued a plastic plate on it. I simply used powertape to keep the panel in place. The above mentioned silicon glue is perhaps an option also; I guess it looks better than the tape. 





































On the above picture you can se the cable running from the standard to the building. Offcourse you can cover / camouflage the cable between the green or sand. 

Hope it was helpfull. Any questions; please ask. 

Paul


----------



## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Looks great. 

Split the power feed and support it with a couple of power poles. Route them through a power box on the back of the building..... 22 or 24 ga. wire should support the circiut, you could even remove the insulation to make it smaller... depending onn how tight you hang the wire. 
I really like remoting the SP. I have a set but was hesitant to mount the panel on the engine house's wood roof, now I can even have a solar farm! 

John


----------



## BN3140 (Mar 2, 2009)

Interesting project! I often see some solar panels along railroads. They are used to power switches and signals. I just looked up a few pictures at http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=226342&nseq=2, http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=97564&nseq=7, http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=281135&nseq=0, and http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=37056&nseq=9.


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

I found the white LED's shining very... white! I miss the yellow glow 


Paul, 

I agree. I got a string of 35 bright white LED xmas lamps for $3.50 just before - you guessed it - Xmas! I'm experimenting with them as coach lights, etc. 

I found that Michaels craft stores sells paint for finishing plastic car kits. One set of 6 little tubs included brake light red and indicator yellow, which seem to be semi-translucent. I dipped my LEDs in the yellow before installing them. (The coach isn't finished yet so no pics this week, sorry.)


----------



## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I had this set up out side now for 9 years and occasionally change the battery. Has a nice warm yellow glow in the evening. Just used a piece of square plastic stuck stock for the pole. Glued the solar panel to it. Later RJD


----------



## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

I did the same thing with my solar lights. Although mine are not LED. I had them on the walkway but was not enough light for that. I tried them in my structures and it gave a perfect candle light glow to them. (My RR has no electric yet because of the time period.) I like what you did with the solar panel. I just layed mine on the ground behind the structure. Will have to try your approach. I wonder if I can hook up more then one light/battery to one solar panel?


----------



## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Hi all! 
@John, nice idea those powerpoles. I wrote it up on my "once - to do list"as I'll wait a few years with those poles until my youngest son is a bit older; his soccer ball and other toys are launched into my garden on an almost regular base. I'm afraid the model power poles are a bit too fragile (if I keep them on scale). But the idea is great and you can also construct streetlights on the poles as well. 
@Pete, looking forward to pictures of your coach. Good idea to use X-mas LED's on a string. I've got Tamiya yellow clear coat on my mind to color my LED's. 
@RJD, looks great! And following the pictures Thomas showed us we are very close to the prototype (thanks Thomas!) ;-) 
BTW; are those shed doors automatic? 
@Shawn, do you use simple lightbulbs than instead of LED's? I guess these use more batterypower and "run out" a lot faster than the LED's. Is that why you want to use 2 batteries? Or do you want to increase the voltage? 
I replaced the the original battery with a more powerfull one. The lights are shining a whole lot longer on this one. 
I'm not sure if it's possible to connect 2 batteries to one solar pannel or if you have to double the solar pannels as well...


----------



## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

I too, modified some LED yard lights to provide lighting to my buildings. I disguised my solar collectors as the tops of storage tanks for Budd Pfizer beer. The good Doc has a six pack of them.











PVC Tanks 


Decals from Stan 


Craig


----------



## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Great disguise!!! Storage tanks, good thinking.


----------



## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

(see above) I was thinking what more forms of disguise there can be; industrial tanks, water tanks etc. 
When a building is on a sunny place, perhaps a panel behind a (bigger) window?


----------



## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Paulus on 06/21/2009 6:00 AM
Hi all! 
@John, nice idea those powerpoles. I wrote it up on my "once - to do list"as I'll wait a few years with those poles until my youngest son is a bit older; his soccer ball and other toys are launched into my garden on an almost regular base. I'm afraid the model power poles are a bit too fragile (if I keep them on scale). But the idea is great and you can also construct streetlights on the poles as well. 
@Pete, looking forward to pictures of your coach. Good idea to use X-mas LED's on a string. I've got Tamiya yellow clear coat on my mind to color my LED's. 
@RJD, looks great! And following the pictures Thomas showed us we are very close to the prototype (thanks Thomas!) ;-) 
BTW; are those shed doors automatic? 
@Shawn, do you use simple lightbulbs than instead of LED's? I guess these use more batterypower and "run out" a lot faster than the LED's. Is that why you want to use 2 batteries? Or do you want to increase the voltage? 
I replaced the the original battery with a more powerfull one. The lights are shining a whole lot longer on this one. 
I'm not sure if it's possible to connect 2 batteries to one solar pannel or if you have to double the solar pannels as well... 


I am using regular light bulbs. The LED will use less battery juice but I like the light from the regular bulbs then LED. LED is too white to fit my time period. The one baterry works fine I was wondering if I can hook up more then one batter to one panel. That way I can avoid having panels all over. Basicaly use one panel on more then one structure.


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

You would probably have to connect a second battery in parallel if you don't change anything else. i.e.: the photocell cell was selected to produce the correct voltage to charge the battery (or set of series batteries) and to add additional batteries in series would require higher voltage to charge them. 

But Batteries in parallel don't play well with each other without additional electronics to force them to be nice with each other, whether chargeing them or using them to supply power... putting a diode in series with each battery will eliminate the tendency of one battery supplying power to the other battery. But the diodes would also be an additional resistance to the batteries which would require that the photo cell produce more voltage to overcome the loss caused by the diode when charging and loss of power from the battery when using them to power the lamps. 

I think it would be better to purchase an additional "set" of photocell & battery to provide power to separate lamps... of course causing more photocell panels to disguise on the layout.


----------

