Garden Solar lights help

[Utdfederation]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193457322848

thats what i bought.
what you think?
will that do the trick?

[Utdfederation]

Just for clarification you mean to lower the Voltage from 12v to 1.2v not the current.

yes sir

[Utdfederation]

Thanks bob i will give it a go tomorrow now buddy as i got to go work

[bob-n]

Here's a suggested new approach: Inside each garden light is an LED, some electronics, a solar panel and a battery holder.

light.jpg

The LED requires roughly 3V to operate. Disconnect the LED from the electronics, wire three LEDs in series with a small resistor to control current, and connect that to the 12V battery.

lights.jpg

If that works, then you can connect multiple sets of 3 lights and one resistor to the 12V battery.

ManyLights.jpg

[SunEagle]

Yeah a bummer indeed mike.
nevermind i have loads of spares.
just goto figure out how we can get current of 12v down to 1.2v

Just for clarification you mean to lower the Voltage from 12v to 1.2v not the current.

[Utdfederation]

Yeah a bummer indeed mike.
nevermind i have loads of spares.
just goto figure out how we can get current of 12v down to 1.2v

[Mike90250]

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However. This all may not work, because wiring LED drivers in series, sometimes does not work. It all depends on how well the individual drivers and LED's are matched. If some consume more current, they will be starved because the driver needing the least current in the string, won't let more thru for the others. They may be dim, blink, or not even light.

I'd not considered they would blow out. Bummer

[Utdfederation]

Ok.
iv'e done what you said about putting 10 lights together.
problem is ,as soon as i conect them to the 12v battery they all blow.
so what im thinking is,we need to lower the current from 12v to 1.2v.
hope you understand what i mean.
ive tried to upload a pic of the problem but i keep getting error message

[bob-n]

From what I can tell, each light is a small box with battery, solar panel, and LEDs. I think this is the product:

https://www.woodsideproducts.co.uk/99616-woodside-4-piece-garden-light-set.html

The electronics in the light is a boost converter that attempts to apply constant current to the LED regardless of battery voltage, until the voltage is so low that it stops working.

I'm very curious to hear if they work when placed in series.

[littleharbor]

20 meters

Curious if voltage drop is affecting the lights, being that they are running on 1.2 volts

[Utdfederation]

20 meters

[Mike90250]

Forgot to ask.
what type of timer would you suggest to put between the live side of the lighting circuit so i can manually set on and off

If you use a timer, you don't need to manually switch it.
https://www.backwoodssolar.com/programmable-timer-12v

You can also get a charge controller that will switch a load on and off at night, for night lighting, works by the voltage from the PV panel, when it's dark, it turns the lights on.

https://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/sunlight/

However. This all may not work, because wiring LED drivers in series, sometimes does not work. It all depends on how well the individual drivers and LED's are matched. If some consume more current, they will be starved because the driver needing the least current in the string, won't let more thru for the others. They may be dim, blink, or not even light.

[littleharbor]

How much wire are you running between the battery and the farthest light?

[bcroe]

Yes. The YX8018 seems to be a really economical LED driver that
also manages charging. You can read more about it here:

That device looks like it will wipe out your AM radio with interference. Bruce Roe

[bob-n]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Digital-display-DC-12V-16A-24-HOUR-7-DAY-TIMER-TIME-RELAY-SWITCH/143720681441

This came up in a search on ebay. It looks possible.