Making a light with a solar panel and rechargeable battery?

[JFD140]

What i want to do is make a light for the dash of my car (an emergency light once again) that has a solar panel on top of it, with a built in battery.

Does anyone know of how to make something like this that could constantly recharge itself in sunlight and be able to power like 8 1watt LEDs.

 

[Marduke]

The heat will cook the batteries inside. I recommend simply loading a light with lithium primaries and leaving it under the seat for emergencies.

 

[sparkysko]

Agree on heat. Anything above 160F is bad for the batteries. Harbor freight sells a solar panel for maintaining car batteries, and they even advise against putting that on the dash. DX did sell a little cigarette outlet light that's nice.

 

[filibuster]

You may want to consider a solar type light that uses an ultracapacitor such as this Ecolight.

This light comes apart pretty easily so you could use the parts inside to build your own.

Here's a very basic solar LED light kit with a much bigger ultracapacitor that you could do your own thing with.

Ultracapacitors can work in temps as high as 149F which maybe enough to deal with the inside of a hot car.