Solar Keychain Light

This may be better placed in the budget lights section, but we'll try it here. While standing with my wife in the checkout line at Bed, Bath, and Beyond I spied a light hanging nearby. It was a solar powered 3 LED keychain light for the fairly paltry sum of $3.99. Of course I couldn't pass that up...again. It reminded me of those Swiss ones from a few years ago that I never had.

It's actually fairly bright and the LEDs are very white. Unfortunately the switch is only momentary. The packaging has almost no info about the light or its operation. It is marketed by Sentry Industries (same folks that make cheap headphones for Big Lots).



Geoff

size reference?

I had one of those - very similar anyway.

As you say, the LEDs are quite bright - but unfortunately my one didn't charge up so only worked for a couple of weeks. Of course, we don't see the Sun that much at this time of the year.

Hope you have better luck with yours !

recharge it with another flashlight

Moonshadow said:

I had one of those - very similar anyway.

As you say, the LEDs are quite bright - but unfortunately my one didn't charge up so only worked for a couple of weeks. Of course, we don't see the Sun that much at this time of the year.

Hope you have better luck with yours !

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flasherByNight said:

size reference?

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That's a typical quarter sized split ring.

Geoff

Nice find. Maybe it's from the same company that made this version . . .

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/swisslight_solar.htm

Several versions of this style of light have been available on DX for a very long time.

geoff, im in garner , what bbb might have to check it out ....marty

flasherByNight said:

recharge it with another flashlight

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:laughing: I haven't gotten to this point yet in my insanity, but I'm sure to try it eventually. I parked it in a sunny spot for a couple hours initially. Don't know if it really made a difference. That solar cell might just be a dummy and it'll be dead when the battery quits.

Hey daytec. I found this in the BBB at Cary Crossroads.

Geoff

Monocrom said:

Nice find. Maybe it's from the same company that made this version . . .

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/swisslight_solar.htm

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No it isn't. I have the swiss ones and the cheap ones. The cheap ones are OK, some don't charge and some do. Poor QC is the problem with them. The swiss ones were pretty expensive, but I found a place clearancing them for $5 each. The only problem I've seen with the swiss one is they aren't waterproof. My son had one in Iraq and it failed after taking a dunking in a canal.

That solar cell might just be a dummy and it'll be dead when the battery quits.

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I wondered about that too. Mine has what claims to be a rechargeable coin cell but I'm guessing it just came pre-charged and once that was used up, that was it. As gorn says, probably poor QC rather than an out-and-out con.

Still, it was a freebie so nothing lost - and I can always cannibalise it for the LEDs . . .

Buy another one and you can have them power each other foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Flying Turtle said:

:laughing: I haven't gotten to this point yet in my insanity, but I'm sure to try it eventually. I parked it in a sunny spot for a couple hours initially. Don't know if it really made a difference. That solar cell might just be a dummy and it'll be dead when the battery quits.

Hey daytec. I found this in the BBB at Cary Crossroads.

Geoff

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I ran down the battery this morning and the light is now charging (maybe). We'll see in a couple hours if it's really capable of solar charging.

Geoff

This thread made me open mine up to take another look (OK, I was planning to harvest the LEDs as mentioned earlier).

Anyway . . . guess what I found ? A broken solder joint between the cell and the small circuit board inside. So a quick go with the soldering iron and it's back on the windowsill to see what happens.

Now before you all get too excited, we don't see the Sun around here that often at this time of year, so it may take a little while to find out whether it charges up or not. I'll let you know . . .

Good news. The light did seem to charge up after a few hours in the sun and a couple more under a lamp. At least it now looks as bright as it did initially. I guess it's a keeper.

Geoff

You can confirm that its rechargeable by opening it up and checking the battery. If it says something like LIR xxxx, its a Li-Ion rechargeable coin cell.

Gotta warn you though, these cheap solar keychains don't have over-charge and over-discharge protection. I don't think it's much of a risk, just that don't expect much when it comes to battery longevity/life cycle.

someone gave me this exact same keychain light during christmas. it's still as bright as when i first got it and i don't leave it any place where light hits it directly. amusing little light

legtu said:

You can confirm that its rechargeable by opening it up and checking the battery. If it says something like LIR xxxx, its a Li-Ion rechargeable coin cell.

Gotta warn you though, these cheap solar keychains don't have over-charge and over-discharge protection. I don't think it's much of a risk, just that don't expect much when it comes to battery longevity/life cycle.

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Very good advice. It only takes one complete deep discharge cycle of a lithium ion cell to to degrade the cell. A couple of full discharge cycles will ruin it. I don't think there is as much concern on the charge cycle since the solar cell will be putting out such a low trickle charge.

Thanks for the advice, legtu and regulator. When I ran it down I was careful to stop when it was showing decreased output. Maybe it will last a little while.

Geoff

Quick update - after a couple of days on the windowsill I did get a glimmer from my repaired light, so woohoo - it is charging again !

Unfortunately it died again after dark, so presumably the cell is shot as legtu suggested and is no longer holding the charge. Makes sense as it must have discharged completely while that solder link was broken.

So now I have a light that only works during the daytime

Hope yours lasts a bit longer, FT. Plan for mine now is to replace the solar panel and dead rechargeable with a standard CR2032 holder and cell, and put in some red LEDs instead of the white ones.