Wal-Mart $10 SOLAR LED Lawn Light ---- Cool !

It was actually $9 for me cause my gf works there and she gets a 10% discount This is a "Malibu Solar Accent Light" it uses one very tiny.....but bright yellow LED. It can run for up to 15 hours on one charge! (How many nights do you know that are 15 hours long They automatically turn on at night and turn off at day when they collect power. Pictures can be found at:
http://www.pollking.com/solar


of course we all know things look different in person than in picture....in the pictures the light looks red or orange but I assure you it is a very yellow color Also the pictures do not show the true amount of light this gives off. Let me know what you all think.

If they only made them that cheap in white.

I've already hacked one of those with some white LEDs, actually. Pretty simple procedure. They turn out whiter, but dimmer. I think I'm going to switch to turquoise next. That's a bright color that I really LIKE.

I did a mod on 10 Brinkman "Bravo" series about a month ago. I removed the standard LEDs and replaced them with a Nichia Turquoise model.

Really looks nice. Very unique too! The soft blue-green glow around each light is so cool.

I don't have any way to host pics, but if anyone is interested, I can email them some.

So you guys think yellow is brighter than white? If so, what LEDs are you talking about? I really really want some bright yellows!!! I even bought a yellow photon II last week just to yank what I thought would be a bright yellow LED. I overdrove the pi$$ out of it to the point where it turned orange. Still nowhere near as bright as a white.

If any of you know where to get bright yellows, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll have to hack some of those lawn lights. In fact, I'm going to Walmart tomorrow just to check them out.

I'm sure they choose yellow because it is one of the brighest leds and they want to get as much light as possible from a small source...I'm sure they do make white ones some where though.......and a person could always 'mod' one to be white

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by zerox:
I'm sure they choose yellow because it is one of the brighest leds and they want to get as much light as possible from a small source...I'm sure they do make white ones some where though.......and a person could always 'mod' one to be white

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The yellow should not attract insects as would the white.

Don't bother Lux, the yellow are dimmer but also work on a lower voltage < 2.5v. The whites are dimmer at the same voltage ~ 2.5v, but can be driven at a higher voltage > 3.6 without frying them. So then the white would be brighter.

Looking at the pics i see 2 rechargable batteries aka 2.4v If you replaced a yellow with a white it would barely light up.

Make sense?

If you want bright, bright yellow LED at 3v go for the Luxeon Star in yellow which operates at a lower voltage than the other LS's, but still isn't to good at 2.4v.

They already have white LED solar sidewalk lights. Check out your local Lowe's/Home Depot. The look pretty cool, but the down side is that they are around $30 a pop. I believe that they use 3 AA NiCad batteries. Going from $10 to $30 for a white LED and one extra NiCad is a bit steep, though.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Harrkev:
They already have white LED solar sidewalk lights. Check out your local Lowe's/Home Depot. The look pretty cool, but the down side is that they are around $30 a pop. I believe that they use 3 AA NiCad batteries. Going from $10 to $30 for a white LED and one extra NiCad is a bit steep, though.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Walmart also has white ones. $15 with 1 AA NiCad and step up circuit. The yellows they have use 2 AA NiCads, so I think they're saving a little money on the single AA setup.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by darell:
I've already hacked one of those with some white LEDs, actually. Pretty simple procedure. They turn out whiter, but dimmer. I think I'm going to switch to turquoise next. That's a bright color that I really LIKE.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Turquoise? Be careful you don't use too many or your house will either look like one of those über-customized Civics or low-riders, or like it's surrounded by a bug-light moat.

Then again, it might have a cool "Close Encounters" look to it...

Hey add some dry ice fog for Halloween and you'd be set

Will go buy one on my way home tonight, if they have them. If they're as cool as you say I'll get more this weekend.

Thanks for the info.

Anyone compare the yellow lights to the white LED version? What's the relative brightness of the yellow to the white? I just picked up one of the white LED versions, with the single AA battery mentioned by Lex-
Neat item; it has a gradual turn on transition as the light hitting the solar cells decreases below the threshold. I'll have to make some measurements on the charging currents under different conditions to see just what rate it charges at, and what rate it drains at when the LED is on-

Seemed like all boxes with the yellow lights were opened/returns; maybe from people expecting a lot more oomph from them. One of the reasons why I got the white one, since it looked unopened. I didn't know what parts were supposed to be in the yellow box; but now that I know what it should have, I may get one to compare-

Got to measuring the current, and it draws about 55mA while it's on, and I got the charging current to exceed 200mA by just holding it up close to a regular incandescent bulb- it doesn't look like the current is limited, in direct sunlight, the current read about 130mA. Open circuit voltage was about 2.1V.
The NiCd battery it uses is rated 900mAH, which is easily replaced as it uses a standard battery holder. Easily replaced provided you don't snap it into the housing; once you do that, it's a fingernail bustin' proposition to take out again.
I think it'll make a nifty nightlight, just placed in my window, because it doesn't seem to require all that much light to get a decent charging current going.

Originally posted by Wingerr:
Got to measuring the current, and it draws about 55mA while it's on, and I got the charging current to exceed 200mA by just holding it up close to a regular incandescent bulb- it doesn't look like the current is limited, in direct sunlight, the current read about 130mA. Open circuit voltage was about 2.1V.
The NiCd battery it uses is rated 900mAH, which is easily replaced as it uses a standard battery holder. Easily replaced provided you don't snap it into the housing; once you do that, it's a fingernail bustin' proposition to take out again.
I think it'll make a nifty nightlight, just placed in my window, because it doesn't seem to require all that much light to get a decent charging current going.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I know this is a rather old topic, but I just picked up several of these from where I work for cheap (think someone mismarked them!).

I was going to post my find but I see others already have found these little things.

When Craig gets better I'll send him one of these things to dissect if he hasn't already.

I bought a couple of floating pool lights from shopko. They have white one White led and one nicad AA. They use a switching power supply consisting of a couple of transistors, capacitors and a inductor. the light emits a nice soft whit glow. This winter I might see if I can copy the circuit for a mag solitaire or something like it.