# Hacking Solar Landscape lighting..?



## Sytnathotep (Oct 10, 2011)

I was looking the other day, our local Wal-mart has various solar powered LED landscaping lighting ranging from $0.97 to over $10. The cheapest ones are sidewalk markers and not very bright, but they had some 3 to 5 led spot lights for around $5. 

Has anyone tried hacking any of these? Seems to me that if you could change out the led's in them to different colors, or UV leds, you could have cordless haunt lighting. I know most of these solar lights use rechargeable AA batteries. Has anyone tried this before? I'd like to hear some thoughts before I try it and possibly murder a perfect light for nothing. 

Thanks!


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## QueenRuby2002 (Oct 23, 2011)

Hey great minds think alike. I saw those too and wondered the same thing. What I had come up with in my mind was changing the clear plastic facing with a colored one. But anyone else have a better idea I want to hear it too.


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

The problem with these is that the charge usually does not last that long and the light is not that bright. I have few in my yard, and they look decent up close, but you can barely see them when standing on the street. I guess it all depends on the look you going for. They are cheap, so nothing lost if it doesn't work. Just remember that the sun is week in October, so they may not get a very good charge.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

I havent done it with the solar ones. Actually found some.halloween colored solar lights in stores last season

I have done it with the wired version of led lanscape lights. I first did it by outing colored gel under the clear lens. Then I later took one and replaced the white leds with uv leds. It is still more exspensive than making your own fixtures. $40 for a 6 pack with transformer on clearence at wallmart.


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## Tanniynim (Nov 20, 2011)

The biggest problem you're going to encounter is that all leds do not have the same voltage requirements and the leds used in these applications often have very low voltage requirements, while other colored leds have much higher requirements. 

You can probably get away with putting red leds in them pretty easily, but green or UV would be much harder to accomplish. 

Mostly, I just don't see the need unless you're wanting a year-round application. A set of 3 AA batteries and a couple leds are significantly less pain in the butt and about the same cost as hacking a solar light. Furthermore, you'd get probably a full week's run time (24/hrs) on the AA's while the solar path lights will (depending on brand and quality) get dim in 2-3 hours and burn out completely in about 4-5.


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## Sytnathotep (Oct 10, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback guys. You make a lot of valid points. I like QueenRuby2002http://www.hauntforum.com/member.php?u=8627's color film idea best of all.

I broke down and bought one tonight from Wally-mart. $4.57 with 3 bright white LED's. Claims to go 8-10 hours on a full charge. I'll test it out see that I think of it. Worse case if it sucks I'm only out five bucks. lol


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

It doesn't really suck that you are out the 5 bucks. You can use them all year. In October you might want to consider taking out the batteries, if they are double a's and charging them I'm a regular charger. Not every day, just when you think you need to.


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## Sytnathotep (Oct 10, 2011)

OK, I got it charged up and tested it out last night after dark. Man its a lot brighter than I thought it would be. Lit up a tombstone from over 10 feet away. I think I'll get more and like stagehand1975 said, use them year round. Only thing about the one I picked up is that the battery is not removable, so I'll have to see how long it will last.

On another note, I was thinking about those solar LED sidewalk markers. They are rather dim, and about or under a $1 each. Anyone ever try to light a lantern or Rot style witch jar with them? I used the LED tea lights for mine last year, but had to change batteries every few days. If I could set the solar panel into the jar lid with teh light inside, could it not work?


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Keep in mind that you could use gels on those to tint the color and to dim them down to the desired brightness. Because they don't really generate much heat, you could use wax paper, or almost anything, to tint or dim the lights. Standard stage gels could be used to color the light too.


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## Tanniynim (Nov 20, 2011)

The batteries should be removable if you can get inside them with a screwdriver. Most of them are just AA battery holders with a rechargeable battery and a small solar panel. Some versions have little joule thief circuits in them.


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## wandererrob (Aug 8, 2007)

I hacked one to make a laser break beam trigger for my prop-1. I removed the guts, chopped off the solar panels, replaced the LED with wire leads that go to the prop-1 and fire a laser at the photo sensor.

When the beam is broken, the lights guts think it's night and turn on the "LED". The prop-1 sees voltage and presto, prop triggered!


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