![image [ yellow, red, blue, and green LED lights ]](http://www.sparkzy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/yel-red-blu-grn.jpg "image [ yellow, red, blue, and green LED lights ]")
If you’d like to add some solar-powered blinking to your camp or project, and you’re not afraid of future maintenance or the need to do some hacking, you might want to buy these lights from geeks.com. Just be aware of a few things:
- The case and LED string aren’t waterproof
- The connectors won’t stand up to any abuse
- The battery pack is internal and not easy to replace
After that less-than-glowing recommendation, why would you want to buy the lights? For their parts and/or project value. In that respect it’s worth it.
![image [ controller and battery ]](http://www.sparkzy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/controller-battery.jpg "image [ controller and battery ]")
The control head has a solar panel (~9 to 10VDC, ~80mA), and an internal light controller and battery pack (NiMH, 6 VDC, 1100mAH). There are two cables coming out of the control head. They connect to the LED light string. The light string is 18 feet long and has 14 red, 14 yellow, 14 green, and 14 blue LEDs.
You can buy the lights from from Geeks.com (Solar Powered Christmas String LED Lights, 18-Foot). They are $18.99 plus shipping. Amazon.com carries the same product offered by Geeks.com, but it’s more expensive. (I have no connection to Geeks.com other than being a customer.)
More after the jump…
After dark, the controller flashes the lights in a couple different chase and flashing patterns. The LED are bright and the blue especially stands out in the dark.
![image [ connectors to light string ]](http://www.sparkzy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/connectors.jpg "image [ connectors to light string ]")
Here are some improvement/hacking ideas you may want to try:
- Waterproof the enclosure (caulk?)
- Install a power switch and replace the connectors with hardwired (soldered) connections
- Remove the solar panel and replace the battery pack with a 6 volt power source (for art cars, perhaps)
Here’s a short video of the light string flashing. I piled the lights on the dining room table. I could imagine an art project where you would cluster the lights together in a mass. The sound effects on the video are for inspiration. The lights and controller are silent while running…
2 Comments
Hi Mike–
Your tips are great and very helpful–thanks! I like the idea of the little lights but wonder if you can stop them from blinking.
Jeanette
Nope, sorry. The charger and controller and all wired together and there’s no way to select the flashing pattern (or no flashing).
If you’re geeky, or have a friend that’s an electronics experimenter, you could look at the dropping resistors on the controller board and hard wire those between the light string and a 6 volt DC power source. That might work.
If you get the string to run steadily, I’d be curious to hear about the specifics of what you did. Good luck!