Solar paw teardown - with schematic
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2024
- Nothing really radical about the circuitry, but the visual effect is very neat. Especially with the LED placement.
As with most solar lights, if you really like this one, then it's worth spending a little bit of time waterproofing the interior. Whether that's using a lacquer on the PCB or some form of grease on the PCB and battery contacts to keep water away from them, it's worth doing. I wonder if a spray of mechanic's fluid film would work.
The inductor sets the LED intensity and affects the run time. Places with lower amounts of sunlight could use a higher value inductor like 220uH to 330uH. Places with high levels of sunlight could get a bit more intensity with a lower value like 56uH.
This could be a nice symbolic garden light for members of the furry fandom. Or it could be hacked to run on a USB cable and resistor for indoor use.
This light came from Temu (not a sponsor), but is available from other online sellers too:-
www.temu.com/goods.html?_bg_f...
A search for solar paw light comes up with many similar listings. I think this one cost around £4 for one.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of CZcams's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators - Věda a technologie
A sensible way to arrange the circuit but there wasn't much to get your claws into.
Your comment is funny and deserves more recognition
@@Floofie_boiAs like #68 I believe it would be nice if theis comment got one more recognition
Lol
It is a little paw-ltry isn’t it. 🤣😂
@@Charlesb88 I thought paw effort but after paws for thought.. pawfection 👌
I like the way you believed the capacity written on the battery!
It's easy. Just divide by 10.
I was thinking that also.
Well one led needs between 5-10 ma. since 6 are in parallel it means 30- 60ma. with a 60 mah battery they will only burn 1- 2 hours. So i believe the value of 600 is about right for the application. Then they burn 10-20 hours. Also the chip will use some current and there will be losses too. I think they will cheat on the charge cycles, charging and overall quality though. It is cheap Chinese junk afterall. On that i totally agree :) Maybe 300 mah is doable but definately not 60.
I doubt it is fake. After all it is a AA battery. 600 mAh is at the bottom of AA capacity.
There is nothing to save unless they go AAA or smaller.
A little bear paw for a Big Bear Clive ❤
I would imagine that water could make its way underneath the "Paw" circles. Unless the part that presses in is some kind of rubber.
Battle scarred Clive just pushes on relentlessly.
Here we go - Ali Express time again! A set of glowing "footprints" up the garden path is going to be rather nice!
Plastic puppy paw path pads
Warm and fuzzy, just like a solar paw on Uranus
I picked up one of the color changing ones, too. They are very nice. They use four RGB LEDs and have a different chip to synchronize the color changes in a slow and pleasing manner - definitely a nice little circuit that can be repurposed if desired.
Let's just paws for one moment!
Your hand injuries have always disturbed me Clive but I will continue to watch your videos.
On the other hand: if I see an electrician or field service engineer who does NOT have any (small) injuries and I instinctively ask them whether they are alright.
A real man is always injured. Only the one's that sit idle get none :) But we could send Clive some gloves. But i doubt he will use them
I saw that "furry fandom" caption. It's probably a quarter of your viewership! 🐰
When you order protogen from Ali Express
The sheer scale of the furry fandom has been a revelation.
We are! We also run the internet. lol
@@WolfZoo69 And write the software that controls all the nuclear weapons.
"I wonder if a spray of mechanic's fluid film would work" It would probably work since Eric O. over at SMA uses it a lot on electrical connections :)
I actually used fluid film on my solar lights before. Filled the switch and battery contact areas with it and sprayed the boards. It worked for years.
Big Clive: "it's a nice little paw, let's not destroy it!"
Engineer: Spend days or weeks designing this.
Clive: takes 6 minutes 23 seconds to reverse engineer it! 🤣
"Paws for effect".
"The paws that refreshes".
1 more:
"My paw can beat your paw!"
these are a joke of a pawper, i demand higher pwns from the Pawns in the pawnshop
For clips like those, i like using Wiha's "chip lifter", which is essentially just a tiny crowbar.
heck yeah paws
Awww. That's so inconspicuously clawy... I mean glowy. 🐾
Put green LEDs on it to see if they look good to be used as "radioactive monster" footprints for Halloween
Thought Clive was facing down the rowdies with a set of knuckle dusters...
You are a master of disassembling things.
Just enjoying a nice paw out in the sun, neighbor.
Damn, Ali Express made some good furry merch!
That'd look grrrrreat with orange LEDs, or colour changing ones!
Ha ha i see what you did thre
Furries?
Ew, gross.
Tony the Tiger strikes again! Might well be worth a go, although I rather fancy RGB leds.
"wake up, the new furry bait merch just dropped"
@@VoltsandVodka to be fair, I was in the trap waiting for it already
Very nice night light
NEED BEANS LIGHT NOW!!!
Oh No Not Paw Leds Again 😆
Nice haul of leds, and a Battery. 👍
It would be perfect if the toe beans are pink.
Protect the legs of the leds too with some nail polish or lacker. They always rot away.
i got a set of 4 paw prints that lit up from aldi with 1 solar panel, they have since succumb to nature after sitting around cat graves for a few years, products like this are made for single season use before they sell you a new design next year, would make for great project cases though
That’s such a fun little thing, absolutely would make for a fun pathway lighting!
Tho some small improvements might be made like the nail varnish
I haven't tried it (for this kind of thing) but Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure might be good for sealing around things like the solar panel.
Might be ok for a child's night light but beyond that, I don't see it having a use, have to assume that's a repurposed circuit board as that would cost more to cut out than a standard square
I think the idea is to set up a staggered line of them from the sidewalk to your front door or along a path in your backyard. You know, cutesy dog prints that light up. Yes, about as superficial as it gets, but superficial sells.
I like your idea better. Keeps it out of the rain and damp at least.
Nice little thing I guess you could change the black its of the paw for 3d printer ones in different shapes big spikes to keep birds off etc. 2x👍
Pretty nice, I got some circular colour changing lights from B&M and there is a label on the bottom saying “ not to be used in adverse weather conditions rain and snow “ 😂
Surprisingly safe item for Big Clive to dissect ! I will try for a dead short on the
included battery !!!
What's happened to your hand Clive?
Small burn that triggered a wider skin reaction. The sticky plaster is to protect the innocent.
Same prob. Put a smear of Novasone on bandaid.. works for me....
I keep meaning to get a proper steel spudger, but I find my wee Swiss Army K-niff is almost always adequate for my spudging needs.
Gosh! The creativity of the chinese to produce novel electronic waste is really out of this world...
Awoo! I see the light!🐾
Lol a Temu add for this exact solar paw showed up above this video.
It's like South Paw, but with better overhead exposure.
Just remember that if you cover the battery with a latex sleeve, like a finger cot or something, that you should use silicone grease instead of Vaseline.
Industrial version of your old Joule Thief :-)
It is a 1 chip joule thief, with extras.
Love Paws!!!!
Love these! There goes another AliExpress order. 😆
Another video, another injury. Big Clive will be reviewing cybernetic hands soon if he's not careful.
Pack of poor paw puns!
A simple way to identify where bears live 😽😽😸
Ah, yes, the solar paw-nel.
I think I know what the designer had in mind - solar PAWer! Hahaha.
GF: Severed protogen beans?
Me: These are cute! Kinda want a few... wait, Protogen beans?
I think it’s time for an intervention BCDC, you have a Temu problem my friend…. ;)
:o the meow meow!
"There is no such thing as a coincidence", *notices furry fandom on the bottom of the paw in the thumbnail* :3. Anyway, seems easy to build. I might make one :)
Thank you, keep working.
Will there be sun enough in the UK to make it work is the big question ?
The solar cell has an integrated piezo element that creates power when being hit by raindrops ;)
Yes it will, why not. As long as you don't use larger capacity Ni-Mh cells. 600mAh is what it is designed for i.c.w. that small solar cell.
@@erikdenhouter OMG you must be from Belgium
@@RS-Amsterdam Rotterdam
@@erikdenhouter 600mAh is a waste of time anyway , it's not a matter of capacity, a 100mAh will be fine because you just don't get enough daylight in the UK. Be generous and say that solar panel outputs 20mA in full sun and say its pointed at that sun all day for 8 hours again very generous then the total generated 20mA for 8 hours or 160mAh. Some solar garden lights have less than 100mAh cells even as low as 50mAh and work fine. Doesn't matter at all how big your bucket is if there aint enough rain you will never fill it.
awooooooo!
rain will get in.. i will paws for thought on it
At first glance of the thumbnail I thought it was a knuckle duster.
Solar paw for renewable puppies
Of course you know now the price of these is going to skyrocket as all your viewers in the furry fandom are going to buy them all up.
This is something I'd probably want to stick on the wall rather than in the ground, for those of us who are cat lovers, the need for cat-themed decorations is often quite strong... :P
I think it does not live very long outside in the ground. They forgot to make it waterproof. But that was to expect from China shit
The K in 121K means 10% tolerance.
While binge watching older videos Big Clive, I find myself missing the black bench top in those older videos. Any particular reason you stopped using that? It looked rather nice actually while allowing your project of choice to appear clearer IMO.
It caused exposure contrast issues.
this toy looks like it really wants to leak water inside of it. i found that 1 part silicone to 1 part turps makes an acceptable paint for sealing around such things. the 2 components resist but do mix eventually. not suitable for around the battery though. turps is not the only thinner that will mix with silicone.
On the battery contacts why not also use silicon grease ? |Better than nothing, and better than vaseline, it does not go runny when warm. Even the clear stuff you buy for greasing water taps and its seals. Good for low voltage static contacts and cabinet seal, but NEVER use it for switching/sparking contacts, it then forms silicon carbide abrasive crystals (right below diamond in hardness).
Nice. Simple design and relatively well built ... somebody's getting fired !
Interesting. The enclosure could be hacked for a funky project. Controller, mini synth, mobile game console... Anything cute and furry :)
That bandage looks like it's covering up a semi-nasty cut on the hand! Hope all is well!
Adverse skin reaction to a small burn.
i may get one for my mate KyleTheHusky
Looks like they will last until the first rain or dew.
One thing Clive hasn’t suggested is dropping in a packet of silica gel after waterproofing the solar cell and battery contacts. Not a permanent solution but will surely extend its lifetime.
Like a lot of outdoor solar lights in the UK. They don't last long.
The silica gel soon gets saturated. Proper internal waterproofing is needed.
@@markfergerson2145 He hasn't because it's to bloody stupid, last thing you want is a fucking sponge.
Oooow I like that.
Paws for thought ... Who on Earth dreamed up a "Solar Paw?" ... Is more crap from Tat-too, Big Clive? 🤣
Yet another solar gizmo. I think it's supposed to be a panda paw 🐼. Speaking of miscellaneous Chinese junk, we bought a little solar duck at Dollarama. This yellow duckling sits on the dashboard of the car with double sided tape and waggles from side to side with it's built in solar panel in the base. Or at least that is what is supposed to happen. I tried experiments of parking in bright sunlight to make it waggle but to no avail. It only seemed to waggle when the car was actually moving. Hmm.. thought I, and proceeded to unscrew the base to find a dark blue cardboard knockoff of a solar panel and no circuit board, wires or anything. You would have thought they would at least have crazy glued it shut to hide their crime. I guess not. Anyway it was well worth the $3 it cost just for the puzzle solving mystery alone.
PS - It is a very finely balanced device and waggles from side to side with the slightest motion so I put it back in the car and it is fun to watch as we drive along.
Cheers from Canada :-)
That's the first time I've heard of the solar wobble toys being fake.
BUT ! .... will it confuse the cat ...... ( ? ) ...................... DAVE™🛑
The individual paw pads look like water ingress points as well. A dab of silicone on their studs would be advisable.
Had two of these, they got filled with water.
Came for all the Pawlite comments…
😎👍
Anyone else notice the furry fandom on the bottom of the paw in the thumb nail
Added for the furry community. A lot are very technical.
Nothing quite like waking up to a new Clive video :)
Nya
lookit all those LEDS!!!!!!
Big Bear Clive
I’m disappointed they didn’t throw in a 32.768 kHz quartz watch crystal. 😌
Pushed in paw pads could be replaced with rainbow color paw pads printed on a 3-D printer.
Looks like it would be easy to change the LED color.
Very easy. But the LEDs are in parallel, so they would have to match.
I think a lovely blue - like Uranus perhaps...
@@richtheobald4390 Or Red like Mars.
In the manufacturer's datasheet, what's limiting the charge-voltage on the cell if the switch disables the chip but keeps the solar panel attached? Is it just relying on the voltage from the solar panel and diode-drop being around 1.5v max?
NiMH cells don't care about being charged further when full (as long as the current is not too high), they just get a bit warm.
@@moe.m So it relies on the current limit of the solar panel to allow the NiMH cell itself to drag down the voltage? Four solar cells is about 2V.
@@gloomyblackfur399 Yes, exactly, the NiMH cell will clamp the voltage.
With a 600mA full charge, how long would it stay illuminated with 6 LEDs?
I'd have to test that.
Inductor, can it change the rate at which it works or is it seemingly a fixed frequency, wondered if the light getting through the panel at a higher than expected frequency could blow the led
Fixed frequency.
@@bigclivedotcom how
Generally, changing the inductance on these will modify the current flowing into the LED. Within limits, lower inductance means higher average current and higher inductance reduces the current. See datasheet for a YX8018
Did you get this from a pawnshop?
Too bad they didn't put a radio module in it so multiple paws could do things like walk down the lawn or garden path... 😁
So Telling me its meant for outside but not being outside waterproof
Very few solar garden lights are.
What would you estimate the run time from a full charge? And will the SP recharge the battery, given a good solar day?
Hard to say. It will vary widely with location and placement.
Have you found a solar light that should legitimately last a long time and has a battery that should last a full night (assuming you aren't near the poles)?
As I've seen it, it seems like the best "solar" lights would be regular sealed LED strips or Christmas lights plugged into a house with solar panels.
There are so many variables in location, light placement and weather.
You can probably waterproof one like big clive's video shows if you search up "BigCliveDotCom waterproof solar lights." So that at least takes the durability question out of the equation. And for the solar panel if it is covered by plastic, to prevent it from yellowing you may add a protective coating better than the factory one. I'm not sure how but I'm guessing you can buy a 3m headlight protecting wipe and apply it to the plastic so it lasts longer before yellowing.
But I've had solar panels that have a thin film of plastic on top of the solar panel that eventually flakes off due the elements. Then I feel like it would be better to sand that off before applying any kind of protective coating.
And even if it yellows, that can be sanded off and the protective coating reapplied. Maybe clear spray paint meant for plastic would work, but I tried that once with plastic headlights and it yellowed pretty quickly but 3m coating wipe has held up strong.
We have one on the grave of our cat.
Sorry for your loss, but what a lovely sentiment.
I have found both YX805 and ZX805 chips inside these types of solar charging lights. Anyone know the difference?
Probably different manufacturers cloning an original.
Why did they use an inductor instead of a transformer to raise the voltage
Cheap and simple.
Pawfect vid BiG man...
peace
Hey clive, i have an electrical question and i couldn't find the answer online.
I recently bought a "gulikit kk3 max" controller. I really like it aside from 1 small tactile flaw which i might try to mod i guess.
I was thinking.
Currently i use it at my computer so its absolutely no problem to use it wired, but i will want to use it wireless later when my living room is more accommodating.
Should i use it wired to save battery health?
Or is a battery powered device generally not going to benefit from being plugged in, or worse, kill it faster.
It really doesnt matter how i use the damn thing at the moment as the latency and polling rate is also essentially the same with the dongle.
I hope to do what's best for life expectancy of the battery for now.
Is there a general rule for using wired capabilities of things with batteries?
As a possible clue, it does indicate that it is fully charged, also when using wired.
If it's designed to be wireless and has long standby time then I'd suggest using it as a remote unit. But there's no harm charging the batteries while at the computer.
Thank you sir!
I will just use it wireless.
It has a relatively short standby time because it simply turns off after a momentary halt in usage (I think about 5 minutes).
The promised life is pretty good though. 25 hours with the lights of, i guess some degredation of that should not be the end of the world.
Again, thank you!
A product that isn't potentially lethal this time? What is the world coming to...