Same here - and none of the products suggested by him are anything like 'meaty enough' for my purpose (as well as all being 'ridiculously cheap')
I though I had, as well, but I'm not convinced that everyone has read, and understood, what I've been writing!
As I've said, these products designed for garden use are ridiculously cheap and cannot be expected to last very long when 'exposed to the elements'. However, they are so cheap that (if one wants them for a garden), one can simply regard them as 'disposable'.
Agreed
Indeed - it's usually called "publication bias". In fields I work in, things have improved consdierably over the decades, but are still far fromperfect. One of the positive developments is that there are a now a good few 'open access' repositories for results of research - so that researchers are no longer anything like as much at the mercy of what journals and journal editions feel inclined to publish.
As I've implied, I think I can probably now bypass a lot of those 'little experiments'. Despite the fears (of myself and others) I have satisfied myself that even a tiny solar panel can generate a 'useful' amount of electricity when illuminated through a window, so I think I can probably now move up to a much larger solar panel and see what it can generate 'through a window' (particularly as days shorten) - and that will not really require me to initially bother about 'storing' the electricity; I can move on to considering that once I have discovered how much electricity I might reasonably have 'to store'.
indeed - but all that is even further 'down the line'!
Why?
And I've repaired loads of failed WL controlled relays and the circuits.
There is a lot of difference between a professional installation and what others do.
Yes it is clear to me.
is the performance of them drops off extrememly rapidly, noticably within a couple of weeks. Initially I assumed it was crap batteries (mostly AA or AAA) and replacing them appeared to solve the problem but it seems to be the panels are the weak link.
I'm pleased to hear that at least some people understood me
I certainly would have expected that the batteries would be more likley to fail early than the solar cells in these cheap toys. However, even f the latter also fail very early, gthat does not really matter to me, because mine have carried on working for long enough to demonstrate what they can achieve 'when they are working'!
aye, probably a bit beyond where you are. The idea of suggesting a Buck Step Down was to enable linking up any small LED outdoor type lights to most small DC supplies. I mentioned a 5v plug in transformer that I am using as 5v would be a typical voltage of many of the USB solar panel charges that are available at very reasonable prices, a 'step down transformer' would enable connection to the 1.2v (2.4v) mini outdoor lights that you are using. (may be create a small bank of the rechargeable 1.2v batteries arranged in parallel to store the solar enegy for longer use in the autumn - and may be a small wind turbine to charge them in the winter. Lots of interesting things can be done!
Fair enough - but, as you may understand, there';s no reason why I need to (or would) use "LED outdoor-type lights", and certainly not 'lights' fed from a very low voltage (e.g. 1.2V) source.
Fair enough. I certainly will use a much higher voltage than 1.2V - possibly 5V (as you say, facilitating the use of solar USB chargers), but possibly higher (e.g. 12V) - but, as above, I would not ned to down-transform that voltage (with associated losses/inefficiencies) in order to run very low-voltage lights. I would either use 'lamps' designed for the appropriate (higher) voltage) or, more likely simply use a string of the appropriate number of LED elements in series (quite possibly series-parallel) with some sort of current control..
I could easily increase the storage capacity of the battery(ies) (at 1.2V or some higher voltage) but I don't think that would, per se, help the 'non-Summer' issue. I ideally want the lights to come on every night, which means that the limiting factor will be the amount of electriocity that can be generated (from solar or whatever) during the preceding parts of that one day - an increase in 'generating capacity' would be required to address that..
I have toyed with that idea, but as yet have given it little thought, since I have almost no experience of wind turbines and therefore have no idea what sort of set-up would be required to generate the required amount of electricity. However, this thought remains at the back of my mind, in case I need to give it more serious consideration in the future.
OK.