Small solar panels, what's what?

[K.H]

Other half has quite a few of those el cheapo solar things in the garden, 12 volt pond aerators and pumps etc, over time the panels have delaminated and gone tits up, i have got some more panels of the correct voltage / watts but they come "bare", the ones in use have a small sealed box on the back, what is it? regulator or something? and can i reuse them?

[Tony]

Yes they regulate the charging of the battery, if they still work of course you can re-use them   Also many on eBay if they don't work.

Why not just order one huge 12V panel, a lead acid, and then run speaker wire through the garden to power all the 12V stuff?  If you're feeling really swanky you can buy 4 channel remote key-fob controlled relays to switch them on and off.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131793343790

May have just expanded the scope of your project?

[K.H]

Yes they regulate the charging of the battery, if they still work of course you can re-use them   Also many on eBay if they don't work.

Why not just order one huge 12V panel, a lead acid, and then run speaker wire through the garden to power all the 12V stuff?  If you're feeling really swanky you can buy 4 channel remote key-fob controlled relays to switch them on and off.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131793343790

May have just expanded the scope of your project?

Thanks (i think) 
Couple of them (the aerators) dont have batteries and speed up/slow down with the sun but the panels still have the sealed units on, do i need regulators on those?

[greasemonkey]

There must be some kind of light dependant resistor in there somewhere, to turn the LEDs on and off.
Wonder is that in the panel, or separate, some where?

My project tomorrow is getting LED yard lights running off a 12 volt battery, with a panel keeping it topped up. Going to do the same in the chicken hut out in the middle of the field too.
Got the panels and the lights and the wire and everything.
Must be winter again.

That key fob thing is right on the must have soon list.
That would just be soooo good for me.

[Tony]

There must be some kind of light dependant resistor in there somewhere, to turn the LEDs on and off.
Wonder is that in the panel, or separate, some where?

My project tomorrow is getting LED yard lights running off a 12 volt battery, with a panel keeping it topped up. Going to do the same in the chicken hut out in the middle of the field too.
Got the panels and the lights and the wire and everything.
Must be winter again.

That key fob thing is right on the must have soon list.
That would just be soooo good for me.

I've got the remote fob controller and these for the garden (just as tree uplighters to make it look pretty):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262668595680

Might wire in some lamps on posts as well for paths, it's really cool to be able to switch this stuff on and off with the remote.

My 12V supply is just a transformer pack at the house end rather than panels and battery.

[greasemonkey]

Those LED work lights are fantastic quality. I've got some slightly different ones on the truck.
I bet they look lovely, shone up into the trees.
My garden isn't worth it, but I bet I could persuade some of my customers to have some fitted.

I could have them on mains, but I really want an off grid supply, if it's only just for lights.
Hate fooling around with candles when the leccy goes off, as it usually does at least a couple of times per winter.

I've done summat dumb, actually.
I bought an LED outside light, for £15. It's good quality and all, but I should have just gone and bought the type in the link.
Ah well, I need more anyhow, so it will be those I buy next.

[greasemonkey]

Just pulled the trigger on two of those remote control fingys.
One for the lights around my fiefdom, and one for the chicken house.
Will give a progress report in due course.
Got a feeling it's going to be one of the better ideas.

[greasemonkey]

Well its working, nearly.
Got three lights running on a 4channel remote round my place. Can't fault that. That's going to be a real benefit.

Went to do the lights in the chicken house, and the single channel remote is a non locking switch. It only operates when the remote is pressed, and returns back when it's let go.
Super annoying.

Never mind, not a great deal lost.

Probably buy a timer for it now anyway.
It's proven it's point that the chickens lay more eggs when the light is on in the evenings, so it's worth investing.

[Julian]

Well its working, nearly.
Got three lights running on a 4channel remote round my place. Can't fault that. That's going to be a real benefit.

Went to do the lights in the chicken house, and the single channel remote is a non locking switch. It only operates when the remote is pressed, and returns back when it's let go.
Super annoying.

Never mind, not a great deal lost.

Probably buy a timer for it now anyway.
It's proven it's point that the chickens lay more eggs when the light is on in the evenings, so it's worth investing.

A relay set up to latch on or an Arduino, typically one of the tiny ones which only cost a 3-4 quid would latch the lights on for a set period or turn them on and off at preset times, would do the trick  Not sure how much juice it would use, probably not much and it should be easy to program.

What voltage are the batteries/lights?

[greasemonkey]

Aye, that's an option, the Arduino, for turning them on and off.
The lights are 12 volt, running off a 12 volt car battery, with a solar panel charging it.

[Julian]

 I think the most of the Aduino range can handle 7 - 12v input.  Certainly the Uno and Nano ...

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardNano

[greasemonkey]

I ought to use something like that, just for the experience of learning how to program it, to be honest.

[Julian]

I know it's an over used statement, but if I can bumble my way through simple code for it I'm sure you can ... happy to help where I'm able.

Best starting point is to buy a cheap board from ebay, down load code from the internet and just have a play.

Found this Instructable on opening a coop door which I guess could also incorporate the lights ...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Automatic-Chicken-Coop-Door-2/?ALLSTEPS

[greasemonkey]

Interesting looking. Project for the new year, I guess.

[julesandtash]

Arduino coding really is straight forward
Other people have done the hard work of writing libraries to handle the low level stuff so you can write code with quite high level commands and one or more of the libraries (which you link to with a simple #include statement at the start of the code (known as a sketch) for each library you wish to use

I have written some extensive code using touchscreen (nextion.h), ethernet connectivity (ethernet.h), dallas onewire temperature sensors, I2C bus communication and serial port communication. WIth the libraries doing most of the work, it is possible to wrte the code in a fairly human readable form.

As for powering them, the Arduino has an onboard 5V regulator so will take from around 7V up to around 20V although heat dissipation becomes an issue as voltage increases as it's a simple linear regulator with no real heatsinking.
I tend to power them straight to the 5V pin from an external power supply.
Samsung mobile phone chargers are a cheap and easy to source, but very well regulated, 5V 2A supply and one I used in a lot of mains powered projects.
If trying to run from a solar supply with a very variable supply voltage, I would use an external DC-DC regulator with ample heatsinking, powering the Arduino via the 5V pin